But, just maybe, I'm not the guy to be giving this sort of advice because I simply don't enjoy spending money (remember I'm Mr Cheapseats) and, if a ten-year old piece of gear on the boat is working and fulfilling its purpose, the idea of replacing it with a newer piece of gear (albeit lighter/sexier/more featured) just does not compute.
For instance, the winches on "So It Goes" both date from 1969 when the boat was built. They work and will, no doubt, continue to work till the next millennium... So why replace them? I certainly don't need self-tailing or electric winches and while I really admire the stainless and lightweight Andersen winches, I just don't see saving a few pounds to be worth the large chunk of money involved, so the old winches are here for the duration.
On the other hand... I sure would like a new VHF and my AIS receiver is a first generation unit and just a bit clunky so the purchase of the new Standard Horizon GX2100 starts making some sense as it would give me a cockpit mounted VHF and AIS where I could actually use the information. As it stands now, both the VHF and AIS are inside and I simply don't use them most of the time. So it would seem that the GX2100 would be a good thing when all is said and done but you won't see me rushing out to get the first one in my corner of the Caribbean as I'll wait to see how the model actually fares in the real world (face it everything is perfect while it's vaporware) before I trundle down and buy one.
Anyway, to recap on the buying stuff for your boat advice thing...
1. Don't buy it if you don't need to (and a pathological need to spend money does not count as NEED)!
2. Wait and see how it really performs before you do buy...
