Dana Vincent's 25-foot Cape Dory has sailed on blue water with a minimum of high-tech gadgetry onboard: a chartplotter, SSB radio and handheld VHF and GPS units. "I find most marine technology is too expensive for me and for the size of my boat," he says, "Yet, we've sailed to Alaska and Mexico without a lot of it."

Mark Carlson, an angler from Illinois, takes a different approach. His freshwater fishing excursions are assisted by some of the latest equipment available: "I use a networked Simrad and a Pinpoint bow mount (trolling engine) as well as MaxSea bathymetric data to maximize my fishing efforts," he says. "I also use a phased-array, forward-looking sonar system."

How we choose and use technology has become a huge part of boating, as the industry continues to offer advances in navigation, communication, propulsion and other technologies that were unimaginable to most of us even a decade ago.

Consider that the average boater today can buy products that will allow him to see in the dark, track weather systems using satellites in space, run his boat using solar power, rotate his propellers 360 degrees with a joystick, communicate via phone from virtually anywhere in the world and even map the ocean floor on a computer.

More than 50 percent of those polled said hybrid propulsion would make the greatest improvement to boating in the next 10 years. The Island Pilot Hybrid DSE can cruise slowly using solar power alone. Of course, choosing, installing and operating this gear is often not easy. And it is never cheap. But the range of capabilities using off-the-shelf technology has arguably never been greater.

"You look at some of the products available as opposed to 10 years ago, and you say, 'Wow!" said David Hayden, the president of the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA), who has watched the industry for 35 years. "It's totally unprecedented."

The question, of course, is what does all this mean for you?

ADJUSTING TO TECHNOLOGY

Mad Mariner's latest survey (see results) took aim at that very question, asking boaters about their areas of interest, their buying habits and which technologies hold the most promise. More than 400 boaters answered the 12-day, web-based survey from June 22 to July 3 and more than 200 left comments.

The result is a body of data that boaters can use to measure their own relationship with marine technology. What emerges is a portrait that defies the stereotype of boaters as traditionalists who are slow to adapt. On the contrary, many are working hard to analyze and make use of the striking advances they see. Naturally, there are some complaints and frustration. But overall, boaters may be more comfortable with technology than is widely believed.

For example, almost 60 percent reported that they have a computer aboard and that they regularly use it to perform functions related to boating, such as checking weather (82 percent), route planning and navigation (75 percent) and referencing data on tides and currents (65 percent). Almost all who were surveyed carried a mobile phone and about 84 percent said they used it to perform similar marine functions.

When boaters were asked to name the technologies they were "very interested" in, they reported interest across a broad range of platforms, including computer-based charting systems (51 percent), enhanced radar (47 percent), satellite weather (45 percent), networked navigation systems (43 percent), AIS (39 percent), touchscreen chartplotters (37 percent), enhanced sonar (35 percent), NMEA 2000 networks (34 percent) and thermal imaging night vision cameras (31 percent).

Looking backward, more than 90 percent say that GPS and chartplotter technology has made the greatest contribution in the last 20 years. And looking forward, more than half look to hybrid propulsion to make the greatest improvement in the next 10 years.

Overall, it was not a profile that suggests a group of technophobes.

"I don't think they're baffled by it," said John Minetola, executive vice president for sales at Intellian Technologies, which makes new generation satellite television arrays. "They are encouraged by it. They feel safer on their boats."

EARLY ADOPTERS

Indeed, fully a third of those polled say they are early adopters who buy and try new technology regularly and roughly half call themselves "wait and see" types who wait until the technology is established before they put their money down. That's a stark contrast to the 17 percent who describe themselves as reluctant adopters and the scant 3 percent say they are holdouts who almost never buy.

Instead, three out of four said they invest in new technology when it gives them new capabilities or makes the boat safer. Predictably, the biggest barrier for most is cost. Fully 82 percent say that marine technology is too expensive, far outstripping complaints about the complication associated with new gear and installations.

"When I can buy a state of the art computer with a 25-inch flat screen monitor for one fourth the cost of a 10-inch gps/sonar/radar combo, the marine electronics suppliers are waaaaaay (sic) overpricing their stuff," wrote boater Steve Cumberledge.

As Alan Roach, a boater from Winchester, Va., put it, "I can drive all over the United States with a $250 Garmin. I can't do the Chesapeake Bay for that."

Some boaters look for low cost solutions, such as using computer-based charts and software to replicate the function of high-end systems. Others fall back on that "wait and see" – and it works. History shows that costs do fall as technology gains wide use, and one need only look at the GPS market for an example. Hayden notes that the original GPS units shipped for thousands of dollars. Today, a full-featured handheld unit can be bought for less than $300. While boaters may be frustrated by the wait, Hayden says the current economy may expedite price drops.

"In this market, there's a tremendous pressure to move inventory," he said. "You'll see some really good pricing."

Cost aside, many boaters report good experiences with the technology they do buy. Three out of four say new products meet their expectations right out of the box or, far more often, with a little learning and tweaking.

In fact, some marine experts note that the boom in technology is at least partially consumer driven. Minetola says many boaters have a desire to stay in touch with the outside world while afloat, hence the need for gear like mobile phone amplifiers and satellite television systems. He said the trend is best seen aboard brand new boats.

More than 90 percent of respondents said GPS and chartplotter technology made the greatest contribution to boating in the last 20 years. "You step on and there's no empty space," he says. "It's jammed full of speakers and switches, outlets for iPods and everything else. There's definitely a trend to put gadgets on boats."

FRUSTRATIONS AND PROBLEMS

But that does not mean there isn't frustration out there. Comments were freighted with complaints about complicated user interfaces, incompatibility and the need to spend ever more time learning how to use new gear. Indeed, more than one in four say that they have bought new technology that they could not get to work.

"Techies need to understand we old farts can learn, but they have to translate into a language we can relate to," wrote Sumter Moore, of Columbia, SC.

In fact, complexity was a major complaint. Take the case presented by James Hinds, who owns an electro-optic design and manufacturing business in Sacappoose, Oregon. Despite his high-tech job, Hinds still has issues with the gear on his 60-foot trawler.

"Every instrument has a different and arduous method to simply reduce the display brilliance from daytime to nighttime – and that's just to dim the display!" he wrote. "There should be industry standards for some of these basic end-user functions. When trying to navigate, an end-user shouldn't need to remember a litany of menu-driven sub-level commands to perform basic functions."

Matt Butcher, of Dallas, said, "We need to take the Apple mentality towards marine technology. That is, make the interfaces simple and intuitive. I believe that 75 percent of a technology's capabilities are never used because they are too hard or expensive to get working."

Compatibility was another common complaint. Many boaters have adopted a "best of breed" approach to the dashboard, selecting chartplotters, autopilots, radios and other gear from manufacturers who make the best in each category. However, these efforts are often complicated by proprietary cabling and other systems that make integration difficult.

As boater Keith McLaren wrote, "Manufacturers seem to intentionally make their products incompatible with other products – even their own. We need a more cooperative industry so that products can move ahead more quickly and make our lives easier."

INDUSTRY CHALLENGE

Some in the industry recognize the need to make things simpler for users moving forward.

"I think manufacturers are required to simplify the use of their products now," said Gordon Sprouse, director of marketing for Navico in North America. "It's like the iPod. It's a complicated product, in terms of what it does. But the user interface is simple. Manufacturers are required to make the use interface much more simplified."

Hayden, at NMEA, said that consumer education is another area where the industry can improve. While most new technology comes with thick manuals, installation guides and quick-start cards, and tools like video tutorials are becoming more common online, Hayden said that increasing opportunities for first-hand instruction would be valuable.

"We should be doing more to educate the boating public," he said. "Not a sales pitch, just down-to-Earth, basic education seminars."

Hayden said the industry has made strides toward compatibility, especially with the advent of the NMEA 2000 protocol, which allows devices to easily talk to one another. But many manufacturers have slowed the spread of NMEA 2000 systems by using proprietary cabling and other interfaces that make it tough to create a network across brands. Hayden said there is still work to be done.

"Standardization in our industry is taking awhile," he said. "It's getting there – more slowly than we hoped – but it is getting there."

Hayden says that consumer demand for "best of breed systems, which he calls "freedom of choice," may become the largest driving force.

"Manufacturers all want proprietary systems," he said. "They want the boat outfitted with all their equipment, not just one piece. Unfortunately, the market is not that way. If you look around my office, I've got Dell and HP and other brands. They are all connected and they all work. I had freedom of choice. I didn't want to buy from just one manufacturer."

In the end, he does see transformation on the horizon.

"As an industry, we are reluctant to change," he said. "This industry takes a while to accept change. But we are getting there."