I have an older 1995 25' formula bow rider. More of a fair weather boater and rarely head out at night but boat in the San Francisco Delta where there are a lot of sand bars where you can easily get stuck at low tide. The boat has a nice range given it can cruise at 40-45mph at 3000rpm. Looking to do some more exploring but realize I need a good chartplotter and radio to increase my margin of safety should something go sideways. Also we don't fish much but there is a ton of great fishing in the area so maybe down the road.

Any recommendations on VHF radio or chartplotter. Thinking Standard Horizon GX200 and Garmin UHD63. Open to suggestions and on new or used. Trying to keep things within reason for a bow rider.

My stock depth finder does not work so I am mostly blind. Any insight on trouble shooting would be good so I have back-up. It turns on and then shows zero or random numbers. thinking its thru hull transducer but open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

Ditch the depth finder and use the Garmin. You may want to consider the GX2100 for your area as it also has AIS. I have an older Garmin 546s with the GX2000 and have them connected so I get GPS data on my GX2000. I wish I had the 2100 so I could broadcast AIS info when it gets foggy out. Get yourself an MMSI ID through Boat US and put it in your radio. If you have an emergency, you push one button and it broadcasts your location and boat information to USCG. It's free peace of mind. Shop around, West Marine has actually had some good sales on them lately. I just bought my brother a Standard Horizon handheld for his dingy that had GPS and FM radio for $150 through West Marine. He loves it, good thing he had it, his main boat radio died and that's all he had to communicate with while on a cruise with his club.