Navico To Become Exclusive Electronics Supplier To Crest Pontoons

Navico, parent company to the Lowrance, Simrad, B&G and GoFree marine electronics brands, has signed an exclusive supply partnership with Owosso, Michigan-based Crest Pontoon Boats.

Under the agreement Navico will supply its Lowrance Hook-4 fishfinder/chart plotter as the sole navigation option on all 2017 model-year Crest I, Crest II, Crest II Fish and Crest II Select pontoon boats. The Hook-4 combines cutting-edge fish-finding capabilities such as CHIRP Sonar plus DownScan imaging with a bright, four-inch, color LED-backlit display. The Hook-4 features a highly accurate, built-in GPS antenna plus a detailed US map featuring more than 3,000 lakes and rivers and coastal contours to 1,000 feet.

Navico further confirmed that 2017 model-year Crest Caliber, Classic, Caribbean, Continental and Savannah models will be offered with the higher-end Simrad GO5 XSE multifunction display, which features a super-bright multi-touch display, internal 10 Hz GPS receiver, StructureScan HD and CHIRP Sonar, autopilot integration/control, engine data monitoring, full audio entertainment integration with SonicHub2, integrated wireless connectivity and the powerful, new Simrad TripIntel trip computer. The GO5 XSE display offers intuitive multi-touch controls that smartphone and tablet users will instantly find familiar. Boaters are able to tap the screen to create or select waypoints, pinch-to-zoom, or tap-and-drag to pan smoothly across charts, while simple home screen and menu layouts allow quick access to all functions. Adjustable split-screen views and customizable panel layouts with large, clearly captioned icons, make the GO5 XSE a simple-to-use, full-featured chart plotter.

“Over its long history, Crest Pontoons has brought countless boat owners a tremendous on-the-water experience,” said Navico CEO, Leif Ottosson. “We are proud of our latest standalone navigation systems and know they are a perfect fit for such a well-respected boat brand, like Crest. We also look forward to developing this partnership further.”

Crest Marine’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, Joe Antonneau, spoke highly of the new supply agreement. “At each trim level within the Crest family of pontoons, we provide owners with unprecedented quality, safety, style and comfort,” he said. “With the new collaboration, we know that we are adding to this level of quality by offering the very best navigation and fish-finding system on the market.”