Patent ID: 7729203

Claim:
A system comprising: a GPS receiver mounted to a boat for providing GPS position data; a sonar transducer assembly mounted to the boat, the sonar transducer assembly including a left side scan sonar transducer, a right side scan sonar transducer, and a down beam sonar transducer, wherein the left side scan sonar transducer transmits a left side scan sonar beam of pulses directed downward and laterally outward to a left side of the boat, the left side scan sonar beam having a narrow horizontal width and a wide vertical width, and wherein the right side scan sonar transducer transmits a right side scan sonar beam of pulses directed downward and laterally outward to a right side of the boat, the right side scan sonar beam having a narrow horizontal width and a wide vertical width; signal processing circuitry for processing sonar return signals from the left side scan sonar transducer and the right side scan sonar transducer to produce side scan image data, and for processing sonar return signals from the down beam sonar transducer; a memory for storing the GPS position data to produce historical GPS position data; a user interface including user inputs and a display; and a digital processor for causing the display to display underwater images based upon the side scan image data of one or both of the left and right side scan sonar transducers, wherein the digital processor, in response to a user input that identifies a target of interest within the underwater images being displayed, determines a waypoint for the target of interest based upon a distance back from the boat determined from the historical GPS position data and a distance to the left or right side of the boat determined from the side scan image data.