Combin d GPS chart plotter and depth sounder

[Jane Reed]

I’d like to buy a combined gps chart plotter and depth sounder . My preference is hand held . To use on a Bre in Uk and Europe. Can anyone recommend, many thanks

[Graham W]

For a GPS to be handheld and in addition be able to read depth, it needs to be connected wirelessly somehow to a depth transducer.  As far as I can tell, a dedicated handheld that does both GPS and wireless depth doesn't exist.

However, there is this wireless depth sounder in the USA that broadcasts data to a mobile phone (which of course can also be your GPS using Navionics or similar) https://store.vexilar.com/sonarphone-w-hs-transducer-phone-not-included.html.  There used to be a British company doing something similar called Echozilla but it seems to have gone out of business. 

Alternatively, you could go for a semi-wired solution.  In use, this GPS sits in a pivoting bracket (perhaps on your centreboard case) which is also wired to a transducer and a house battery (neither included in this example) https://seamarknunn.com/acatalog/Garmin-EchoMAP-Plus-CHIRP-45cv-4.3-inch-Chartlotter-Preloaded-UK-Charts-SM230_0100188710.html.  When you’ve finished for the day, simply hoick the unit out of its bracket and take it home in your pocket.

[Andy Stobbart]

I guess you might be trying to avoid wiring and drilling hokes in your pride and joy?! 
Understandable but I think you may struggle to find a handheld devuce with both functions because, as already replied, the depthsounding capability needs a transducer in the water, or at least glued to the inside of the hull to shoot signals through the hull into the water.
Handheld depth sounders do exist (you typically chuck a floating transducer into the water which the handheld connects to via a wire or with bluetooth) but in my experience they are pretty mickey mouse and i very much doubt there will be one with a chartplotter function.
Handheld sounders may of course have improved since my trials of them which in truth are now many years out of date - if they have you could consider using one alongside an ipad for chartplotting (or one of those dedicated sailing tablets that i have seen which look very fancy if a bit expensive)…
There is one other potential solution, if you are trying to avoid installing a transducer, which is to use a Chartplotter/Fishfinder combo with a transducer on a demountable bracket - the brackets are available for fishing kayaks and should be able to be tweaked for a small sailing boat (try Railblaza). You set the transducer up when you need it by deploying it over the side of the boat on its demountable bracket. You would still have wiring and need a 12v power source though which means some sort of battery in a box and more wires. I have tried this solution on my kayak and found it a PITA to deploy in practice so I just went ahead and installed a fixed shoot-through transducer with a battery box all located inside the hull.