Autopilot for Boat

A while back someone used an ardupilot to control a rc boat but I never heard how it did. I am looking into what it would take to do something similar, but this is on a small fishing boat, not an rc boat.  

Is it possible to use my existing fish finder/charplotter to communicate to the ardupilot for waypoint navigation/spot hold. The fishfinder/charplotter uses NEMA 2000 (still learning about that) to communicate to other devices. 

I would use two motors. One would control yaw. The other would control forward and aft movement.

I am completely a noob when it comes to programming and electronics (aircraft structures was my thing) so please dumb it down for me. 

If that is too much of a pain then what about a stand alone unit that could at least be a virtual gps anchor?

Minnkota iPilot has something like this but I'm up for a challenge to see if it can be done cheaper than their $1200 price tag. 

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