ConchyJoe

[BostonEd]

With all of the different options for electronic navigation that are available, I'm interested in knowing what brand and model of GPS / Chartplotter you use for your boat.

Specificaly, I'd like to post replies with:
How you use it (cockpit or Nav station, other?)
What you like about it,
And what you dislike about it.
Finally, if you can provide a ballpark price it would be helpful.

I hope that this becomes a good resource for others that may be in the market for what can be an expensive peice of equipment.

Thanks in advance!

Ed

[Susan OC]

Funny you should ask, Ed. We are trying to figure that all out right now. Our boat came with a fairly new (2005) Raymarine Chartplotter. Unfortunately, it is not expandable for weather and radar. We like the Chartplotter's capabiliites and it works fine in the cockpit. We are adding CAPN (soft charts with GPS on our pc) that we'll leave on the nav station. What sold us on the soft charts is that they are so easy to update to current charts (just by downloading current charts on line.) The program combined with GPS (a hand held that is plugged into USB port) gives your PC real chart plotter capability. Downside is you don't really want a pc in your cockpit b/c of weather issues. So, we will keep the chartplotter in the cockpit. Anyway, that's the way we're going on this issue. Sounds good in principal, but we haven't put it to the test yet.
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LaLeLu
40' Caliber
Merritt Island, FL

[BostonEd]

I belong to a sailing club, and do not own currently own a boat.

Some of the boats that I have access to (Pearson 34, Call 33, etc.) use a RayMarine C120 with a Pedestal mount in the cockpit. I *love* the large screen, and the integrated depthsounder. However, I find it really tedious to plot wayoints for a course using the knob... Also, to be honest, I am not fully comfortable with all the features. It seems that I find a new feature every time that I use it.

I don't know what the club paid for the units, but it was somewhere north of $3k each, including the rail mount... If I could get about a month alone with the GPS to completely figure out, and memorize each menu, this unit would be awesome.

As a result I purchased (and figured out) a Garmin GPSmap 478. This is a submersible hand held unit that was designed to be used for coastal, as well as street navigation. It has the entire US coastal charts already entered, and also includes (most) every street listing for the US. I use this in conjunction with my PC, and the Garmin Bluechart Software for setting waypoints for trips. I plot them out on my PC, and transfer to the unit via USB. When sailing, I have BOTH in the cockpit. One tells me clearly where I am, the other tells me where to go. (I also bring my paper charts.)

The other great feature of this setup is that at anchor I can can turn off all the electronics (saving batteries), and *still* use this as anchor drag alarm running on an internal battery. I like the size of the unit, and the ability to go from street to any boat is very handy. Also it does support sonar depth sounder/fish finder and XM Sattelite weather radio. In the car, it uses an integral speaker to give you verbal instructions, in something like a dozen languages! (a recent software update included Czeck...)

The worst aspect of the unit is the 2x3 inch screen. Also, as I have been reading up on networked systems, I learned that this unit only supports NMEA 1083.

I got West Marine to price match an online store, and picked it up for under $950...

So, with 2 posts so far, it seems that we both have elected for dual GPS.

[Susan OC]

I am by no means an expert on this subject - as I am still tryin gto figure it all out. The Chartplotter we have in the cockpit (that came with the boat) is a Ray Marine 435i chart plotter (new in 2005). I really like it's chartplotting capabilities. I think the cost is about $1000. It is really user friendly. We just sat in the cockpit for a few hours and pressed buttons. It shoots a rum line, leaves a trial and projects your heading. It has a really detailed colored screen that is about 8" diagonally - plenty big enough for helmsman to see. Butttttt......if I were going to buy one right now, I would definately pay more and get one that is expandable for radar and weather. Also, I would look into one that communicates with the autopilot. On our old boat, you could set your waypoints and put it in autopilot and the two worked together. ("look ma, no hands.") Our current boat has a below deck, hydrolock autopilot, so this may not be an option for us - I really don't know.

I know what you mean about using the handheld for an anchor alarm. I sleep with my handheld under my pillow when we are at anchor.

So Ed, if you are using OPB's, why are you asking about electronics? Getting the bug to buy?

Susan

Edit: hee, hee, hee I see that I put "rum" line above instead of rhumb line - Guess you know what I am thinking (it is Friday after all)
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LaLeLu
40' Caliber
Merritt Island, FL

[Susan OC]

Well here's what we wound up doing - I hope it works for us b/c we have mucho dinero invested in this:

We are keeping the Raymarine chart plotter at the helm. We bought a pc and put on Capn (GPS/chartplotting software) with softcharts. We bought a GPS remote with USB cable to plug into PC (10' cord so we can put it out the hatch for clear reception). We also got WXworx weather satellite software, receiver and XM antenna for the PC. Plan is to use the PC for planning and weather, and the chartplotter for real time nav. Just trying to get it installed and figured out right now. I will let you know if this set up works as soon as I know.
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LaLeLu
40' Caliber
Merritt Island, FL

[coconutisland]

Hey Sue, i would really love to hear how that XM thing goes for you, looks like a great system and you have to figure the capability to go world wide will be there in a few years time...

I got one of the USB antenneas a couple of years ago and use my PC at the chart table. At the Helm, I really do not see much use for chartplotting. Autohelm yes, but unless I am near shore, there is generally time to go below and check on things at the chart table. On longer crossings, I keep the log on the hour anyway, so I sitting at the chart table one an hour. Near shore, Eyes on is better than anything. I one went down the detroit river and took a look at the garmin GPS map at the helm, which showed the boat traveling down the coastal road, roughly 100 yards to starboard... Never trusted em for near shore after that.

[Susan OC]

WX Works is amazing with XM weather satalite. It is soooo easy to use and there are no tricks to it. What you see is what you get. We watched a thunder cell over our boat last w/e and were able to acurately figure out when the weather would clear. It has a loop feature so there is no question as to which way the weather is moving. It has waive heights, weather bouy info, water temps, air temps - I feel like the fricken weather girl now.

Now the CAPN software is another story - not so easy to use and customer service, well I can't tell you how that is since they are ignoring my emails and have not actually given me any service yet.
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LaLeLu
40' Caliber
Merritt Island, FL

[bbadmin]

Susan,

I was out on a buddies Viking SF, and he had Garmin with XM weather. I was amazed at the realtime data it gave you.

XM weather is on my list for sure.

[dfreeman]

I'm currently working on a design for cruising boats that will incorporate Nav, Comms, and Entertainment systems into a easy to control unified system. Of course redundancy is a concern as well as simplicity for troubleshooting. I do designs for the megayacht folks that involve a lot of "futurecasting" as my work takes place several years in advance of launching and have felt that the normal (can that term really be applied to a cruiser?) boats have not been able to benefit from the advances in technology due to the divisiveness in the marine products industry. My current project is a beta design for my own vessel incorporating some pretty cool, but proven technologies. Stayed tuned!

[bbadmin]

[BostonEd]

I just caught back up with this thread and saw Susan's post about XM Sattelite Weather which reminded me about the Garmin GPSmap 479 portable unit that I use (it really is too big to call a hand held.)

In addition to all the Bluechart data (yep, tide predictions too!) for the *entire* US coast , and all of the street maps for the continental US , it can also be a DepthSounder/FishFinder, and DSC Transmitter. The Garmin GPSmap 478 also receives and plots the XM weather info. It can also receive XM Radio (so you can listen to your favorite tunes).

In order to use the sattelite stuff, all that you have to do is spring for the Garmin XM "antenna" ~$300 (Garmin calls it an antenna, it is really a XM Sattelite reciever) and then pay the $50 new subscriber fee, and subscribe for $30-50 per month. There is a special Garmin transducer that can be used to support the Fish/Depth functions. There's probably an attachment that will make breakfast for you, but I haven't found it yet...

You might have guessed that I have not subscribed to any of that stuff... but these features are there if you want them.

Overall I would reccomend the unit. If you'd like to learn more click here http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap478/