Advice needed
- Thread starter PAUL
- Start date
as Keith says, nicer to look at.
davem2005
Well-known member
Paul,
Best way to explain it is to compare it to watching a football match and listening to it on the radio.
The standard gps draws a line on a blank screen and you enter marks on that blank page that you aim for. You find the marks and enter them.
A plotter uses the same line but it puts it on a chart that is overlaid by a marine chart in detail. Also the coastline etc. The wrecks are already there...all you have to do is go to them. The safe areas etc. you can add your own marks with both. You can look for intresting bottom features (something I do every time I drive down the quayside) and give them a try as the contour marks are also included.
I have a gps on my boat and in 5 years marked about 40 wrecks. In the first season ( in fact 5 trips off this coast) I added over 100 confirmed marks.
I still use the gps for drift reckoning as its less cluttered and easier to clear the screen, but would I give up the plotter...NO WAY.
By the way I bought a gray scale plotter which is fine but having used a few colour ones recently I wish I had paid out the extra 100 quid for the better definition in bright sunlight. The greyscale one is impossible to see with sunglasses on.
Pay the extra ...you will not regret it. For a good example go to a hiking shop and see a hand held gps for hiking...no roads or garages/minibanks/hospitals etc. Then compare it to the detail on a tom tom in a car.
Cheers
Dave
Best way to explain it is to compare it to watching a football match and listening to it on the radio.
The standard gps draws a line on a blank screen and you enter marks on that blank page that you aim for. You find the marks and enter them.
A plotter uses the same line but it puts it on a chart that is overlaid by a marine chart in detail. Also the coastline etc. The wrecks are already there...all you have to do is go to them. The safe areas etc. you can add your own marks with both. You can look for intresting bottom features (something I do every time I drive down the quayside) and give them a try as the contour marks are also included.
I have a gps on my boat and in 5 years marked about 40 wrecks. In the first season ( in fact 5 trips off this coast) I added over 100 confirmed marks.
I still use the gps for drift reckoning as its less cluttered and easier to clear the screen, but would I give up the plotter...NO WAY.
By the way I bought a gray scale plotter which is fine but having used a few colour ones recently I wish I had paid out the extra 100 quid for the better definition in bright sunlight. The greyscale one is impossible to see with sunglasses on.
Pay the extra ...you will not regret it. For a good example go to a hiking shop and see a hand held gps for hiking...no roads or garages/minibanks/hospitals etc. Then compare it to the detail on a tom tom in a car.
Cheers
Dave
northeast1
Well-known member
Everyone has there fav plotters but i have the Garmin 555 and its just fantastic, it even works out what is stronger i.e win or tide and if you plot it, it shows you where to start your drift.
The gear thats on the market our days takes most of the skill out of finding and setting up drifts. before i had that i had a old garmin plotter that was very basic, spend 4 monts with that and it was hard to get 2 drifts the same.
The gear thats on the market our days takes most of the skill out of finding and setting up drifts. before i had that i had a old garmin plotter that was very basic, spend 4 monts with that and it was hard to get 2 drifts the same.
mark
Well-known member
depends what you want to spend
Gael Force Marine online shop
have an offer on at the moment, and are throwing in the UK mega wide chart cartridge for £389. cracking plotters, and the 6" screen seems huge compared to a lot of others
Gael Force Marine online shop
have an offer on at the moment, and are throwing in the UK mega wide chart cartridge for £389. cracking plotters, and the 6" screen seems huge compared to a lot of others
PAUL
Well-known member
Thats the problem with a normall gps, i can be drifting towards the mark,i know this because the gps distance is counting down to the the wreck etc but for no reason and in no time its drifting away, just doing some research on the garmin 555 and its £599.99 not sure if thats a good price or not.cheers
paul
davem2005
Well-known member
By which time you have missed the tide and the wind has changed
And you told me that was because you wanted to try a different part of the wreck!!!
That deal for £395 with full uk cmaps sounds great. Particularly with a 6" screen coclour screen. If you cant afford it ...buy mine for £200 fitted...and I will get that one
Cheers
Dave
