GPS System

[wearuk53]

Hi had some advice previous about buying a cheap VHS got a Cobra which will do me for what i need. Does anyone know a cheap GPS system i could buy for around £100 or so.

Steve

 

[mark]

whats the boat? how much room you got?

you want a chartplotter or just gps?

 

[wearuk53]

Its an 18 Foot Fletcher Cruisette I am not sure whats the difference i thought a GPS did both?

 

[mark]

a gps will just show your position lat/long, and your course, heading etc

a chartplotter does the same, but the boat is shown on top of a chart so you can see whats around you (or under you)

cheapest chartplotters are getting on for 300 quid, and then you have to buy the charts ontop of that

cheapest gps units (apart from handhelds) are £150 ish

you got room for a small laptop?

 

[Falcone]

I use a garmin GPS 72, it gets me where i need to be and you ca get them for a shade under 100 quid, a chartplotter would be a lot better, but this would get you away for not a lot of money.

 

[wearuk53]

Cheers Falcone I was looking at them probably do for what i need also, can you plot and save a course once you have reached a destination? and mark thanks for advice yes i have room for a laptop mate.

Steve

 

[George]

Hi had some advice previous about buying a cheap VHS got a Cobra which will do me for what i need. Does anyone know a cheap GPS system i could buy for around £100 or so.

Steve

Hi

I got the Garmin 172 mono chartplotter 2 year ago for £99 on line ex display. Never needed the maps downloaded it does the job without them. I would defo go for the chartplotter over gps you can trace your steps and see the marks youve saved. Keep an eye out on line theres always a bargain out there its just finding it. you will pay more for the colour ones but I found the mono was fine for me. I go out up to 5mile and have marks set up from reccomendations and ones I have come across and this takes me to them no bother.

Good luck....

george

 

[wearuk53]

Thanks George thats the info i wanted looks like the chart plotter is better i want to trace my steps so to speak and plot where i have been.

Steve

 

[The Jester]

If you want to have a look at a chart plotter i'll be down the marina over the weekend you can have a look at mine so you know what people are talking about...just let me know...

 

[wearuk53]

Cheers Jester i am always down the marina on a mornin walkin the dog I might be down on Saturday so will let you know and i know where your boat is moored.


Steve

 

[The Jester]

I've moved off the back wall to the next pontoon up, if you see me on the boat just shout Chris and i'll let you through the gate.....no probs...Do you live far from the marina ?

 

[wearuk53]

I live @ Hylton Castle near Nissan If I can get down will give you a shout Chris

Cheers

Steve

 

[Falcone]

My GPS keeps the drifts and marks you have covered and its very straight forward to use, if you can get a chart plotter for not much more i would go for that, but this GPS will be sufficient like jester said i might atually be down the marina today, id be more than happy to show you the setup.

 

[wearuk53]

I was also reading into using a laptop with a blue tooth gps and getting the cd to use laptop as a plotter anyone used this setup??

 

[joostan]

I was also reading into using a laptop with a blue tooth gps and getting the cd to use laptop as a plotter anyone used this setup??

I use MaxSEA (Mark uses it as well), it is a great product but possibly an overkill for a small boat. There are some opensource plotters out there that use vector and raster charts but it is difficult getting the UK charts as most of the NOAA charts (link)are of USA.

If you want just to view some charts and get use to reading maps then you can try

PolarCOM and PolarVIEW (Polar)
or
Try the EarthNC online free but USA again (EarthNC online)

Another option is memorymap as these maps go a few miles out to sea so you could plot wrecks on these but they do NOT give you the chart overlay, you will need a paper map (Imray C24) etc for that.

Hope this helps.

 

[The Jester]

Laptops are ok in an enclosed cabin, but they're not very waterproof so be carefull when using in a cuddy....

 

[mark]

toughbooks... military spec, waterproof, droppable, bounce-able and generally bullet proof!

I've still got a few ex ministry one sat here if anyone wants one!

 

[The Jester]

Do they float Mark ?

 

[mark]

actually they do... for a while anyways

 

[joostan]

Do they float Mark ?

I've seen a demo of them bring thrown into a pond for left for a little while and then turned on plus buckets of water being poured on them while powered on.

These machines are good.