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Marine GPS best buy
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 9:12 am
by djtbuell
Hi all, my friend bought himself a yacht recently and we've been going out on it which is such awesome fun.
Basically its his birthday soon, he doesn't have a good marine gps unit so I was wondering is there one that any of you would recommend or good makes to look out for.
Any advice would be excellent.
Thanks
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 5:09 pm
by Jeff
Hi, welcome!
I used to recommend garmin ones. But honestly since putting navionics on my phone I've used nothing else. It cost me £20 and gives me tides, currents, aerial photos and charts. And the charts are updated with user added content and admiralty updates automatically at no extra cost.
Hard to take the phone outside in the tipping rain though so a fixed unit might be handy if you don't have a wheelhouse as we do. In which case any of the garmin units would be nice. Depending on budget, the high res ones with optional g2 charts look lovely.
What is your budget?
Very nice prezzie!
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 9:20 am
by djtbuell
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the warm welcome.
Just now he's using his iPad which is nowhere near water proof. So kind of looking for something with a largish screen that has all the bells and whistles you mentioned.
Reckon the budget would be around £300. Don't know if thats too little but at least it gives you an idea of how much we can spend.
Thanks
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:29 am
by Jeff
You're welcome
Next question then is does it want to be portable/handheld, or fixed?
If going for a fixed one I'd strongly recommend, whatever you get, to get one which does not require an external antenna to be mounted and wired in. They're a PITA to install, more prone to problems, and in my experience entirely unnecessary even for indoor use.
If fixed is the plan then this one is likely a very good choice:
http://www.marinesuperstore.com/item/99 ... artplotter
Marine Super Store are a very very good online vendor so if you have problems they'll look after you.
A higher res screen might be nice but then you're over budget - and he has the ipad for that anyway.
The one in the link needs only a power supply and nothing else. It comes with decent charts, but they can be upgraded to G2.