Best Chartplotter in your opinion

[grey]

Can anyone help me try and decide which is the best chartplotter to buy? I want to spend about £700 and only want to use it for plotting but here are so many different types and so many different chart suppliers it is difficult to know which is the best to get. I have asked a few suppliers but they seem to be confused too!! I did think about going down the PC route but have been warned off that due to the unreliability, or can anyone recomend this. I only sail along the east coast say Yarmouth to the Thames so a simple system would suffice. I would like some way to be able to plot routes at home and then transfer them to the plotter easily. What are your suggestions?

 

[Captain_Chaos]

I like the Yeoman chart plotter, which imho gives the best of both worlds when linked into your gps. You have the comfort of conventional paper charts and can easily plot where you are by following the lights in the gismo, you can set waypoints, get bearings and distances off etc. And if your electrics go, you can still work off the paper chart.

On a previous boat I had an all electronic chartplotter (admitedly it was black and white not colour) and found it difficult to read.

 

[Talbot]

for that price I reckon the Lowrance , or the navman 5605 offer great deals.
I have a Navman 5500 sited so that I can see it from the helm - which is where the dedicated plotter provides the best functionality. They also give ht ebest performance for power consumption
The laptop provides a better planning facility and overview due to screen size (unless you go to the raymarine large displays plotters, but they are outside your pricing) but they dont like water, and they do use a lot of power.

Personally I have both options. (and some paper charts and a sextant, but not a hand lead line for depths /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif)

 

[BrendanS]

If you want to plot at home, a transportable unit that you can take with you might be ideal. eg the Garmin 276c. You can even use it in your car, and is within your price range including Channel chart card

 

[alienzdive]

pay extra for raymarine, worth every extra penny.

 

[charles_reed]

IMHO

you're starting from the wrong place.

Look at the chart-software, then decide on the plotter.

I use Navionics with Garmin or Lowrance plotters. C-Map are as good and far more widely available.

All the other systems are also-rans with greater or lesser disadvantages.

 

[Dyak]

I've just bought a Cobra colour chartploter with C Max Mega Chart of the uk and Ireland for under £500 from Mailspeed Marine. Compared it to a friends Garmin for over £1300 and it was just as good apart from the smaller screen size of 6" against the garmin 8". Would highly recommend it especially as the C Max chart retails at £245 on it's own.

 

[steverow]

There's nothing unreliable about PC chartplotting these days. It's as reliable as your boat electrics.
You get a lot more product for your money and lots more functionality too.
If you already have a laptop then this is undoubtedly the cheapest and most effective route.
You can also expand with a PC plotter and add in things like AIS and MARPA later on, in a way that you can't with all but the most expensive of fixed plotters.
You can also take it home and do your passage planning without the hassle of extra software and gizmos.
Take a look at the new maptech Chart Navigator Pro for instance...between a half and a third the price of a named fixed plotter and it does absolutely everything you could need and does them well.
viz..
AIS,MARPA, Tides, Currents, Weather Overlays, Virtual Instruments(lots of them),
On Screen Guide Book (almanac) showing entry details for every port and info also, Raster and Vector Charts, just about everything plus all the normal plotter functions as well.

www.maptech marine.co.uk.

In this day and age it would be silly to dismiss the PC option without proper consideration..simply put you get a lot more bang for your buck and a much larger screen size to boot. You could buy a brand new laptop and really decent chart sofware for your £700.
The Laptop would also take you into other areas such as RXing weather faxes and Naxtex broadcasts, internet access etc etc. It's becoming a really versatile sailing tool these days.

Steve

 

[Marsupial]

Hi Grey,

Welcome to the forum.

I have a mono and a colour Raymarine 70 with a C map chart, its OK - not terribly easy to read, and there are lots of errors on c-map charts - but I survive however, I find myself using my Yeoman sport most of the time. I can run it off a garmin 12xl handheld gps and a 12 volt "starter power pack" for 100 hours or more if the boat looses power. I have trialled PC based systems but IMHO unless you are willing to spend quite a lot of cash on buying very good ruggedised kit I would avoid that route. Paper charts are not all they are cracked to be unless you use genuine admiralty ones, I have found many instances where "pleasure craft" charts have used considerable "artistic license" and some vital detail has been lost, however I find that C map remove even more. For the exercise compare the Walton backwaters area on various charts and you will see what I mean.

I leave you to decide if the differences are significant . . .

That’s where my analysis of these products starts - on an area I know well, if that passes muster then I am confident with the information they provide on areas I don’t know. BUT my c chart is accurate in the UK inaccurate in France, Belgium and Holland, obviously a datum error but its supposed to be WSG84 all over!!

Welcome to the where the hell are we club and the "my screen is more accurate than yours club" in the end its what you are comfortable with - but the electronics WILL stop working, without warning, at the most inopportune moment.

Good luck

David

 

[ShipsWoofy]

raymarine 435i

 

[ShipsWoofy]

says a man with a wheelhouse!

 

[stevebirch2002]

Hi Grey. From your name are you not in the spring of youth? Think of how good your eyesight is. Get the largest screen you can afford as it will make a big difference. I am an electronics nut but still use paper charts with a Yeoman Plotter (In my opinion the best compromise). I also use a Garmin 2006 plotter and a laptop PC with Euronav SeaPro software. I only have a 27' Vega so a lot of overkill I know. My sailing is usually around the South Coast so paper charts are the usual way. The Yeoman Plotter I have is the Sport version on a long lead so I can use it in the cockpit giving me the versatility of plotting electronically but with the eyeball of paper charts, mind you I still need to wear my glasses!

 

[jimbouy]

Coz you iz a blind old git Steve!!!

 

[Guest]

£700 gets a wide range of offers ....

For my money - The Lowrance 3500C with external GPS antenna or the 3600i with internal GPS antenna get my definite vote.

You get a large area chart card with good detail ... it's colour and high resolution. It's waterproof to nec. spec.

Price is falling again I believe - mine was £450 delivered next day ... but now I believe is even cheaper ...

For a full plotter with charting as well - it is an absolute bargain. Difficult to find anything else that competes with it at the price ... as competing similar price gear is mostly mono - black and white.

The chart card coverage - North Europe West is included with plotter ..... :>

I compared and spent a long time at this trying to decide which to buy as some other forumites are well aware - Steve above being one !! The Lowrance came out well ahead of any others ......

As to PC based charting - it is the most versatile form in terms of facilities - but is limited in terms of where to mount / use. For similar price to upper market software - you can buy the Lowrance Plotter.

 

[jds31840]

Re: £700 gets a wide range of offers ....

Be careful of C-map. They're not very customer friendly. I went down the C-map route because of their Superwide format, which they have since casually dropped - I have to buy two charts where one did before.
Now NT Max is up and running, how long will it be before they abandon NT+, just like they did with CF85 and Superwide?

 

[gjgm]

I think its one of those purchases where bricks and mortar shops can help, even if a tad more than internet sales. Have a think of those tasks you commonly want to do.. call up a saved route, mark a waypoint.. whatever, and then check the menus on the plotter. Some of them seem to have the most frequent tasks (for me anyway)two or three pages through the menus. Not a major hassle, perhaps. Another way, try to use it without the shop assistant/instructions. If its not intuitive, you have to dig out the damn book to remember how to get to some functions.