chartplotters

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Laundryman

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just bought my first boat. it has old navico speed depth and wind instruments and an st 2000 tillerpilot. i am thinking of buying a chartplotter and the standard horizon 180 looks good. is the screen big enough? do you instantly wish you had bought one with a bigger screen? does it connect in some way to the tiller pilot? thanks this is my first post!!!
 
Welcome aboard.

don't expect everyone to agree on any question, but there is a wealth of experience here, and many answers may be helpful.

We have just installed a SH180, and are very pleased with it. It can be interfaced with a tiller pilot (according to the manual - we haven't done so). The screen is small, but it is an aid to navigation, not a substitution for it. The small screen means you are not tempted to steer by it rather than looking out at the real world.

Enjoy your new boat.
 
reading the pbo and ym reviews over the past year, the recommended plotters appear to be the garmin gpsmap 450 or 550 in the small range(£400) 4,5/5,5 inches, and the standard horizon cp300 in the intermediate range (7inches)(£700)
 
Worth spending the extra for the the SH300, IMHO. Clarity much better than the 180 - should be able to get for around £600 including C-Max. But it is quite a bit larger, so depends on your boat and where you want to site it.
 
I've got a Navman 5605 chart plotter with a 6.4" screen. Personally I wouldn't go for any screen size smaller.

My plotter is linked to an Autohelm, so I can just input a 'GoTo' on the Chart plotter and 'instruct' the autohelm to 'goto' next WP, and it follows the chart plotter.

The Standard Horizon screens tend to be Landscape format instead of Portrait, which if you're cruising West and East seem to make sense.
 
It is so clear that it is not a new boat so it will not be obselelete next year.
When some one has just brought a new to them boat the last thing they want to hear is a stupid comment like yours IMHO
 
Just bought a SH CP300i. Worked great for the trip down the coast and up the Thames. Literally plug and play. Screen was large enough to see without being intrusive but wouldn't want it any smaller.
 
Really depends on your budget and the space you have for it. Standard horizon are good value but personally I think anything smaller than a 6 inch screen and you would indeed wish you had a bigger one.
 
Welcome to the forum! The big issue for you is which cartography you want to use. I guess you'll want to keep the set for 5+ years and want to transfer the charts or have them updated, or whatever. Much depends on your cruising ground and how far you plan to go. Navman use C-Map, others use different systems.

Then you need to decide if you want an internal GPS or an external. I went for internal meaning that I can set it to run from the internal or external so if my main Raymarine GPS goes down I have a second one all ready to go, on the system.

Mine is a Navman 5500i with a display 75 x 100 which is fine for me. You will want to interface it to the ST2000+ as that allows you to make the tillerpilot track your course - brilliant when entering harbours with a strong cross current (Salcombe, St Malo, much of the Solent, Needles Channel (super there!)). It's easy to do via the NMEA bus, I interfaced my old ST2000+ to a Furuno GPS with no probs.

The really nice thing about a plotter is having all the charts of the region. No more messing about with scraps of paper or being fleeced huge sums of money for a chart just to get you to a harbour beyond where you are. £100 goes a long way with plotter charts.

I'm happy with the Navman and don't have experience of the others. Maybe look at some recent reviews?
 
[ QUOTE ]
It is so clear that it is not a new boat so it will not be obselelete next year.
When some one has just brought a new to them boat the last thing they want to hear is a stupid comment like yours IMHO

[/ QUOTE ]

Brain in gear before typing! Its quite clear that he is referring to the plotter being out of date /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
If you have an ST2000, it can only read Seatalk, whereas the ST2000+ can read both Seatalk and NMEA.

Most chartplotters output NMEA and some output their own language. Raymarine, when they were Autohelm had their own language, Seatalk, but later added NMEA.

If your autopilot is an ST2000, you will need an interface unit to convert from Seatalk to NMEA, unless you buy a Raymarine plotter. If it is an ST2000+, it will read NMEA from any plotter.
 
Welcome to the forums! You pose an interesting question with "do you instantly wish you had bought one with a bigger screen?". There are two main factors which you need to consider with plotters. Screen size is undoubtedly one; but screen definition is (arguably) even more important. The better the definition, the clearer the chart will be, the graphics will be crisper, the text will be easier to read.

I used a 6.4" Navman for a couple of seasons, and I thought the screen size was only just big enough. I now have a bigger screen. On this basis, I'd say a 5" screen (eg the CP180) is too small. After a while, you'd realise a bigger screen would be a better buy.

As for definition, most of the smaller plotters (including the CP180) are only 320x240 pixel definition. Larger screens typically offer 640x480 pixels - 4 times the definition!

Don't forget the cost of buying a chart cartridge. If you're starting from scratch, look for deals which include the cartridge with the plotter. This can save you £100 or so.

What to look at? I'd suggest you consider the Standard Horizon CP300 which has 800x480 pixels and a 7" screen (around £500, or £620 with a chart); the Navman 5607 with 640x480 pixels and 6.4" screen (around £560, or £700 with a MegaWide chart); and the Lowrance 7200 with 640x480 pixels and 7" screen (around £495 including NauticPath chart).

It's worth looking at the manufacturers' websites and downloading the user manuals for plotters you're interested in. Find out how easy they look to use. Check what happens when you choose to add data boxes to a chart display - a landscape format screen can suddenly get very thin if you can only add data boxes at the top.
 
welcome


Personally, if I had my time over again, for the first season I would buy as little as possible, just use a hand held GPS, see how the boat handles, and what sort of sailing you end up doing. The actual sailing you do will dictate what gear it was you wished you'd bought. That way you can make an informed judgment on what is best for you and your boat

Good luck! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Partly depends on whether you will be using predominantly paper charts, with plotter for interest/detail etc., or if you will be your primary method of navigation.
 
[ QUOTE ]
It is so clear that it is not a new boat so it will not be obselelete next year.
When some one has just brought a new to them boat the last thing they want to hear is a stupid comment like yours IMHO

[/ QUOTE ]

here here !!
 
We are sailing 2
I took the trouble to read what Laundryman actually wrote. He has bought his boat already. He is thinking of buying a plotter. That's why he asked about plotters. So it won't surpise you to know that my reply was about plotters.
It is the plotter that will become obselete as all electronic stuff does. Sorry if you were confused.
 
Welcome aboard.

[ QUOTE ]
Really depends on your budget and the space you have for it. Standard horizon are good value but personally I think anything smaller than a 6 inch screen and you would indeed wish you had a bigger one.

[/ QUOTE ]

Spot on Boatmike, totally agree, good advice.

Avagoodweekend......
 
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