Garmin navigation

Hurricane

Hurricane

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I am used to navigating using Raymarine systems.
I am currently on a boat with Garmin plotters and instrumentation.

My usual simple method of navigation is to move the cursor to where I want to go and select "go to cursor".
This works fine on Garmin until yo come to an obstruction or if you need to manually avoid a situation.
Under Raymarine after the obstruction, I would simple reset the cross track error and re-engage the pilot.
But this seems impossible under Garmin. Am I missing something?
I don't really want to store a dedicated waypoint and even if I did, I don't think that would resolve my issue.

Anyone got any advice?
 
Hurricane said:
I am used to navigating using Raymarine systems.
I am currently on a boat with Garmin plotters and instrumentation.

My usual simple method of navigation is to move the cursor to where I want to go and select "go to cursor".
This works fine on Garmin until yo come to an obstruction or if you need to manually avoid a situation.
Under Raymarine after the obstruction, I would simple reset the cross track error and re-engage the pilot.
But this seems impossible under Garmin. Am I missing something?
I don't really want to store a dedicated waypoint and even if I did, I don't think that would resolve my issue.

Anyone got any advice?
Click to expand...
Yes you are missing a trick,
my garmin is touch screen, i put my finger on the screen at the point i want to go to, i then choose navigate / route to, and the plotter draws a line on the screen. the route goes round rocks, sand banks etc, i use g2 vision maps for garmin.
 
I have tried Garmin but after being used to the Raymarine way could not get on with it and found it was not as user friendly, would have thought they would have got things on a level playing field by now but clearly not.
 
hullabaloo said:
Yes you are missing a trick,
my garmin is touch screen, i put my finger on the screen at the point i want to go to, i then choose navigate / route to, and the plotter draws a line on the screen. the route goes round rocks, sand banks etc, i use g2 vision maps for garmin.
Click to expand...
Yep
I am doing this but that wasn't my point.
Imagine you are on a simple passage and you have set it up as you say.
Then a big ship forces you to steer off course. To do this, you have to put the autopilot into standby.
On Raymarine you can simply resume your course and reset the cross track error. Garmin doesn't seem to offer this
The only way as far as I can see is to set up the whole go to again which means panning and zooming to reposition the new go to point. Touch screens and buttons at sea are difficult enough but to do this every time you take the boat off track mode seems a lot of hassle.
I will experiment using a way point and see if it is any easier.
 
Boat2016 said:
I have tried Garmin but after being used to the Raymarine way could not get on with it and found it was not as user friendly, would have thought they would have got things on a level playing field by now but clearly not.
Click to expand...
That is my initial thought as well but Garmin have some nice features,
However I am not keen on these touch screens. My own Raymarine G Series has remote keyboards which I hold in my hand so it is easy to operate whilst the boat is moving around.
 
Hurricane said:
Yep
I am doing this but that wasn't my point.
Imagine you are on a simple passage and you have set it up as you say.
Then a big ship forces you to steer off course. To do this, you have to put the autopilot into standby.
On Raymarine you can simply resume your course and reset the cross track error. Garmin doesn't seem to offer this
The only way as far as I can see is to set up the whole go to again which means panning and zooming to reposition the new go to point. Touch screens and buttons at sea are difficult enough but to do this every time you take the boat off track mode seems a lot of hassle.
I will experiment using a way point and see if it is any easier.
Click to expand...
I'm probably missing the point, but assuming you do have shadow drive, you just use the wheel to steer away from the obstruction and then on leaving the wheel a/p takes over and continues same route
haven't used Raymarine kit so not sure how they deal with it
 
Hurricane said:
Yep
I am doing this but that wasn't my point.
Imagine you are on a simple passage and you have set it up as you say.
Then a big ship forces you to steer off course. To do this, you have to put the autopilot into standby.
On Raymarine you can simply resume your course and reset the cross track error. Garmin doesn't seem to offer this
The only way as far as I can see is to set up the whole go to again which means panning and zooming to reposition the new go to point. Touch screens and buttons at sea are difficult enough but to do this every time you take the boat off track mode seems a lot of hassle.
I will experiment using a way point and see if it is any easier.
Click to expand...
I had a Garmin setup on my yacht and struggled with this very issue. The only way I found round it was 'Stop Navigation' then go through the process to recalculate. There may be a better way but I didnpt figure it out.

If you forgot the 'Stop Navigation' step and then re-engage the AP once you're ready, the AP tries to zero out the XTE first, resulting in an unexpected and very rapid turn. I hated it and never used it. So if you are going to test it out I suggest you have plenty of space around you, and do it at tickover....
 
Scala said:
I had a Garmin setup on my yacht and struggled with this very issue. The only way I found round it was 'Stop Navigation' then go through the process to recalculate. There may be a better way but I didnpt figure it out.

If you forgot the 'Stop Navigation' step and then re-engage the AP once you're ready, the AP tries to zero out the XTE first, resulting in an unexpected and very rapid turn. I hated it and never used it. So if you are going to test it out I suggest you have plenty of space around you, and do it at tickover....
Click to expand...
Yep that was exactly my point.
I thought that Garmin was supposed to be the BEST kit out there.
But this is fundamental - makes the whole process a PIA.
 
vas said:
I'm probably missing the point, but assuming you do have shadow drive, you just use the wheel to steer away from the obstruction and then on leaving the wheel a/p takes over and continues same route
haven't used Raymarine kit so not sure how they deal with it
Click to expand...
Yes, Vas, I'm sure that would work but you end up fighting the autopilot.
Ans as Scala says, as soon as it can, the auto pilot tries to get back onto its track thus making sharp turns.
Now, imagine that you see a ship 2 miles away on a collision course with you.
To make it clear to the ship, I would likely make a hard turn off my course to avoid getting anywhere near a collision.
After the avoiding action has finished, I don't really want the boat to unnecessarily go back to the old track.
I would rather like the system to replot a new track directly to the destination - saves fuel and time.
Raymarine allow you to "Reset the Cross Track Error" in one press of a button - even while the pilot is enabled.
With Garmin, it seems that you have to zoom and pan the chart and create a new track (even when using waypoints).
As Scala says, you have to "Stop Navigation" and create a completely new track.
We have just completed a crossing to Sant Carles from Palma and every time that we altered course, we had to set it all up again.
This is a read PIA that you don't have to do with Raymarine.
Maybe someone can explain where I'm going wrong.
 
Yes that was exactly what I found. There may be a series of steps somewhere to do this but I didn't find them. I nearly had an MOB as a direct consequence of the violent turn made by the AP when it re-engaged, so after that I didn't trust it. New boat has Simrad, hope to test this out (at tickover) this week :)
 
It's threads like this where jfm is missed, he knew the Garmin system well. I personally had very bad experiences with Garmin nav gear (not boaty) and wouldn't touch it with a barge pole ever again.
 
Hurricane said:
Yep
I am doing this but that wasn't my point.
Imagine you are on a simple passage and you have set it up as you say.
Then a big ship forces you to steer off course. To do this, you have to put the autopilot into standby.
On Raymarine you can simply resume your course and reset the cross track error. Garmin doesn't seem to offer this
The only way as far as I can see is to set up the whole go to again which means panning and zooming to reposition the new go to point. Touch screens and buttons at sea are difficult enough but to do this every time you take the boat off track mode seems a lot of hassle.
I will experiment using a way point and see if it is any easier.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I misunderstood ,
 
There’s an option in the settings menu to calculate routes from waypoint or boat.

Mines set to boat......not sure if it will help with scenario
 
MrB said:
It's threads like this where jfm is missed, he knew the Garmin system well. I personally had very bad experiences with Garmin nav gear (not boaty) and wouldn't touch it with a barge pole ever again.
Click to expand...
I was thinking the very same when reading the insurance thread a few days back.

I've obviously missed something during my absence.
 
Thinking about it, Hurric and at least two others in this thread probably have his private email anyway so easy to find out the answers!!! :cool: (y)
 
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