Garmin-we love them but.......

[suzanne]

At the boatshow on Sunday, went onto a stand, not the Garmin one, this was an independant chandlery. The Garmin 180 caught our eye, what was even more eye catching was the price to match it. A chart plotter at a reasonable size for £300. Right very almost sold at least one just on price and product alone. Once we found a salesperson we asked the all important question, how much are the cartridges to go with it. Suddenly none of us were buying anything! £147 for one, but we were reassured by the salesperson, "that does cover from Dover to the Isles of Scilly". For £147 it needs to cover the whole country!

It made Garmin look silly, rather the main equipment was priced higher, at this rate one cartridge would be the limit.

Suzanne xXx

 

[boatone]

Aaaaahhh......but surely the end stop is how much the total package comes to. Bit like being told the photocopier is free but you have to pay top dollar for the paper....if the combined price is a good deal who cares how they split the bits?

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.boatsontheweb.com/galleryframes.html> My P32, BoatersGallery, VolpenUsersGroup</A>

 

[jfm]

Most of the money goes to the chart publishers, not Garmin. That's a heck of a lot of charts for £150 so good value imho. They're all raster scans though, so a bit rubbish imho.

 

[PGD]

very true Tony - it those damn marketeers at it again in the name of repackaging the sales offering free boat with every gallon of River Thames priced Petrol )))



Glad I'm diesel !

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

£147 for a chart covering the whole of the Channel providing its detailed is very good value. I guess this is not a C-Map chart 'coz you need to pay hundreds of pounds for a load of C-Map charts to cover the same area

 

[kghowe]

Fraid I bought one of the 180's and a cartridge covering southern england cherboug and chan islands. Still a bargain at £280 for the 180 and £180 for the charts. (wife good at playing one off against other). We did find one place selling the 180 for £599 and not bothered about the host of chandlers around them selling at about the 300 mark??!
Regards
Kevin

 

[tcm]

poverty-stricken & much-maligned software authors

Pah! The hardware should be much cheaper and the software priced tio reflect the massive costs and huge effort and skill involved. Hopefully, PS2 games at 50 quid a pop and no manual will improve matters with the next generation.

 

[Guest]

Just consider how much you would have to pay for the equivalent number of paper charts covering the same area and you will realise just what good value they really are. Once you have used an electronic plotter you won't want to navigate any other way. Plus the interface capabilities make this an extremly flexible piece of equipment. I think the Garmin range is best.

 

[ArthurWood]

Having had little experience of chart plotters and that only on others' boats, I found them a bit disconcerting and irritating. Most recent exp was 4 weeks on Great Lakes on big boat w/Raymarine 80 or something (latest and greatest, anyway). Found zooming and finding boat a pain and the controls not intuitive: on one occasion, chart was just a blank area and on another a hatched area. Other occasions have been on Gulf of Mex w/B&G - screen too small and zooming still a prob. I still prefer Yeoman + Garmin or am I a Luddite?
Must go and make hurricane preparations, now. Isidore expected soon!