GPS price OK - WHAT, £300+ for charts !!!

STATUE

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Thinking of buying a Garmin GPSMAPS 276 Cx - £600 'ish.
BUT then £400 ish for the BlueChart ! ! !
All I want to do is float Solent to Portland.
GPS needs to be portable not fixed but can get cockpit power to it.
(I've done all the singlehanded down to Brittany stuff)

HELP PLEASE
 

Chiara’s slave

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Thinking of buying a Garmin GPSMAPS 276 Cx - £600 'ish.
BUT then £400 ish for the BlueChart ! ! !
All I want to do is float Solent to Portland.
GPS needs to be portable not fixed but can get cockpit power to it.
(I've done all the singlehanded down to Brittany stuff)

HELP PLEASE
It surely wasn’t £400 for the Channel chart when I bought mine a year ago.
 

DoubleEnder

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I completely fail to understand this, when you can get a decent Android tablet for £150 brand new plus Navionics for about £40 with real time updates for a year. I just sold an old but quite useable iPad for £75, that I’d been running Navionics on.
I know the level and depth of functions available on a tablet is lower. I know the screen is not as bright. You can’t ping the start line, etc etc
But really? For Solent to Portland?
 

Chiara’s slave

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I completely fail to understand this, when you can get a decent Android tablet for £150 brand new plus Navionics for about £40 with real time updates for a year. I just sold an old but quite useable iPad for £75, that I’d been running Navionics on.
I know the level and depth of functions available on a tablet is lower. I know the screen is not as bright. You can’t ping the start line, etc etc
But really? For Solent to Portland?
Yes really. The functionality of dedicated systems really is a lot better. If you can afford it, why wouldnt you
 

Praxinoscope

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A couple of paper charts, a channel pilot book, hand bearing compass ( or binoculars with compass built in) for taking bearings, would be a lot cheaper than going down the electronics route and potentially more satisfying.
You really don’t need advanced gps for what is simple coastal sailing.
 

Chiara’s slave

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A couple of paper charts, a channel pilot book, hand bearing compass ( or binoculars with compass built in) for taking bearings, would be a lot cheaper than going down the electronics route and potentially more satisfying.
You really don’t need advanced gps for what is simple coastal sailing.
Perfectly true, until the sh1t hits the fan. GPS navigation systems are a major contributor to safety at sea, even if, as you say, you can manage without it.
 

Praxinoscope

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Perfectly true, until the sh1t hits the fan. GPS navigation systems are a major contributor to safety at sea, even if, as you say, you can manage without it.

The most likely s**t to hit the fan in sailing the congested waters between Solent and portland is a collision with another craft, and no amount of gps or chart work will avoid that only good watch keeping.
D.R. would be perfectly adequate for what is basically a leave Solent bear right and follow the coast line, running fixes will give accurate positioning, the ships log distance through water, and a tidal atlas will provide information of currents.
Not saying don’t have a gps, but really, for coastal sailing between Solent and Portland it’s a bit of a sledge hammer to crack a nut.
 
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Chiara’s slave

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Until fog or heavy rain sets in, sure. Our plotter is often only on to give us true wind speed and direction data, I can find Portland without a chart, a fix or any info apart from looking at the coast. I know where the lumps are. I have also been caught in several unforecasted weather events.
 

johnalison

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So long as you keep England to your north you are unlikely to lose your way, but a GPS can be useful and reassuring in other ways than stopping you from getting lost, and a plotter is the most efficient way of getting the information. Even in local waters I always put the plotter on. If nothing else, it is nice to have a track recorded, and it helps in judging distance and time to go, and can be a useful balance to my usual over-optimism about the latter. I haven't looked into the business of charts for some years, but in my case even the 'silver' chart that came with my e7 would be adequate for local sailing, though I value the tidal information the gold gives.
 

Praxinoscope

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Plus you can overlay the AIS transponder.
If you really want to go mad you can hook up the autopilot &other bits as well- I have not got that far though:oops:

On my previous boat I had a NASA Marine Clipper AIS unit which was stand alone, it was a brilliant little device, my present boat does have the AIS plumbed in to the gps, the only problem is that here in Cardigan Bay other shipping is fairly Spartan, (unless half way to Ireland), picking up an AIS signal is so rare one almost forgets what it is when you do pick one up.
 

Daydream believer

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A couple of paper charts, a channel pilot book, hand bearing compass ( or binoculars with compass built in) for taking bearings, would be a lot cheaper than going down the electronics route and potentially more satisfying.
You really don’t need advanced gps for what is simple coastal sailing.
You are right. If one knows the area it is easy. I could go to the Channel Islands from Bradwell without a GPS.
In fact from Bradwell, I could even find the nearest sand bank with absolute ease, without any navigation aid whatsoever:oops:
 
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