Lurker

[robinborton]

I am contemplating buying a new Aquador 26C and part x my Sea Wings 254.
Anyone know anything about this boat the report in MBM was good.
Also should I buy a chart plotter or a standard GPS ?I rather fancy a chart plotter which one should I buy?.
I use the boat on the Broads and go out to sea from Yarmouth whenever I can but am not too ambitious.
Thanks in advance for your replies
Robin

 

[hlb]

Well Mr Lurker ( Take Friendly note Kim).
Dont Know much about the boat but.
Chart plotters are excelent. also too are many gagety things.
Point is do you need them, can you remember how to work them and do you have a need for them just to whip out of the harbour and back again. Or should you really have known where the harbour was in the first place!!
Little trips should not need much but compass, chart and most important. Local knowledge. A pilot book is one of best investments. Radar is arguebly (Spelt that wrong) more important than gps. Chart plotters just make it easy, but yer sopposed to know roughly where you are anyway. ( Says he that just presses auto button and forgets it!) Its a bit contraversial but I was told, and it took me a bit to understand the reasoning. Radar is first to fit GPS second and chart plotter is just a luxuary. Now listen to the flack!!

Haydn

 

[byron]

A chart plotter is a great toy and most come combined with a GPS. But! at all times the Chart Plotter is out of date unless you are continually updating your electronic charts, anyway unless you really splurge the screens are too small. A GPS is great and the Garmin 126 or 128 is superb. Radar? well! yes but unless you are going to do some serious cruising when you might be caught out then not vital, today and because of GPS one doesn't even need them for navigational assistance, something in the od days we even used our echo sounders for.


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[hlb]

Try being stuck out in heavy rain Byron!
Small GpS would be ok ( If you can do the Lat and Long)
But then you should'nt go to sea unless you can.
IMHO I would leave plotters alone untill more experience or if it go's wrong yer nacked.

Haydn

 

[tripleace]

Re: Lurker :yeoman and hand held

I would strongly suggest you look at a hand held GPS and then add a Yeoman plotter.

Have a look before you buy. make sure you have a working demo. If like MSS they show you one that not working and just on display you do not get the full picture.

 

[Guest]

Re: no longer a Lurker: chartplotter lotter

Hi.

Three coices: a sort-of plotter : a Yeoman thingy. An actual plotter ie map on screen. Or a handheld chartplotter, smaller screen but transportable. The conventioanl chartplotter is fixed to dashboard, wired in and so on. The handheldg plug in to faglighter 12v socket, and can be moved from boat to boat, so don't get sold for £0 with the p-ex, and very good too.

Amongst handhelds, choices are a Garmion 175 and a Magellan 6000. A fight er discussion is developing on another thread about whi hof these is best, but both are ace. Costs are around 500/600 quid, not cheap, but remeber they don't get sold with the boat. The Garmin 175 has little mounting brackets so you can puttit on that, and demount when away from the boat: also good thing about handheld is that you can put all the waypoints in at home and get slick at using it, and it doesn't get nicked, and no complicated wiring.

 

[Guest]

When you say you are not too ambitious I suspect your sea area will be around Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Southwold etc., and I would suggest that a plotter would be overkill (my boat has one fitted but I rarely use it).

We cruise this area with paper charts and a Garmin 128 GPS which works fine.

Am I right in thinking that the Aquador is a hardtop, if so then a handheld GPS is not the right option, except as a backup.

If your are going for a plotter, I have used a Yeoman and think they are good pieces of kit but remember you need quite a large chart area to sit it on, which may not be available on a 26 footer.

 

[scottie]

IF YOU ARE WORKING OUT SIDE IN THE RAIN WEARING GLASSES THEN HANDHELD GPS IS A BIT DIFFICULT TO READ AS I FOUND OUT LAST YEAR.
THE IDEA WAS TO LAY A RACING MARK FOR YACHT (RAGGIES?) AT A GPS POSITION
THE WEATHER WAS SUSHINE AND SHOWERS SEASTATE FAIRLY ROUGH WIND ABOUT 20 KNOTS GUSTING VISIBILTY 20 MILES PLUS
THE BOAT A OPEN RIB .
BECAUSE IT WAS STRONG SUNSHINE AND I DON’T LIKE WEARING BI FOCALS ON A BOAT I HAD ON MY DISTANCE SUN GLASSES. JUST AS WE WENT INTO LAY THE MARK A HEAVY RAIN SHOWER (VERY HEAVY) CAME THOUGH VISIBITY DROPPED TO 30 METRES
WITH THE RAIN ON MAY GLASSE AND THE RAIN ON THE HAND HELD IT WAS ALMOST IMPOSIBLE TO READ THE ONLY BOAT THAT NEW WHERE THEY WERE AND EVER OTHER BOAT WAS A FISHING BOAT WITH RADAR

OK A ONE OFF BUT A CHART PLOTTER WOULD HAVE HELPED AND RADAR CURED THE PROBLEM

END RESULT DROPPED THE MARK IN 100 PLUS METRES WATER AND THE MARK INSTEAD OF MAKING TRIANGULAR COURSE WAS DIRECT ON LAY LINE TO IST MARK AT THIS POINT SHOWER CLEARED AND KIND RADIO OPPERATOR IN CENTRAL HEATED COMMITTEE BOAT WITH ALL MOD CONS SUGGESTED IT WAS NOT QUITE RIGHT

PS TYING TO LAY ANCHORS IN A OPEN BOAT IN HEAVY SEAS WITH A 1/2 BLIND DRIVER AND A SEASICK CREW IS NOT BEST PLAN

 

[byron]

Re: Lurker :yeoman and hand held

Now you're talking, the Yeoman Plotter is a superb bit of kit and now in use by many shipping lines. Unfortunately my 435's chart 'table' is just a fraction too small to take one otherwise I would have one on board like a shot.The Yeoman now comes with a built in GPS too.

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www.alexander-advertising.co.uk<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by byron on Tue Nov 20 11:58:14 2001 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[adarcy]

Re: Lurker/GPS/Plotter

Hi Robin,

IMNotSoHO you've got a lot of good advice here.

For moi, handheld GPS and charts would be the answer and plotter overkill/overexepense, if you are just "nipping out" occasionally rather than long trips,
you need chart ?pilot of your area and then a GPS to know where you are, how to get back to your offshoremost buoy etc. Radar invaluable but are you going out in bad weather? Plotters are v nice but cost and can lead to a sense of invunerability ie "it shows where I am and shows it is OK" Not always, as advised, you always need the latest upload charts and there are errors both in the charts and GPS readings.

Handheld GPS's DO work inside a hardtop boat, it works fine under our flybridge. Glassfibre and glass don't seem to affect it much, houses do naturally. It's portable ie shouldn't get nicked and you can programme it at home in demo mode.

Don't forget your VHF and enjoy.

Anthony

 

[Scubadoo]

To be honest I like the Garmin GPS/Chart Plotter but would find it hard to justify. Therefore I use a handheld Garmin GPS(2of), paper charts, compass and an echo sounder(2of) - this set-up seems to do me fine. One extra item I keep on board is a Book dedicated to Waypoints, the book is full of waypoints of most buoys and land marks. Radar would be nice but not really ideal for a 25ft boat (no space) - however something I would like on a larger boat.

Anyway if your local you should know the area and should be able to survive most of the time without even a paper chart.

RM.

 

[byron]

There's a real cheap Garmin 240 for sale at www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk £400 inc. VAT. I checked its 2nd hand in 'as new' condition.

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[jfm]

Much has been said above so will not repeat but.....

IMHO chart plotter miles better than hh gps. Gps just gives you a lat/long, you then have to get the blimmin chart out and dividers and stuff to see your position relative to dangers. Risk of error doing that. GPS shows your boat as a blob on an e-chart and your heading as an arrow. Excellent at night.

Both Magellan 6000 and Garmin 175 can be temporary dashboard mounted in a bracket. They are both excellent, the difference is that Mag uses C-Map charts which are IMHO technically better than Navionics charts used by Garmin. On their high end kit, even Garmin are now moving to CMap charting.

The charting kit is a big choice that you can't cjhange easily later. Chart chips cost £80-100 each. So decide if you want CMap or Navionics and buy sa plotter that suits.

If the hard top hides the gps signal most handhelds will take a remote antenna or you can fit a re-emitter (£70 from Maplin)