Potty about plotters... can you help!!!!!!!!

[MarkyR]

Hi there, I am looking for some honest help and advice about a portable plotter. I do not know which would be the best for me. I do not have a SatNav so I thought about a marine plotter which has offers a road mapping system, any thoughts? Garmin do one ... model 278 i think or a Geonav something or other. If I was to stay with marine only plotter, the Standard Horizon looks good. I am looking for a screen size of 7" max for use in the cockpit.
Thanks
Mark

 

[EdWingfield]

The Lowrance is good. See what deals are about. A month or so ago JKMax were offering a Nautic Path chart of all UK and near Continent bundled in.

The built-in road map is USA so you'd have to spend extra on that.

 

[RestlessL]

I have a Garmin 276c in the car - this is the same as the 278, but without the built-in mapping (Europe street-level), and therefore £200 cheaper. You will, however, need to buy a large memory card if you want to use the 276 for land use, and this will set you back about £140, and you need to buy the mapping.

You will also need to buy the blue-chart mapping for Marine use - this needs to be unlocked for each unit, but Garmin allow you to run it on 2 units at no extra cost, so if you have a Garmin plotter on board, and maps on CD, you can use the same maps.

My land maps are now a couple of years old, and the post-code search is not up to much - this may have improved with later releases, but I don't know.

My pet hate about the unit is the data cable - the plug does not stand-up to repeated use, and I am now on my 3rd one.

However, it is a fully self-contained unit, and can be used as a back-up on the boat (see the other threads for discussions on redundancy) The 276 battery will last for about 6 hours use.

It has the same user-interface as the Garmin 3000 I have on board, and this, for me, is one of its main strengths. Not sure I would buy one now just for road use.

John

 

[RobBrown]

What about the Magellan Crossover? I think I saw it advertised in the last couple of Compass brochures I received & SFAIR designed for marine & car use. Don't know much more about it than that, but sure you can do a search. I was not interested myself as already have an in car Sat Nav, but anyway have a general suspicion of multi purpose design, tending to a one warp, one job, view.

 

[retsina]

If you want a serious Plotter then you need the Standard Horizon 300i. There is no comparison with the others; The 7" screen is big enought to allow you to look ahead without any problems. The map packages are excellent; you can buy a 300i with the mega map package for approx £600.

 

[Robin2]

Standard Horizon plotter + Standard Horizon DSC VHF radio will show the positions of other boats on the chart - for example when you use the DSC to ask another boat for its position, or if a distress alert is received. I have a CP180i and am ver pleased with it.

 

[wotayottie]

A plotter that is suitable for the car will not do that well on the boat and vice versa. Likely to be the electronic equivalent of a MacGregor - neither any good as a yacht of a speedboat!

Best buy a cheap car one (plenty about) and a CP180.

 

[BrendanS]

Why not. I have a 276c, which is a replacement for the original 176c I had, and is a superb marine plotter. With an additional automobile pack, it performs as well as any dedicated car system.