I am looing for a small colour chartplotter for the boat. This model look like a lot of plotter for the money but does anyone have any experience of this model or any alternative sugestions. I am used to C-Map cartridges. Thanks.
Yes, had one on my old boat. Doesn't support the latest C-Map "Max" charts but does support NT+.
Very well made, but as this model is a few years old now it would be well worth replacing the on-circuit-board "memory" backup battery otherwise you'll lose all your waypoints everytime you switch off! Simrad will do this for you (and update to the latest firmware) for a nominal fee plus postage.
User interface is a little "quirky" but fine after you've had time to play with it.
Ok, I think I got muddled ( not diffcult with marine electronics /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif It is the CP 31 (which looks identical) which takes NT Max and I have seen it for £741.00 inc VAT which still looks like great value for money.
Frankly, £741 isn't a good price - you can find it for well under £700. But I don't think it's especially good value, even at below £700. Remember it's only a 6" screen with 320x240 pixel definition. And it's probably not a great screen for outside use (Simrad recommend the CX33 for that). Simrad kit doesn't have a great reputation for user-friendly operating systems either. If you're happy with that screen size and definition, check out the Standard Horizon CP175C for around £380 and save yourself £300!
But for really satisfactory chartplotting, you need better screen definition. Try to have a look at some plotters working, and compare the difference between 320x240 screens and 640x480 screens - they're worlds apart. Current offerings which are C-Map compatible include the 7" 800x480 widescreen Standard Horizon CP300i for £530 and the 6.4" 640x480 Northstar 567 for £600.
Or, if you were prepared to shell out £750 or so, you're not far away from the class-leading Raymarine C70 which uses Navionics charts but has a 6.5" 640x480 screen and superbly intuitive operation. It's around £800 but you'll need to feed a GPS signal into it.