What GPS chartplotter for a small'ish sportsboat?

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julians

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I've been thinking for a while that it might be nice to have a chartplotter mounted on the boat rather than using my little old handheld garmin gpsmap 60, so can anyone suggest some good value, chartplotter options that might suit?

- Flushmount is no good, it needs to be mounted on a bracket
- I dont need a fishfinder/echo sounder
- Must be able to display balearic islands charts (if I dont have to buy them seperately then thats even better)
- Doesent need to have a colour screen, but I'm guessing thats the default these days
- The boat it'll be fitted to is a Windy 25 Mirage
- Good value for money, not looking to spend a fortune as I've managed fine with a handheld up to now.

Cheers all.
 
The GpsMap 551 are good value as preloaded with UK charts, 5" screen. The newer 557 is excellent but probably over specked for what your looking for (also includes UK charts). The echoMap 50s despite its name is also a plotter and good value due to included UK charts. The 551 is best value. If your looking for a bigger screen then you cannot best the value of the soon to be discontinued gpsmap 750. Alternatively use a 3G iPad with the Garmin BlueChart mobile app and a mount in a waterproof location (ie with NW Europe BlueChart map area).
 
What's your budget. I found the Lowrance 5" screen good value in 2006. Looks like they're around £350 these days. Resolution is the key to these.
 
Richard10002 said:
What's your budget. I found the Lowrance 5" screen good value in 2006. Looks like they're around £350 these days. Resolution is the key to these.
Click to expand...

Budget? As little as possible, definitely not more than £500 including charts for the balearics, ideally a lot less.

Have had a look at the lowrance elite 5 range, they look good value, but then you have to buy the charts, and they're another £200 on top.

What are the built in base maps like on the lowrance? presume they're pretty low detail?

The standard horizon stuff looks good value, but I cant determine what charts it uses or comes with?


edited to add : Been looking at the standard horizon stuff, and it takes jeppeson c-map charts. They also have an emulator that you can run on your pc to enable you to effectively try it properly before committing, I like that. I'd never heard of standard horizon before now, but they kit looks good to me.
 
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Lowrance would be my default choice for a budget plotter. As well as the boat's main plotter next to the companionway, I wanted a small and simple second one at the helm for pilotage up unfamiliar harbours. I got a 4m and Navionics charts from JGTech - can't remember the price now but I'm fairly sure it was under £400 the lot.

I've just checked and they're now selling this plotter for £150 inc vat. Navionics Plus charts are £180, so £330 total. Assuming you're not going far in a small sportsboat, Navionics Gold Small might be a better bet (£120) even though the price-per-square-mile on those is obscene compared to the Plus.

You could also pay another £50 for the 4m HD, which I guess is the replacement model (and hence why the 4m is reduced). That gets you better resolution and maybe a faster processor etc.

These are pretty basic plotters, with some silly limitations (you can't display depth in metres and speed in knots at the same time!) but they draw a Navionics chart and put a little boat on it where you are, and that's all I was looking for.

Unless they've changed in the last 12 months, the Lowrance plotters are not usable without charts. The Standard Horizon plotters use C-Map.

Pete
 
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