Which handheld GPS for racing?

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My_Owd_Transom

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Well I've lost my old eTrek and I'm looking for a new handheld GPS for the race season. I can't seem to find much info on the internet and wondered if any racers on here have any advice? It's for Solent racing on a mid 30' boat.

My eTrek was difficult to read, slow to input courses into and didn't show VMG.

So what's a good GPS and what should I be looking for as far as functions are concerned? So far the requirements are:

Ability to upload waypoints via USB (race marks)
VMG
Dist/brg to WPT
Time to go
Easy to use (i.e. quick to input a course)
Rugged/waterproof

I'm willing to spend around £200 for the right one. Any advice greatly appreciated!

Dave
 
garmin Montana - will give you charting as well for non laid courses and will allow download to the lappy for post mortems. Unfortunately a bit more than £200
 
I was given a garmin montana for Xmas. Much recommended good size touch screen, rugged case and battery is good for 5+ hrs without charge and easy back up to alkalines. Does everything in your spec and very intuitive to use.

Might need to look at a bigger budget but then yer pays yer money etc!:)

must type quicker!
 
My_Owd_Transom said:
Well I've lost my old eTrek and I'm looking for a new handheld GPS for the race season. I can't seem to find much info on the internet and wondered if any racers on here have any advice? It's for Solent racing on a mid 30' boat.

My eTrek was difficult to read, slow to input courses into and didn't show VMG.

So what's a good GPS and what should I be looking for as far as functions are concerned? So far the requirements are:

Ability to upload waypoints via USB (race marks)
VMG
Dist/brg to WPT
Time to go
Easy to use (i.e. quick to input a course)
Rugged/waterproof

I'm willing to spend around £200 for the right one. Any advice greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

If you don't care about cartography, and just want VMG and dist/brg to WPT, then a wrist-mounted Foretrex 401 does the job. Not easy to enter a full "5 mins to go, round-the-cans course", but you can download the full set of _Winning Tides_ marks. If you're good with a chinagraph pencil and a laminated race chart (for cross-check), then it might work for you.

It hugely depends on the boat, and roles on the boat - is this the only GPS onboard and what else will you be doing at the time? Do you have a dedicated nav guy to work out bearing-on-next-leg, or can you interpolate that?
 
It wouldn't be the only GPS onboard, we've got a fixed chartplotter at the chart table, it just doesn't relay to cockpit instruments. The Foretrex sounds good, can it display VMG dist/brg to waypoint and time to go on the same screen? I'd be doing tacnav and crew boss/problem solving when things go awry.

I'd download the solent marks database to it, would it be reasonably easy to ping a route of pre-loaded WPTs into it within the 5 minute countdown?
 
How strange. Everyone buys the **** about prices going down on new technology. You can buy a no frills handheld for around a hundred notes, but it'll still be slow and crappy, like they were ten years ago. Any other features and the price quadruples...

Rob.

P.S. automatic censoring! Bet your new handheld can't do that!
 
My_Owd_Transom said:
Thanks guys - GPS72H sounds like the general consensus then - does it do VMG? Can't see it on any of the screen shots.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can configure the data to be shown in the boxes on different screens. All the things you mention can be displayed. I don't normally insert routes but I would imagine you could route around several (already entered) waypoints within the 5 minutes, with practice.
 
My_Owd_Transom said:
Thanks guys - GPS72H sounds like the general consensus then - does it do VMG? Can't see it on any of the screen shots.
Click to expand...

The 72 definitely does VMG, there are two displays that are configurable with up to 6 data items so you can have VMG, bearing, track, SOG, distance to mark & ETA all on the same screen. What you sometimes have to force it to do is follow a course which has the same mark in twice. It'll tend to try and go straight to the second instance!
 
st599 said:
Our Garmin optimises the route automatically. Useless for racing.
Click to expand...

Clearly something to be aware of. I havent used my 72 for racing for a couple of years so memory may be hazy - I think that any deficiency in regard to trying to optimise a course can be worked around.

Once the course is in as a route, there is a screen that will show distance and bearing between marks - so you can make judgements about what sail changes may be necessary early. Once round the mark it may be necessary to use the GoTo function in the route screens if the device doesnt automatically switch to the next mark - only 3 or 4 key presses.

In the Solent there used to be about 3 popularily used notations for the available bouys. I used to find it useful to have lists ordered by each notation set in addition to a list ordered by name - so if your racing Cowes you can go straight from the symbol to waypoint without having to translate to bouy name - same with Spring & Winter series. Download the appropriate set into the 72 in addition to the named set - then you only have to worry about laid bouys :)

Edit: the caveat here is that many people remember bouy names (often by the name it was 20 years ago :)) and thier positions so its useful to be able to give that information
 
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