MarkyR
regular
Reged: 05/12/2005
Posts: 21
Loc: Cornwall
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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
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Teredo
regular
Reged: 10/04/2006
Posts: 526
Loc: Kingdom of Northumbria
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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.
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Blow wind, rise storm,
Ship ashore before dawn.
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RestlessL
regular
Reged: 06/04/2007
Posts: 356
Loc: Solent
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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
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SecondAffaire
regular
Reged: 03/11/2005
Posts: 287
Loc: Oxford,UK.
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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.
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CAPTAIN_FANTASTIC
regular
Reged: 04/03/2007
Posts: 166
Loc: Wales
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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.
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Captain Fantastic
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Robin2
regular
Reged: 20/12/2001
Posts: 639
Loc: Malahide, Ireland
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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.
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Orange
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wotayottie
regular
Reged: 01/07/2007
Posts: 1892
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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.
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BrendanS
regular
Reged: 11/06/2002
Posts: 37037
Loc: Me: Wilts. Boat: Lymington
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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.
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See http://www.frappr.com/ybw to add yourself to the forum map
and as everyone else is doing it
www.plaintalkconsulting.co.uk
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