Inexpensive GPS for sailing?

[dlandersson]

I'm looking for inexpenisive yet effective GPS suggestions for sailing (if you can call it that) on lake michigan.

[Ixneigh]

I am quite happy with the one of the latest hand held garmin gps units. It fits on the binnacle easily and was 250 dollars with a chart of my area. For 100 less you could get one without the little chart plotter thing. That feature is cute but only somewhat useful because the screen is on the small side. West marine probably has them on their website.

Ixneigh

[Divecoz]

Please define Inexpensive $$
IMHO.... and after BTDT...."BUT WITH A GPS" your cell phone or any cheap hand held should do the trick..
Till you get well beyond the 10 mile point the shoreline is most often VERY.... visible.. Land Marks are often easily spotted for reference points.. I used my GPS a lot, but more for fun and to know how fasttttttt we were not going.... than actual navigational knowledge.. If , say, your heading to another marina for a meet up? Its nice to know exactly where you are.. where the channel / entrance point is .. Maybe some of the need , depends on where your sailing out of.. Lake Michigan is a huge lake.. We sailed out of North Point Marina. Most often we literally ...sailed in THAT direction for awhile and then to over there... in that direction for a while.. and at the end of the day? Which way is home? I bet if we head in the same direction as ALL those boats we'll be real close..
Unless your a somewhat accomplished sailor? Taking this or any sailboat out for a 4 to 6 hour sail.. you'll be dang proud of your self if you manage to average 5 knots ... dang proud! That will seldom put you out of sight of landmarks you should have, made of point of, recognizing..
Now allow me to ask? Do you have a good quality , good sized, mounted Compass?
Do you honestly need to know the depths? Probably not. Ask in the marina about the entrance exit and if while sailing you can toss a baseball and get it anywhere near shore your toooo close..

[pokerrick1]

When I bought my 2006 M for XMAS 2005, I bought a Garmin Hand Held at Best Buy for right around $100. It worked both on batteries and on DC and I had plenty of DC plugs around the boat; one on the pedastal. Because one could enter and keep waypoints on it - - - it was adequate, and I got by with it, including making trips to Catalina. I'm sure they make better just as cheap now!

Rick

[DaveB]

E-Trex Garmin. Gives you Lat/Long and speed for $79. (also waypoints)
All good Mariners should have current paper Charts for Navigation. All one needs is Lat/Long for acurate positioning.
The rest of the toys is a plus.
I only have the basic E-trex with backup. Much better than me doing the tables of Celetial Navigation with a Sextant I have use to travel back in the early 80's.
Maybe dead reconing is still a safe guard, incase all else fails.
Dave

I'm looking for inexpenisive yet effective GPS suggestions for sailing (if you can call it that) on lake michigan.

[pokerrick1]

Maybe dead reconing is still a safe guard, incase all else fails.

I don't like any navigational system that includes the word "dead"

Rick

[DaveB]

Old School, you will need it if your elect. system gets hit with lighting or you elect. system fails.
Be safe than sorry and learn how to navigate thru Dead reckoning.
Dutton's Navigation & Piloting or American Pratical Navigator (By BOWDITCH) and even Chapman.
Dave

Maybe dead reconing is still a safe guard, incase all else fails.

I don't like any navigational system that includes the word "dead"

Rick

[mastreb]

iNavX app on your existing iPhone or iPad 3G. $50. Free downloads of all NOAA charts including your area, built-in compass and GPS, waypoints--pretty much everything a real chartplotter does except interface with instruments, and you can clip it into a number of binnacle mount holders. Make it waterproof with a ziplock snackbag for an extra $0.02. Works like a charm and it's a great excuse to get an iPhone if you haven't already.

Matt

[ronacarme]

Cheapy Garmin Etrex has worked well for 8 or so years on Lake Michigan......it sucks up AA batteries fast but I utilize the depleted AAs in my homebrewed LED flashlights for grandkids and wives of friends, so not a enuf of loss to make me plug the Etrex into the boat's house battery.
Ron

[David Mellon]

While I have a 383c, I imagine the "Humminbird 161 Combo 4-Inch Waterproof Marine GPS and Chartplotter" would be about the same. It has built in charts for inland and coastal waters, speed, fish finder, water temp, and disconnects for stowage. It is a bit pricier at around $250 on Amazon right now but I have had 5 years of solid service from mine. I find it very easy to program and easy to read in all light conditions. It also turns so I can see it from the high side. You can see my traditional cutting board platform in this shot!

[hart]

It really does depend on how you define "inexpensive." For under $500 you can put a Garmin 441 or 431 (inland lakes version - not sure which has the great lakes) on your pedestal. There are a couple lowrance and hummingbird products that are less than that.

And as others have said a handheld is a viable option too. I still carry my old black and white handheld GPS. It gives me speed, bearing, and position and that's about it. You could add a 12v outlet to your pedestal and plug it in so you aren't draining the batteries all the time.

[Gone2long]

Pardon this naive question,

But aquaintances of mine have mentioned a laptop program/system which enables you to connect a GPS to your machine. The systen provides downloadable charts, It lets you know where you are, and you can use your mouse to plot and save your exact position at any moment, on a defined tack or passage. Then, just like editing a Word file, you can reboot the file, figure your current position, and mark it on the chart for reference at your next "noonsite".

I already own a laptop, and I usually need to keep it close at hand, wherever I am, for work purposes. After all, whoever heard of a weekend off these days? : {

In any case, I'm still a novice at all this, so if anybody can add a price, name, and a bit of detail to the sketchy outline above, I would certainly appreciate it.

Regards to all,

G2L

[Ixneigh]

I have the navionics iphone app and it works great. However in bad weather i really dont want my phone or laptop outside. And thats when we will really need the gps. When its pouring, the boats on her side and you only have a hazy idea where your going. Or after dark. Plus the laptop dont fit on the pedestal

[c130king]

G2L,

If you click on "Advanced Search" in the upper right corner it will open a search window. Try the word "Laptop" then scroll down a little bit and click on the option to display as "topics" and then click "search" or "submit" (can't remember which it is).

you will get a list of threads that somewhere in that thread is the word "laptop". But normally by the title of the topic/thread you can figure out which ones are of help to you and which ones are on a different subject.

This issue has been discussed before so see what you can find.

Good luck.

And to the original question of cheap GPS...another issue to consider...not sure how much of an issue this is in the Great Lakes...but with a chart plotter you will see depth information, where the shoals are, etc... This is one of the big "needs" for me. Speed is very important but I can get that from my cheap hand held GPS (no maps)...but I want to see the charts at the helm with my position indicated with an awareness of where the channels are and where the shallows are.

And I don't think if you are just out day-sailing (not going anywhere in particular) you can easily/conveniently use a paper chart and manually plot your position and figure out heading/speed etc... and maintain good awareness of where you are. You can do this for passage planning but not so easy for day-sailing IMHO.

That is why a chartplotter is good to have. But they are more expensive...but worth it to me.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Jim
Sailing on König Website
Sailing on König YouTube Channel

[Hamin' X]

Pardon this naive question,

But aquaintances of mine have mentioned a laptop program/system which enables you to connect a GPS to your machine. The systen provides downloadable charts, It lets you know where you are, and you can use your mouse to plot and save your exact position at any moment, on a defined tack or passage. Then, just like editing a Word file, you can reboot the file, figure your current position, and mark it on the chart for reference at your next "noonsite".

Like Jim said, there has been much discussion about this. To help you narrow your search though, use the terms polarview and seaclear. These are the two programs that best represent what you want.

SeaClear is free, but has a steep learning curve, poor documentation, no customer support, no future development and is somewhat limited. PolarView costs $20 for one computer and $50 for five computer, lifetime licensing. It is a current program, with future promise and is almost plug-n-play. Also, it can use vector charts, which are available free in the US and have more info than the raster charts used by SeaClear. Updates are free.

GPS for a laptop is easy. I use a Canmore GT-730F USB dongle (about $30). It works great inside the cabin, plugged directly into my netbook.

My next project is to acquire a DoubleSight DS-90UT USB powered remote touchscreen ($175). Both PolarView and SeaClear are touchscreen capable programs.

~Rich