Hand held plotters

How things work, what's hot and what's not
Post Reply
User avatar
Nick
Admiral of the Blue
Posts: 5927
Joined: Sun May 12, 2002 4:11 pm
Boat Type: Albin Vega 27 and Morgan Giles 30
Location: Oban. Scotland
Contact:

Hand held plotters

Post by Nick »

.
Is there any such thing as a usable reasonably priced hand held plotter with charts for the whole of the UK?
- Nick 8)

Image
Daveanmucker
Master Mariner
Posts: 115
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:11 am
Boat Type: victoria 30
Location: Lancashire

Post by Daveanmucker »

I looked at this last year before I eventually bought a plumbed in chartplotter. I wanted to see if I could get charts to install on my XDA orbit phone.

It certainly was possible and I believe that Maptech would have been the best bet, they also have the handhelds to take the charts.

However when it came down to it I got cold feet about the effectiveness of a hand held unit in terms of size of screen accuracy etc.
We can't change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust our sails.
User avatar
Rowana
Old Salt
Posts: 773
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2008 4:58 pm
Boat Type: Macwester Rowan 8 meter
Location: Aberdeenshire

Re: Hand held plotters

Post by Rowana »

Nick wrote:.
Is there any such thing as a usable reasonably priced hand held plotter with charts for the whole of the UK?
Thinking of doing a circumnavigation?

Why a hand held and not a fixed CP?

Just curious, thats all.

I'm afraid I'm a "paper & pencil" navigator, so I can't be much help. Sorry.
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE CRACKED,
FOR THEY ARE THE ONES WHO LET IN THE LIGHT
User avatar
Arghiro
Old Salt
Posts: 917
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:54 pm
Boat Type: Pentland Ketch
Location: Midlands

Post by Arghiro »

I have a garmin GPSMAP 76 which will accept Blu charts. BUT, the screen is very small (mine is b&w, but they do have colour now) and the battery life is pretty poor (say about 4-6 hours). I guess you could get a small Nimh accumulator pack (designed for cyclists or cavers) that would go on your belt and run it for a decent length of time - or just keeep turning it off.

I only carry a couple of charts on mine for my local area, but it's easy enough to upload fresh ones each day from a laptop as you progress. It does also take memory cards (IIRC) but I'm too tight to buy them and they are not any of the ones I already have.
Post Reply