Excellent summary Chuck. Don, if you have access to Practical Sailor
there is an excellent comparison and description of GPS units in the
November 2006 issue. September 2006 has a very useful article on
navigation software for your computer. PS works like Consumer
Reports, there are no adds and the magazine is independent of
external influences.

Phil
Adoxographi
Baba30

>On Nov 27, 2006, at 23:50, Don Van Valkenburg wrote:
>
>>I'm thinking of asking Santa for a GPS, but there are lots out
>>there to choose from, and my santa isn't rich, so any suggestions?
>>I see some out there for under $500. What features should I look for?
>>Don
>
>Don,
>
> I see you like opening cans of worms! Asking "what GPS should
>I buy" is a bit like asking "what boat should I buy?". Bottom line:
>all boats float, all GPS units will tell you where you are within a
>few meters. The devil is in the details.
>
> Some considerations: will you be using the GPS just to get
>your location, and then using traditional paper charts for
>everything else? If so, a $100 unit will work just fine, give you
>accurate lat/long without the hassle of a sextant, and you're all
>set. With this option, you might consider getting 2, using one, and
>keeping one with lots of extra batteries in a waterproof bag as a
>backup in case the first one goes swimming. Most of the basic units
>will also allow you to enter waypoints and plot a course to them,
>have an emergency crew overboard marker, etc.
>
> If you want to display your position on an electronic chart,
>then the options multiply rapidly. There are lots of units with
>built-in chartplotters, generally the larger the display, the more
>the cost, and units that can be seen outside in bright sunlight are
>even more expensive. Most of these have a crude base chart of the
>world built in, but allow more detailed local charts to be added,
>either by downloading from a computer or via plug-in cards. Again,
>the money can multiply as rapidly as the options. Add even more
>money and you can also display radar, depthsounder, and probably
>even the Simpsons on the same screen at once. I'm not sure why you
>would want to, but you could...
>
> If you have a laptop computer on board, (or even a non-laptop
>- I'm told they still exist...) then there are even more options.
>The computer already has a large (by GPS standards) screen, and if
>your GPS can communicate with the computer (check the type of
>connection necessary - serial? USB?) then with the addition of
>charting software you can have a very nice display of your position
>and all sorts of plotting options. There are several software
>packages available, I'm not familiar enough with them to discuss
>their various merits, but Fugawi sells a basic package for about
>$100 (at least when I bought it a few years ago) that does all I've
>ever needed it to do.
>
> For what it's worth, I've sailed thousands of ocean miles on
>several vessels ranging from 30' to a 200' three-masted clipper, and
>in all cases used a simple GPS providing lat/long, and then plotted
>the location regularly on plain old paper charts. If all the
>batteries go dead (or something happens to the satellites), the
>paper charts still show you where you were at the last fix, and you
>can dust off the old sextant and keep right on sailing.
>
>Happy holidays and happy sailing!
>
>Chuck Yingling
>Hinayana, Baba 30
>Sausalito (but currently in Paris, France...)
>
>
>
>
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Received on Thu Nov 30 05:23:44 2006