Are all your eggs in one basket?

[Brian D]

Getting ready for a short cruise this weekend, I did some prep work on the boat. Most notably was just a general house cleaning figuratively and literally. As I sat and looked around, I noticed one key thing that gives me great comfort.

I have three GPS systems in my boat. A little redundant I know, but also a must have in my opinion. In the event of a systemic failure of the boats power grid, I can rest assure that I will know where I am at any given time. Here are the three systems.

1. Garmin GPS12 located at wheel and connected to Simrad WP32 autopilot. This GPS is for the autopilot only. It has no other function. The NMEA data navigates the boat to waypoints when I need it to do so. It has internal batteries but also connected to the ship's power grid.

2. Garmin GPS72 connected to the DSC VHF. This will allow position and distress reports as needed sending NMEA data to the radio. This GPS also has batteries and connected to the ship's power grid.

(Both Garmins, although different by design, have the same interface connector on the back and are therefore interchangeable at the wheel or radio.)

3. PC Chartplotter using GPS hockey puck and OpenCPN software. This gives me a graphical display of where I am in the event I do not know where I am.

Granted, all systems are connected to house power and if that fails, so does autopilot and radio. However, two of the systems can be used to find safe harbor if needed and the third (PC) can be shut down until time to use again. Also, since the PC has the charts (paper charts aboard by the way), geos can be obtained for safe harbor.

Again, rather redundant. I an not trying to pontificate about the virtues of having redundant systems, but it doesn't hurt either.

So my question to the general forum. When it comes to GPS systems on your boat, are all your eggs in one basket?

 

[Rick D]

Four, Brian

My original 25 year old Magellan, still on a 'test' loan from the company's founder and wasn't supposed to last through Y2K, a Garmin I brought as a back up, my old B&W Raymarine 520 plotter which is interfaced to the ST60 instruments and NEMA''d to the Furuno radar and my netbook with GPS bud, AIS and Open CPN. Plus paper charts in a chart book.

 

[Jackdaw]

My original 25 year old Magellan, still on a 'test' loan from the company's founder and wasn't supposed to last through Y2K, a Garmin I brought as a back up, my old B&W Raymarine 520 plotter which is interfaced to the ST60 instruments and NEMA''d to the Furuno radar and my netbook with GPS bud, AIS and Open CPN. Plus paper charts in a chart book.

Rick,

Thats a great story regarding the Magellan. I used to run product planning there. The issue was not strictly Y2K, but that the 'GPS week' counter in the GPS system is limited to count only between 0 and 1023. As the counter actually started in 1980, it rolled over (for the first time) in late 1999. Some devices factored this in, but not many. Frankly most had no idea what the devices WOULD do without a firmware update, and this was in the day where that was a rate function for consumer devices in the field.

 

[kloudie1]

Three, Claude L

Old Garmin 12 LX handheld, for backup. A Garmin 545 at the helm, and a puck on the laptop running Sea Clear.

 

[Paul F]

Three GPS s should get you through the weekend. Have known ocean racers that say they take six along - and, lol, use them up. How? that much redundancy is required is a mystery to me.

 

[MrBill_FLL]

during this year's Ft Lauderdale to Key race , we lost engine charging. (but didn't know it till too late). zero lights, zero power. about 11pm 1st night.

Thank God for the handheld GPS and VHF!

I'll always be taking a back up from now on...

 

[py26129]

We usually have two Garmin GPSmap 76s onboard with an Etrex unit hooked top a laptop running Open CPN and Garmin mapsource. At home I have 1 Garmin 38 and two Garmin 45s in reserve, all having been tested ont he laptop.

We usually take a bunch of batteries for the GPSs in case the on-board power fails. The hand held units do come in handy in the dinghy, at night.

No-one has ever ben punsished for a little redundancy.

Matt

 

[finding41]

I have a Lowrance (see the fishey/find your way thing) (LMS 350) I'm yet to figure out fully. A hand held Garmin and Open Cpn on the Android tablet with a gps puck and NOAH charts. Tablet is also the race plotter and start timer.
And a BlackBerry Torch 9860 clipped to my hip on land and clipped to the shelf INSIDE the cabin. (I've heard story's of Davey Jones Phones)

 

[Stu Jackson]

Wow, I have an old Magellan, too! Our base unit is a HH Garmin GPSMap76Cx, plus I've got laptop charting with BU-353 puck (rarely used but available).

I can still sail with paper and chartbook charts the "old way."

 

[zeehag]

i have all my eggs in one basket, at present---i am gonna save for backup handheld units, 2 of em, at some point...we still back to square 1 with some repairs that werent done so well, and some others that i need to effect so as to save a coach house.....nothing big, mind ye...lol..

this is such a wonderful lifestyle--enjoying my life.....happy sails.

 

[FourPoints]

So far I just go local cruising, mostly for weekends, sometimes for a few days longer.

-For positioning I have a Garmin 540S in the cockpit, paper charts below with (parallel rules and a set of dividers), and Navionics on Android phone.

-For VHF I have the Ships VHF off the main DC system, and a handheld iCOM radio.

-For propulsion I have an outboard with both manual and electric start, and sails (and a set of oars, and the dinghy motor).

-For floatation I have a fiberglass sailboat, and an inflatable dinghy

-For anchoring, I have a Fortress, and a backup anchor

-For cold beverages, I have the ice chest or cooler (drinks go in the cooler if food is in the ice chest), and the best damn beer "coozie" in the world, worth every penny.

-For companionship, I have a girlfriend, and... Does anyone think there is any chance of using this line of logic to get her to go along with the idea of adding some redundancy to the bedroom?

 

[zeehag]

oh yeah..i have paper but no sextant......

 

[Gary_H]

I use a Garmin 441S, backed up by a laptop and puck running OpenCPN, the Navionics App on my android smart phone, a chart book with tools and finally a plastic sextant that would work in a pinch (if only I knew how to use it).
" Besides, if we get lost, we pull in somewhere and ask directions." Capt Ron

 

[Jackdaw]

I've been in the GPS business way too long it seems.... I've started a museum..

 

[Stu Jackson]

I think Dutton's opined that having too many sources of navigational information could easily lead to confusion because the trust is lost in the subtly different readings!

 

[Jackdaw]

I think Dutton's opined that having too many sources of navigational information could easily lead to confusion because the trust is lost in the subtly different readings!

Indeed. As Mark Knoffler sings:

'Two men say they're Jesus... ONE of them must be wrong....'!

 

[py26129]

-For companionship, I have a girlfriend, and... Does anyone think there is any chance of using this line of logic to get her to go along with the idea of adding some redundancy to the bedroom?

Brian

Go ahead and try it and let us know how it goes. On my boat, I'd be made redundant before I would have finished the firstsentence.

Matt

 

[thinwater]

Back-up?

Eyes. Depth sounder. knot meter. Paper charts. Compass. Power goes out? sounding line, watch to time the passage of bubbles.

Coastalpiloting and dead reckoning. I learned long before GPS, I'm not too worried.

 

[Bill Roosa]

So i have a question for all you GPS affectionatios; How do you navigate on your secondary and tertiary GPS that does not have a map plotter function? Just knowing your lat-long does not do much if you don't also know all the lat-longs of the shoreline and thin spots.
As Paul F noted, racers take 6 GPSes because they break A LOT. I'm thinking that GPS is a great resource but you should have some other means (dead reckoning, pilotage, RDF, celestial...) of determining your position that does not count on the GPS sats being in the air and online.

 

[zeehag]

lol i also learned well before this electronically pseudo-magic era.