Hi, excuse my english. My husband and I own a Columbia 36, we are interest in buying our first chartplotter. For the moment we are weekenders or two weeks vacation sailors. Our "playground" is the Caribbean Sea. I was thinking about the Raymarine RC400 and a Navionic Chart. Since we dont have any previous experience with this equipment, I am asking for recommendations from the real experts. Thanks
Buying a chartplotter
- Thread starter Ana
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Garmin 276C
I would strongly suggest the Garmin 276c for many reasons that you can read in other threads on this site. This unit can easily be removed to protect it from being stolen. For the Caribbean you will probably need to buy two regions depending of how far you will be sailing. See attached link for coverage. Lee
I would strongly suggest the Garmin 276c for many reasons that you can read in other threads on this site. This unit can easily be removed to protect it from being stolen. For the Caribbean you will probably need to buy two regions depending of how far you will be sailing. See attached link for coverage. Lee
Garmin
Go with the Garmin. I have a friend who has a new Ray marine on his boat. After checking out the capability of my Garmin and blue chart he has gone out and bought a Garmin. With the blue charts and a laptop the world is your oyster.
Go with the Garmin. I have a friend who has a new Ray marine on his boat. After checking out the capability of my Garmin and blue chart he has gone out and bought a Garmin. With the blue charts and a laptop the world is your oyster.
Good advice from the others...
Last winter I delivered a boat to Jamaica from Miami via the Bahamas. We had a brand new Furuno navnet system which uses the CMap NT chips, and a Garmin as backup. The Garmin was exactly on target for the whole trip. The Furuno/CMap NT showed us cruising right through the middle of some islands. I recommend going with the Garmin/Bluechart.
Last winter I delivered a boat to Jamaica from Miami via the Bahamas. We had a brand new Furuno navnet system which uses the CMap NT chips, and a Garmin as backup. The Garmin was exactly on target for the whole trip. The Furuno/CMap NT showed us cruising right through the middle of some islands. I recommend going with the Garmin/Bluechart.
Ana...
your English is great!!! Garmin is very hard to beat, excellent product. Beautiful cruising area you have at your doorstep.
your English is great!!! Garmin is very hard to beat, excellent product. Beautiful cruising area you have at your doorstep.
just love my Garmin 172C!
Like you, my wife and I are weekend sailors that take a few overnight trips per year...the 172C is relatively inexpensive, is NMEA compatable (so it can talk to all of my Raymarine electronics), and runs on Blue Charts. Got it from Dave's Electronics for a really great price. Good luck in Puerto Rico!
Like you, my wife and I are weekend sailors that take a few overnight trips per year...the 172C is relatively inexpensive, is NMEA compatable (so it can talk to all of my Raymarine electronics), and runs on Blue Charts. Got it from Dave's Electronics for a really great price. Good luck in Puerto Rico!
Get the biggest screen you can
When it comes to cahrt plotters, I'm of the opinion that you should get the biggest screen that you can afford and is practical for your application. I really like the Garmin units and thin kthey offer the best value. I looked at the 276C and thought it was too small to see the screen when pitching about. With that in mind, I recently got a Garmin 192C with an internal antenna. This is the successor to the 182C with a has slightly different keypad, a much brighter sun-light viewable screen, and a built-in bluechart basemap. So far I am very, very happy with it. The 198C adds a fishfinder. I think with a 36 foot boat you could mount it to your pedistal. The bracket isn't quite as convenient as a 276C, but I do take mine off after each use and it is very easy. Two minor niggles are that the standard bracket does not allow it to swivel side-to-side (like the 276C or a 172C), and you have to buy a power/data cable to run it at home with a PC - no battery power. The features are extensive, fairly intuitive to use, flexible and very customizable. The screen is very bright, crisp, and visible in all lighting. I can flip between different pages and functions very quickly almost without having to look. The map display even has a "night mode" with a different color scheme to help preserve night vision - it works. It has been very accurate and usually locks onto 6 or 7 satellites. After a minute or two of warm-up, my accuracy is tyically 15-25 feet. When you are ready to buy, check out www.gpsdiscount.com. I found then had the best prices. Good luck! Brad
When it comes to cahrt plotters, I'm of the opinion that you should get the biggest screen that you can afford and is practical for your application. I really like the Garmin units and thin kthey offer the best value. I looked at the 276C and thought it was too small to see the screen when pitching about. With that in mind, I recently got a Garmin 192C with an internal antenna. This is the successor to the 182C with a has slightly different keypad, a much brighter sun-light viewable screen, and a built-in bluechart basemap. So far I am very, very happy with it. The 198C adds a fishfinder. I think with a 36 foot boat you could mount it to your pedistal. The bracket isn't quite as convenient as a 276C, but I do take mine off after each use and it is very easy. Two minor niggles are that the standard bracket does not allow it to swivel side-to-side (like the 276C or a 172C), and you have to buy a power/data cable to run it at home with a PC - no battery power. The features are extensive, fairly intuitive to use, flexible and very customizable. The screen is very bright, crisp, and visible in all lighting. I can flip between different pages and functions very quickly almost without having to look. The map display even has a "night mode" with a different color scheme to help preserve night vision - it works. It has been very accurate and usually locks onto 6 or 7 satellites. After a minute or two of warm-up, my accuracy is tyically 15-25 feet. When you are ready to buy, check out www.gpsdiscount.com. I found then had the best prices. Good luck! Brad
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