Gps

[triton]

G,day folks I'm a newbie so be patient

I have a Triton 24 designed by John Alsop in the 60s(former Qantas pilot) anyway as she is only 25' long I don't really have a dedicated Nav station. I've looked at the small chartplotters. There okay but to be honest the screen is a bit small for me and I can't afford a bigger model. I'm looking at running a hand held GPS and using paper charts as well as traditional nav tools. With my current boat I will be keeping my cruising to coastal and would appreciate any info or comments. I've been looking at the Garmin 60 or Garmin 76. Again any help appreciated.

Triton

[Auzzee]

Hi Triton, welcome to the forum. Your plan is absolutely sound. I have a chartplotter, but I still use my older Garmin 128 and transfer position data from it to paper. If you want to really save dollars, buy a 12v adaptor (assuming you have 12v power onboard) and look for the super specials from the bigger chandleries. You can pick up a really cheap, new GPS which will give you lat/long and allow you to enter waypoints so that it can then calculate speed over ground, distance made good etc. The most important thing is to have a hard surface (maybe your saloon table) where you can rest your folded chart for the efficient and accurate transfer of data from your GPS.

Cheers

David.

[Nausikaa]

Hi Triton,

I too would like to welcome you to the forum.

The advice David gave you, in line with your own thoughts, is perfectly true and sound. Beware however that most mistakes in navigation were made when plotting a position on a chart. Nowadays chart plotters have made the making of such mistakes a rare occurance. Just be careful when plotting!

FYI I have used a GARMIN 72 for quite a long time and never had the slightest problem with it. It is run from the boat's 12v system and connected to a laptop (running Navmaster and Admiralty charts). The set up has worked perfectly but I am now considering buying a plotter. The new Garmin stuff looks very good.

Aye

Stephen

Yacht NAUSIKAA

[triton]

Thanks very much for the welcome guys. I think I will stay with the GPS and paper charts for the time being.

By the way its a great website.

[MMNETSEA]

Consider buying one least expensive additional GPS which can operate off your 12v house batteries as a backup - used in good nic, OK - keep in airtight container .

Richard