Damn, I don't understand why I never ran up on rocks or a shoal all the years I've boated before gps was even in place. I remember when they very first came out. The cheapest you could buy was $15,000, and they didn't have nearly as many sattelites up back then.

I did have Loran C afer a few years, but I only used it to find a fishing hole way offshore. I would not rely on one completely for navigation. Gps units are an electronic device, that can, and do break down. I never had a compass or a chart break down on me.

I'm not trying to discredit use of a gps, as I said, I carry a handheld, I'm just saying in MY opinion, they are butt ugly mounted in a dash. It's just a matter of opinion. Your mileage may vary.

Oh, I forgot.....A little dash clutter (GPS/ Chartplotter) can save a $2500 set of props or a $$$$$ drive....Not a bad thing either!

Dave

Now cuda...and anybody else

I navigated all over the rock-laden St. Lawrence River and explored Eastern Lake Ontario for more than a decade and went alot of places/distance with nothing more that paper charts, a depthfinder, a compass, and the sense it takes to correlate the 3. BTW I am regularly many miles from shore out in the Lake.

The River is flat out treacherous in alot of places, the eastern end of Lake Ontario is one nasty place to be when the wind is blowing, and the water here is COLD and not survivable for long 8-9 months a year.

with that said, if I'm gonna get spoiled/lazy (as we all are) by electronic navigation means, I wanna be able to read it easily WHEN I NEED IT which is usually under duress/nasty conditions, as I know the area pretty well.

Now not having to use it YOURSELF while OPERATING THE BOAT in bad conditions is a great thing and allows you to get away with a handheld.
you gotta have confidence that your "navigator" sees things on that little screen for what they really are. Deb's got it down... .

I often have "novices" (in regards to navigating anyway ) as first mates, or am alone, which I take 200 mile weekend trips alone when I want to "get away from it all"

so if I'm going to have one, a GPS plotter that is , It's only worth having one I can read and use while running the boat in ANY conditions. That's a larger fixed screen, right in my line-of-sight.

Is it me or is Cuda taking this one on the chin? No one has sided with him yet.

Hmmm...

I especially like to use my plotter WITH my Bimni up!

Just pickin on ya Cuda...We all know of your opinions! And most of them ain't half bad!

Dave

don't panic Joe, livin' aboard a SeaRay while his 353 was out for more surgery f'ed with his mind.

Nah, it doesn't bother me at all. Some people like red, others blue. I've always thought they looked bad, I just never said anything.

In nasty conditions, I'm not running very fast anyway. Now that we moved her, I'm either running up the St John's River, or the ICW, both of which have maintained channel markers. I do have to use Debbie's eyes to spot channel markers far away. I'm damn near blind as a bat.

Cuda.....you have to leave the friggin harbor! No wonder you dont' use it! Speed? Who cares! It's a NAVIGATION device!

What are you crazy? Do you boat in the ocean?

I like a clean dash myself. Handheld Garmin that the first mate monitors all the time. Left the compass in also. Works well for me.