I own 600 paper charts and several sextants; I learned to navigate
racing in the dense fog in Maine with compass and stopwatch. I
wouldn't be without a GPS (actually, two different ones, for
redundancy).

We took two Garmin 45s (and an older Trimble) around the world. The
45 was a small handheld that had connections for external power, data,
and antenna and it sat on the chart table, connected by its cord
(actually two cords, antenna and power/data, in a common sheath) ready
to use.

I still prefer a handheld to a fixed unit. This is probably the
bifocal effect -- I find it easier to use a unit that I don't have to
peer carefully at it across the chart table.

I use a Garmin 12 now and like it, but it's no longer available.

It looks like the Garmin etrex will do the job. At the low end, look
at two things -- will it take an external power supply (I've never
gotten the battery life claimed by Garmin for AAs) and, if you race,
will it allow you to set a waypoint as a range and bearing from
another waypoint (weather mark is 2.0 miles at 350 degrees from the
start)? The very cheapest may not have either of these -- I once
bought a cheap Magellen for racing and found that it wouldn't do the
job.

The modern antennas will mostly work down below, but you'll want to
try that.

I don't think you'll be happy with any of the mapping or other higher
functions you can spend money on -- I would never trust myself with
such a data base -- far safer to actually lay off the course,
including range and bearings, on the chart and then enter the
waypoints -- if the range and bearing you've done on the chart don't
match the ones calculated in the GPS, you've made a mistake. And,
perhaps more important, this forces you to actually look at the chart,
and, when you draw the course lines, actually consider the possible
dangers along the way.

Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com

(Parallax) wrote in message . com...
Being a psuedo-Luddite who still has a slide rule (and knows how to
use it), I still use paper charts and think that navigation and
position plotting is aesthetically pretty, but I also admit to being a
geometry/trig geek. For the last 13 yrs, I have had a Loran that I
sometimes trust when it agrees with my plotting. I used to rely on a
"knotstik" to get my speed and then when I got the loran started using
its stated speed. Far from any recognizable markers or shore
features, I reluctantly rely on a Loran position but check it with
dead reckoning. I spose I just have a fetish about my hand compass.
I am planning to go to he Bahamas where Loran supposedly dont work so
am considering GPS but will still use my beloved paper charts so dont
need a chart plotter. All I really want is position and speed.
Waypoints just get me screwed up because I can never remember if I
really entered the correct coords last night or if those coords for
WP5 is for my last trip. Considering that my wants are few, which GPS
would be best? Do I get one that works off of the boat 12V? Do the
hand helds have that option as well as batteries? Most of the hand
helds look too much like my cell phone that I purposefully leave at
home. I have even been tempted to forego GPS completely but I spose
it is a safety thing. Any ideas?