Knowing how computers crash, including PDAs, we back up The Cap'n on
the notebook with a Raymarine RL70CRC Plus chartplotter and keep our
paper charts running by using a Yeoman that I disassembled from its
foam portable laptop and stuck to the bottom of the mahogany chart
table lid on Lionheart, an Amel Sharki 41 ketch.

You guys ever see a Yeoman? I know where there's one for sale for
$150, real cheap!

http://www.yeomanuk.co.uk/prodmar/sport.htm

You can plug the cheapest GPS into its data input and it will put your
position dead on the spot on any nautical chart after a simple 3-point
calibration. It doesn't require any special charts at all. The
calibration scales the Yeoman to any size chart. After calibration,
when you move the puck around on the chart, its target lat/long is
displayed on the LCD. Press one button and you can make a waypoint or
a series of them to make a route, just like these little, hard-to-read
gadgets. Press another button and it goes from lat/long (x,y) to
azimuth and distance (polar). You can measure from your GPS position
to where the puck is by simply looking at the display....course and
distance.

Big difference is you have a permanent paper chart already plotted.
No copying is necessary. Yeoman accuracy is the width of your pencil
you put through the hole in the puck. Many commercial and military
interests across the planet use them. Works great!

On Lionheart, I have the Yeoman's output hooked to my network
multiplexer so you can create waypoints on the chart and it shows up
on the Raymarine chart plotter at the helm on the radar display and on
the Dell Latitude notebook's The Cap'n, wherever it is sitting because
I have it on a wireless LAN running virtual serial port drivers in
background. An RS-232 to Ethernet adapter ($149) feeds the boat's
intranet via a Netgear wireless router....(c;

We love our toys....



On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 12:26:13 GMT, (Rick
Morel) wrote:

On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 12:01:25 GMT, Shortwave Sportfishing
wrote:

Anybody have any experience with these little devices?

I'm speaking of the iPAQ series PDA/handheld computers and the Navman
GPS receiver with the Maptech charts.


On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 03:19:51 GMT, (Larry W4CSC) wrote:
Wow! That costs about the same as a Beneteau Bavaria....(c;

Almost :-) Seriously, I saved money. "Final Step" has a fixed mount
Garmin 162 mapping GPS. I wanted color. A 176C + memory card + what I
needed with Bluechart would have been $2,000. I already had the
Maptech charts I needed. Cost was $600 for the IPAQ - I think they're
down to about $400 now, and $300 for the Navman with Pocket Navigator.
I already had a couple 256M Flash Cards, but I think they're about
50-bucks.

Works out fine. The 162 has Waterways and Lights and talks to the
autopilot, the IPAQ right next to it has full color "regular" charts.

Rick



S/V Final Step
http://www.morelr.com/coronado/