Guy wrote:
I searched the archives and found a few similar articles,
but nothing in the last few years. Sorry if I missed
something and am asking about a too frequent thread, but
flame on if you must. Also, I am not planning on using a
hand held GPS instead of charts. I always carry my own
charts, as you can always depend on the charter company to
have them. That said. . .

I used to be on the water all the time, inland and offshore,
and have quite a bit of experience in navigation coastal and
open water between islands. For the past 10 years I have
been boat free (boatless ?), but have chartered every year
or two in the BVI and Florida (crossing Florida bay and
heading to DT). I have always been happy with the equipment
on the boats, but now would like to have something to save
routes and bring home to load into charting S/W so I can
remember where we went (okay, senior moment).

I am at the point where I need reading glasses to read my
watch (sigh) so I need to play with units in a store to see
how readable they are for me. Other than that, the features
I would like to have other than basic navigation to
waypoints a
- route tracking to store where we sailed
- Man Overboard button (or similar instant WP function)
- Anchor alarm
- and it would be nice if it had tidal information (a
feature some of the newer ones have that seems like a nice
thing to have, if anyone can provide feedback on it I would
appreciate)

Based on that, I am interested in the groups experience with
the current crop of handheld GPS offerings and what
features were great and which disappointed. I would love to
hear your raves about how happy you are with brand X, but
please let's not get into cartoon characters urinating on a
brand because Chevy is better than Ford, is better than
Dodge, is better than ...

Again, sorry if I missed a recent posting about this.
Thanks in advance for all your input.

Guy

Problem is, we all like the GPS we bought, so to get an objective opinion is
well-nigh impossible, since we don't usually have the opportunity to
extensively try out other makes.

My Garmin GPSMAP 60C is a cracker, FWIW!

You might get more objective view having a browse thru
http://www.maps-gps-info.com/gp.html, or http://www.gpsinformation.net/

Dennis.