Can anyone suggest a good nautical chart and a GPS unit. I am considering a
Lawrence ifinder H2O or a Garmin 76c although I am open to suggestions. I
need detailed charts for Canadian great lakes. As far as I can see the
Charts for the garmin(Blue charts) only show the east or west coast of
Canada. Nothing for the great lakes. Is this true ?

Thanks

On Sat, 7 May 2005 17:03:10 -0700, "JJ" wrote:

Can anyone suggest a good nautical chart and a GPS unit. I am considering a
Lawrence ifinder H2O or a Garmin 76c although I am open to suggestions. I
need detailed charts for Canadian great lakes. As far as I can see the
Charts for the garmin(Blue charts) only show the east or west coast of
Canada. Nothing for the great lakes. Is this true ?

Thanks

I don't know about Bluecharts, but Navionics covers the Great Lakes in
two XL3 type charts.

http://tinyurl.com/7byr2

As to handheld GPS, I am no fan of Garmin. Others swear by them, I
have had a couple of negative experiences with them - one was a real
dustup which left me with a very negative impression of the company.

I would suggest the Raymarine RC400 GPS chartplotter. I have one and
have both the Hot Maps for my region and the XL3 salt chart for my
area. The charts are very well set up and the RC400 is a great little
unit - very intuitive to operate.

I have played with the Lowrance iFINDER and found it lacking. The
pick up times for satellites were ok, but it tended to loose lock on a
fairly regular basis. I didn't like the screen size and it felt
awkward when using it walking down the street. The screen also looked
washed out in the sun - you could still see it, but it wasn't clear.

Admittedly there is a price difference between the RC400 and the
iFINDER, but you get a lot for the money difference. And by the time
you buy the software, a fixed mount for the GPS (which is mandatory in
a boat - trust me on that), it's only about $150 difference. You are
getting a lot of bang for the buck for that $150.

Good luck.

Later,

Tom

Will the Raymarine RC400 use the Navioinics maps ?

JJ

On Sat, 7 May 2005 17:55:51 -0700, "JJ" wrote:

Will the Raymarine RC400 use the Navioinics maps ?

Um...yes..

Later,

Tom

Hi Tom.
I checked out the Raymarine unit today. Yes it looks very impressive and is
well worth the extra $$
Thanks for the help. I think I may end up buying this unit

JJ

On Sun, 8 May 2005 11:32:12 -0700, "JJ" wrote:

Hi Tom.
I checked out the Raymarine unit today. Yes it looks very impressive and is
well worth the extra $$
Thanks for the help. I think I may end up buying this unit

It's a good one and I really like the Navionics maps.

Good luck.

Later,

Tom

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 8 May 2005 11:32:12 -0700, "JJ" wrote:

Hi Tom.
I checked out the Raymarine unit today. Yes it looks very impressive and
is
well worth the extra $$
Thanks for the help. I think I may end up buying this unit

It's a good one and I really like the Navionics maps.

Good luck.

Later,

Tom

Which brings up a related question. Different systems use different maps,
and it seems to me that the quality of the maps is a very important factor.
Where can you get information about this?



--
Peter Aitken

On Mon, 09 May 2005 00:30:33 GMT, "Peter Aitken"
wrote:

Which brings up a related question. Different systems use different maps,
and it seems to me that the quality of the maps is a very important factor.
Where can you get information about this?

========================================

Good question. Another factor to consider is compatability and vendor
"lock in". Although I'm generally happy with my Furuno CMAP unit, I
am unhappy that Furuno CMAP cartridges are incompatible with other
CMAP units. There is a similar isue with Garmin chart CDs. If you
pay to have a Garmin chart "unlocked" from the CD, it will only
function with the unit/serial # that you unlocked it for.

On Mon, 09 May 2005 00:30:33 GMT, "Peter Aitken"
wrote:

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 8 May 2005 11:32:12 -0700, "JJ" wrote:

Hi Tom.
I checked out the Raymarine unit today. Yes it looks very impressive and
is
well worth the extra $$
Thanks for the help. I think I may end up buying this unit

It's a good one and I really like the Navionics maps.

Good luck.

Which brings up a related question. Different systems use different maps,
and it seems to me that the quality of the maps is a very important factor.
Where can you get information about this?

They are all digital copies of the "official" NOAA certified charts.
The only company that makes "official" charts is Maptech and they are
limited in their usage to PC based GPS units.

http://www.maptech.com/index.cfm

Navionics actually makes the digital format maps for Garmin's
proprietary format along with Si-tex, Northstar, Furuno and a couple
of other high end GPS/Charting systems. They also do a private label
chart for a European company that I can't think of.

All electronic charts from all manufacturers are updated twice a year
except for Maptech which is much quicker only because they are the
"official" data supplier.

To keep up with chart changes, you need to obtain your local Notice to
Mariners which the USCG puts out in several formats including email
notices. If you are traveling, you need to do this anyway. The
charts are only as accurate as their last update. This is also true
for paper charts.

As to Navionics format, I believe SD, MMC and CF (Type I and II) and
the mini-card whose name escapes me at the moment.

http://www.navionics.com/

http://www.navionics.com/GoldCharts.asp

I can take my CF format charts for the RC400 and put it into a
Globalmap XXXX and it will work fine. So if the unit will take CF
format, the charts will work.

Does that help?

Later,

Tom

On Mon, 09 May 2005 00:44:47 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Mon, 09 May 2005 00:30:33 GMT, "Peter Aitken"
wrote:

Which brings up a related question. Different systems use different maps,
and it seems to me that the quality of the maps is a very important factor.
Where can you get information about this?

========================================

Good question. Another factor to consider is compatability and vendor
"lock in". Although I'm generally happy with my Furuno CMAP unit, I
am unhappy that Furuno CMAP cartridges are incompatible with other
CMAP units. There is a similar isue with Garmin chart CDs. If you
pay to have a Garmin chart "unlocked" from the CD, it will only
function with the unit/serial # that you unlocked it for.

What format is the data in?

Later,

Tom