handheld gps

[redbay11]

Hello
I was wondering what is the best handheld to get? i see alot of the garmin ones look like on land navigation. i guess they work at sea too. but is there a specific one that is best for the sea?
cheers

Cam

[jyasaki]

Depends on how much you want to spend, to a large degree.

I would say a mapping unit (one that displays a basemap, preferably an upgradeable basemap) would be nice.

Color helps you see the screen easily, assuming it's a sunlight readable display.

Larger displays are easier to read at a glance when bouncing around trying to miss obstacles or larger waves.

If all you need is something to get you to a waypoint, just about any of them will do.

jky

[BrAinZ]

If you want a mapping one, go for one of the colour ones.

Originally I had the GPSmap 76 black and white, which was good, but then went over to the colour version and it was loads clearer display.

I like garmin, you can do cool stuff like this with your tracks:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/8448363

I would be tempted by the new Oregan range, they look good for land and water.

[RichardB]

Agreed, the colour displays are without doubt worth it on a handheld device. I chose the Garmin 60Csx rather than the 76 series just because I found the ergonomics preferable (personal thing). Its a bit smaller (though screen is the same) and I like the buttons at the bottom. Same functionality when you use bluecharts. But it doesn't float! Pretty tough though as mine has had a lot of abuse

I haven't tried the latest touch screen / dial versions of the Garmin yet. Bigger screen would be good but I'm less sure about jabbing a small touch screen on a moving boat.

Although I have a fixed GPS plotter (Navtec) on the rib and pc based (Deckman) race systems on the yacht I navigate on, I still tend to use the handheld. On the rib, I use to collect tracks and as a backup. On the yacht, it's usually the primary on-deck tool when racing. The pc system only getting used for overall 'big-picture' planning.

When using a handheld, I'd recommend doing all your waypoint and route planning on the Garmin Mapsource software on the PC beforehand and downloading it. For this reason, I also buy the cd version of bluecharts and download onto the card on the device - I don't think the sd card versions of the charting is quite as flexible.

The thing to remember with a handheld is that you need to have the 'big picture' visualised in your head as it won't all fit onto the screen (at a reasonable / useful) resolution. Hence, the pre-planning helps here! If you can do this then they are amazingly powerful and versatile.

I'm going to have to try out that track playing stuff too...

Originally Posted by BrAinZ

If you want a mapping one, go for one of the colour ones.

Originally I had the GPSmap 76 black and white, which was good, but then went over to the colour version and it was loads clearer display.

I like garmin, you can do cool stuff like this with your tracks:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/8448363

I would be tempted by the new Oregan range, they look good for land and water.