Jet ski lost!! 100% waterproof handheld gPS

mike · 04 May 2005, 12:50

Hi everybody, just a note re equipment etc carried by the sub culture called jet skiers.

While at the Thames forts on Saturday I was pleased to see that one chap had managed to snap the cord that ties the ski 300 yds from the beach.

what amazed me was that he was lost and had followed me for 2 miles before
realising I was going out further and further. He stopped near us while we discussed the forts and asked which way to the land!!
Being a nice friendly chap I told him to use the forts ,sheppy and the windfarm as landmarks etc but must admit I was surprised that this chap had actually taken the trouble to get a gps which was submersible. Sadly he had incorrectly assumed that out of the box it would work

I have a garmin and it got me thinking, does anyone else carry a completely submersible job and if so can I have some feed back as ours is needing replacement.

Nick Hearne · 04 May 2005, 13:10

Hi I have the Magellan Map 330 which is said to be water proof but have not put it to the test!
Great Little bit of kit & with the additional maps of your cruising area loaded it gives you a very good detailed map of the coast! But no chart detail!
Great bit of kit for not a lot of money.
Nick

Simon B · 04 May 2005, 13:13

Garmin GPS 72 waterproof and floats, its kind if becoming the standard issue for our club similarly the GPS 76 and variants.

Powerboat · 04 May 2005, 16:27

I have a Garmin 76 which I use as a personal and back up GPS. I normally carry it in the leg pocket of the Ravenspring.

Very pleased with my 76 !! But !!

Last year, while running a Military Sea Survival Ex I was floating round for about an hour in the dark and briney waiting for a search team to find me.

The brand new 76 on its first active outing was in my leg pocket.

When checking and packing away my kit later, I went to remove the batteries from the Garmin 76 to discover the battery compartment full of water !

In fairness, Garmin through their vendor sent me a spanking new unit a week later without any quibble.

I am absolutely sure that it was sealed correctly by myself prior to use.

I haven't had to jump in since receiving the new one ( Promotion means that I now have chaps to do that for me !!!

) so fingers crossed.

Not even sure what the moral of this story is myself?

Test your Garmin in the water before you have to rely on it in anger........... is probably the cautious if slightly harsh verdict on a normally excellent product and company.

Best wishes,

Stuart

Scotty · 04 May 2005, 17:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Powerboat

Last year, while running a Military Sea Survival Ex I was floating round for about an hour in the dark and briney waiting for a search team to find me.

An hour for them to find you ! Rangers or boy scouts ?

ERU = Every Round Used

Erin · 04 May 2005, 18:53

I agree that the Garmin 76 is an excellent unit and I also think the battery cover may be a weak point in the waterproofing. However, the fact that it floats as well, is just as important as being submersible. No point having a waterproof unit if you drop it and it sinks straight to the bottom in the Hurd Deep!

Keith

Powerboat · 04 May 2005, 19:00

Slagging apart,

The shout was only raised ashore when I was first reported as " Lost" ...Think about all the delays in a real scenario as opposed to a rescue on Lough ree today when one of our boats witnessed a capsize of a Hire Boat dinghy 100 m from shore and had rescued the kid from the water in minutes...

A realistic scenario ............Out at sea.......... Your original crew spend 5 mins looking for you before declaring a May Day, it takes x mins for MRCC to contact a life boat / heli. It takes x mins for rescue resources to arrive on scene. It takes x mins to find casualty.

An hour can be quite realistic if you are 10 miles or more off of the West Coast.

At the Exercise debrief we gave several versions of the incident, from the original crew, the command and control centre, the rescuers and of course the "victim", myself.

Every thing was of course treble safety'd with over the horizon Ex Control resources who already had comms and cas- fix should the event turn " No Duff!!"

A Useful Ex !!

Best wishes,

Stuart

jyasaki · 04 May 2005, 21:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Powerboat

I have a Garmin 76 which I use as a personal and back up GPS. I normally carry it in the leg pocket of the Ravenspring.

Last year, while running a Military Sea Survival Ex I was floating round for about an hour in the dark and briney waiting for a search team to find me.

Note that the Garmin handhelds are waterproof to IPX7 standards, which is means a static immersion to 1 meter for 30 minutes.

If the unit was in your thigh pocket, it was probably about a meter deep (possibly more), and certainly not static, so you kind of ran it beyond the ratings. Might want to get one of the cheap waterproof bags for it. That would probably help quite a bit.

Good that they took care of it, though.

I use my GPSmap76 in my SIB, and it gets dunked in the dive rinse tank to get the salt off of it afterwards. It, too has gone back to Garmin (display failure), came back, failed again, and was replaced by a new unit.

jky

Tube Bouncer · 05 May 2005, 09:23

The GPS 72/76 range are all IPX7 rated, but I have read somewhere that if the battery compartment does flood the main electronics are sealed seperatley. You may need to change the batteries and flush the battery compartment with fresh water, but the unit should be fine, assuming water hasnt got in around the buttons!

Mike B · 05 May 2005, 12:40

Garmin etrex legend for me. (the blue one)

No problems after approx 3 yrs use, various dunkings when used with the kayak and regularly rained on and shaken to buggery when on the mountain bike. Back up on the RIB.

Small and easy to use and reasonably cheap at around £150

Cheers

Mike