Gps

H

hackalar

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Feb 17, 2005
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I boat in the Tennessee river and for many years to come I will. I would like to have gps / chart plotter not for directions but for location of buoys at night, for speed, for anchoring, and for help getting into coves to explore more areas/marinas. I would also like for it to have depth too.

What would you guess suggest? I don't want to break the bank for no more than I will use it.

Would be great to have fuel flow meters on it but not sure that is an option. I have a 1998 carver with Mercruiser bluewaters.
 
Don't take this the wrong way, I do tend to be a bit blunt, but my first suggestion would be to take the idea of relying on a GPS for the position of floating aids at night, and kick that idea as far from your conscious mind as humanly possible.

The collision involving the M/V Andrea Doria gave rise to the term 'RADaR assisted collision'. Since that time - and even more especially since SA was shut down in the GPS system in the Clinton era, making SPS as accurate as PPS positioning, there's been a growing wave of GPS-assisted collisions and allisions in the recreational boating world. It's just that nobody that anyone listens to has bothered pointing it out. I've seen people use a floating aid as a waypoint, and set their autopilot to steer on it (it did. And the aid was dead nuts on it's AP. I wasn't there to hear the noise it made, but it must have been awesome). I've seen someone drive their chartplotter to an aid - quite accurately, too, they were just ignorant of the jetty between them and the aid. Had to have been on the chartplotter. Pascal might have seen that jetty ornament - 30-something foot trimaran a few years ago. I've seen people smart enough to not drive a chartplotter directly onto an aid neglect to take it's watch circle into account, or the fact it was off station, and come home with a punched hull and some nice red paint smears.
 
I understand what your saying and I agree. What I would be using it for Is to give me a reference point to scan with a spot light and thats it. Two things about me and my area, when boating at night I'm never over much more than idle and our channel is clearly market on both sides for many many miles. Again it would only be used for reference and would never be counted until I see it with my own two eyes. I'm a very safe boater and never take chances.
 
More important than the particular model of GPS is the database they use. Some are better than others for inland lakes and rivers. I have used both Garmin and Lowrance and prefer the Lowrance systems. Get the biggest display size you can afford and buy it from BoatFix.

Mike
 
I boat quite often in the St. Johns River. For pure navigation I use my chart plotter which is a Hummingbird 1155. However, for information about anchorages, marinas, creeks, attractions, etc I use mt iPad with eSeaCharts and a Dual XGPS150. eSeaCharts has all of the Active Captain data embedded and very easy to get.

Bob
 
I find one of the better uses of a GPS/chart plotter at night is a saved track feature. This allows you to zoom in and follow a previous track that is a known. This can be very helpful in tricky channels.
 
Ditto the saved track feature. When we go up to Raystown, the first day I lay down a track from end to end (it's 24 miles of a relatively narrow winding lake, with lots of little off-shoot coves that look like the main lake, even in the day time). Then I can refer back to that track at any time, especially at night, and know that I have plenty of water under me and no obstructions.
 
quote:
Originally posted by EdFitz

Ditto the saved track feature. When we go up to Raystown, the first day I lay down a track from end to end (it's 24 miles of a relatively narrow winding lake, with lots of little off-shoot coves that look like the main lake, even in the day time). Then I can refer back to that track at any time, especially at night, and know that I have plenty of water under me and no obstructions.

Click to expand...

+1 got to love safe saved tracks it allows us to pay more attention for floating debris or inlit vessels.
Bill
 
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