GPS for small boat sailors

Leeway · Post by **Leeway** » Fri May 30, 2008 11:02 am

I just ordered a Garmin ForeTrex 101 from Amazon for $101.53.

It might not have all the bells and whistles, but it has what I need and the great thing is that it is waterproof and straps right on my wrist.

EmergencyExit · Post by **EmergencyExit** » Fri May 30, 2008 11:50 am

Lee, I like that, may have to have one of those.

The old knotmeter on EE quit because the indicator needle spring went boing, and I was thinking of getting a Etrex handheld, but this is much more portable-friendly.

Someone recently fixed up a few of our old "club boats" at Pelican, and I've been thinking of rotating thru them for fun (a 420, a vagabond 14, a small cat, and something else)

This would be great for that, plus for EE ! Thanks for posting it.

Leeway · Post by **Leeway** » Fri May 30, 2008 1:12 pm

Yeah, I neat little gadget!

It also has a race timer

Banshi · Post by **Banshi** » Sat May 31, 2008 4:53 am

I am waiting for the combination road map/chartplotter to come down to a reasonable price so I can use it on the boat and traveling cross country. I can see where something more portable could come in handy.

EmergencyExit · Post by **EmergencyExit** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:30 am

The timer with programmable alarms would be handy as well - it would be good to have whenever I work the race committee boat. I'm never on the racing side, but same would be true there.

I looked to see what the difference was between that and the 201 - all I could find was the 101 takes conventional batteries, the 201 is rechargable ?

Leeway · Post by **Leeway** » Sat May 31, 2008 7:23 am

That's the only difference I could see as well. I couldn't see paying the extra cash just for the lithium battery.

Leeway · Post by **Leeway** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:03 pm

I finally got the GPS last week. Thought it was lost in the mail and Amazon then sent another one. The funny thing is that I got the first one they shipped and then the second came a couple days later. Good ole postal service!

GPS works great and is pretty much all I need on the boat. The only problem is that the standard Velcro wrist band is a bit too small. Then when I put the extender on it is too big! Damn these big-boned wrists of mine!

keysskipper · Post by **keysskipper** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:15 pm

got to have the chartplotter and the handheld, problem is too many bells so my wife enters the waypoint info, I just make the Mojitos

KS

Bhacurly · Post by **Bhacurly** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:10 pm

Lee,

I have the same for my boat. I also upload the data to my PC then convert it to a Google Earth file. Allows me to see the course laid out on the lake, kinda neat.

I put it on the rudder handle, not my wrist, and it fits nice an snug there...

Billy

Leeway · Post by **Leeway** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:48 am

That's a great place to put the GPS. However, my tiller is only about 1 inch in diameter, so the wrist will have to do.

Did you purchase the RS232 cable or did you make it? What application do you use to download the data? If you hadn't noticed I'm a nube to using a GPS.

Guillaume C. · Post by **Guillaume C.** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 11:24 am

I bought a small color gps map with bluechart maps from garmin and i'm in love with it.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2006/3/etrex.jpg

it was on sale for 110$, the screen is a bit small but the portability is nice, I can check if the anchor is dragging at night in about 5 sec without leaving the bed:P

Leeway · Post by **Leeway** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:53 pm

The etrex is nice. I was thinking about getting one of those before I found the foretrex.

I might actually get one in the future for geocaching.