My current chart plotter, a Garmin GPSmap 545 from 2006, just died. For the past few years I’ve used it less and my iPhone (loaded with Navionics and Aqua Maps) more.
But I’m thinking I would like to have a dedicated chart plotter. Especially one that could serve as a multifunction display as I contemplate adding radar for a trip north to the land of summer fog next year. The ability to easily update charts is important as is route planning.
Integration with the wind indicator and other instruments would be helpful.
Oh, and did I mention I’m cheap? I’m not looking to drop $2K on a chart plotter.
Has anyone gone through this recently and have some advice for models (or features) I should be looking at?
Jim, just be aware of the headaches involved with NMEA and sharing between products from different manufacturers. I had a real headache with raymarine EV100 and the Garmin GPS.
The Binnacle has a sale on the Raymarine Axiom 9RV for $899CDN down from $1499. I bought one at a higher sale price in the Spring and love it. Most of my electronics were Raymarine so hookup and sharing was relatively easy. Binnacle website is below. https://ca.binnacle.com
The best advice I ever got from a power boat guy was to keep everything the same brand if you can. If your wind/depth/speed/autopilot instruments are Raymarine, then stick with that. Mine were all Raymarine and by adding an Axiom 7 everything now shows up on my screen flawlessly. The polars that Paul Miller had them upload shows me my tacking angles too (Thanks again Paul!) I am using NMEA 2000 for my AIS and that has worked fine too.
Bob Gehrman
'NS30U #396 “Quickbeam”
Baltimore, Maryland
Thanks for the tip! Are you using it with Navionics charts? Initial purchase of Navionics charts looks to be $250. Do you know what the updates cost? Thanks,
Thanks Bob (and Joe) for the advice on keeping the brands consistent. Right now I have a Raymarine autohelm, Garmin wind indicator, and Datamarine depth gauge. I’d like to replace the Garmin wind indicator with a Raymarine (former Tock Tic) as the Garmin doesn’t quite have the range from the top of the mast. So, it seems like a Raymarine chart plotter would make sense.
I use Navionics which is great across platforms - Ipad, iphone, PC and the Chartplotter. You can create routes on a PC or ipad and then upload to the Axiom. Automatically updates on other devices. I think the initial year was free and then it’s been $99 a year for updates. I don’t know what happens if you don’t update (lose the detailed charts maybe?)
Be careful with assuming you’re getting interoperability with Raymarine. A number of their products, like their wireless wind indicator in particular, are just re-labelings of products from other companies they’ve bought up. I’ve seen problems where they want you to buy an adapter costing several hundred dollars to actually get their products to talk to each other.
I’ve also dealt with things like my old Raymarine autopilot supporting setting steer to wind direction by pushing two buttons, while it doesn’t if you buy the identically labeled instrument today – even though the documentation continues to promise it will. In that case, what I got after multiple slow turnaround discussions with their tech support was the announcement that the documentation is simply wrong.
I was in the market for a MFD last year and ended up getting a B&G Vulcan 9 with their wind instrument & GPS antenna and an Airmar depth and speed transducer. Everything works great networked through NMEA 2000. I don’t know how it would work with other devices but may find out soon as I am going to try and add my Raymarine ST 4000+ AutoPilot (SeaTalk) to the system.
I was thinking Raymarine as well but the Binnacle suggested B&G since they are completely sail oriented and aren’t that much more expensive.
FWIW Navionics works just fine without buying the annual updates. They are basically charts. The rocks are t moving around and not many new ones are being found. I’m not sure what “new” information is worth the update fee but the charts do not degrade in any way.
I don’t use “advanced” features like autorouting.
Good Morning;
For what its worth here is what I purchased for Bay Sailing…, After looking at Garmin and similar chart plotters and price… I decide to purchase a Military / Commercial grade Tablet called TRIPLTECK. for the following reasons;
Cost around $700, tablet is water proof, shock resistant, has a good size 7 inch screen which is extremely bright as this tablet is normally used outside for drones. Similar size screens on Marine GPSs would be far far more $$$$
Tablet has a GPS. I uploaded Navionics, which works great very easy to see even in direct sunlight. I also uploaded a Tide chart,and two WEA charts
Tablet it has Internet capabilities and can be used as a Phone if linked to a carrier like T-moble etc
The battery lasts for about 6 hrs but can be plugged in via a USB port
Its Portable.
The only down side if any… is it cannot be linked to a Auto Pilot… For sailing in the Bay it has worked very well.