help me buy the best chartplotter gps for my budget

[Idiens]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Plastic actually does quite well in a marine environment...since it doesn't rust.

Well the old Sailor radio has not rusted much but the plastic knobs need replacing. Most plastic gasses and turns brittle on a 30 year timescale. However, at my time in life, another 30 years will be very welcome.

(Do old sailors rust, or do they gradually sink?)

[sailingdog]

Originally Posted by Idiens

(Do old sailors rust, or do they gradually sink?)

They just sail away..

[cnc33voodoo]

i had my weekend ruined by furling issues and my wife went out and surprised me with the sh 180 with external reciever to cheer me up.she also got the cmaps of great lakes and maritimes with it.
she bought it at our marina's store and supposedly they gave her a really good deal for the combo.
now if i could just get my boat fixed so i could try it out.

[modul8]

I bought an older Raytheon/Autohelm chartplotter, and now I'm wondering how often I'm actually going to use it. It's a huge thing, perhaps too big for my boat (10" monochrome lcd)
and I'm wondering if I should go ahead and mount it, or just forget it and put it back out on ebay, and find a smaller colour one. I nabbed this one for 120, thinking that I would be more likely to use it if I can see it... but will probably spend twice that putting it in a navpod behind my wheel. Is it worth it? Is it a necessity? Will it suck my battery power like there's no tomorrow? SO many questions.

[funsailthekeys]

I bought for my wife's boat a Standard Horizon CP180i. It is color, 5" screen, DSC hook up, has waas (10') has 3 year warranty and is waterproof. Cost was $399.00. Uses C-map MAX or NT+.

[Sailor-man]

I'm considering the CP300 that is slightly larger than the CP180 Standard Horizon. Can anyone with the CP180 comment on how the screen performs in bright sunlight. Is it clearly visable.

[scottyt]

you all are lucky i dont even have a gps on my boat, except a 10 Y/O handheld. i am looking at getting a small fishfinder/gps for my boat but i want an auto pilot first, then a new genny, and then ....

the combo unit i am looking at is black and white because i dont really need either.

but if any of you are throwing away an older chart plotter let me know, i might buy it from ya

[geraldartman]

On a real budget, check out a Magellan Cross over. It has low def marine and topo charts in addition to street maps. I picked one up for about a c note. It will take Navonic3XL for about $250 for very high def charts of the fresh water seas. easy to use and definitely won't be a power drain on the batts.