Marine GPS
 

Any advice on a cost-effective yet reliable marine GPS system. It is for a 18 ft boat, but we like to go out at night.

We've got one of the Garmin marine units. I installed it without much trouble. I don't think it was particularly inexpensive - it was a gift so I don't know the cost. It's really nice - very water resistant and has a lot of nice features like memorizing routes, etc.

I've used it under poor visibility conditions and rain - instrument boating worked out quite well.

I have a Garmin Nuvi 500..... IMHO its the best bang for the buck out there! It usually runs about $250 - $275 online. The map for Winni is $10 add on!

Woodsy

I just installed a Garmin 521S and I used it with the Garmin Lake Winni map ($10.00 downloaded) last weekend. Our boat is a 23' Wellcraft 232 Eclipse. It worked very well and does have route tracking/memory and way point storage. I have not installed the included depth sounder/fish finder yet but will be doing that soon. I recommend having the depth sounder/fish finder option even if you already have a depth guage in your boat as you get bottom detail which can be very useful. They are not cheap - it was a gift from my wife for Xmas and was between $500 and $600 online.
The Garmin Lake Winni map is very good and the only caution is that bouys/markers do move around so do not rely on the maps accuracy for their location. It is close but not right on. . Screen visability in the daytime is excellent but I have yet to use it at night and I expect it will be just fine.
There are cheaper GPS' out there but in most cases the screen is smaller and there are less features. So as the old adage says...you get what you pay for. Be sure of what you are buying.

BTW I have a Garmin Nuvi 200 with the Garmin Winni map. It just does not cut it for night time cruising. The screen is just too small for night use.

I recently purchased a Garmin GPSMAP 78 handheld unit and a Bizer microSD card. I find it very easy to use and to read in bright sunlight. There are many features and I would highly recommend it for the lake. Our boat has a depth sounder so I did not get that option. On line, the GPSMAP 78 was $244 with free shipping.

This is fantastic info....thanks all! When I was a kid I never thought twice about taking the boat out at night...but now that I'm an old goat I very seldom go. I had a couple of bad experiences going from Wolfeboro back to Black Point after an ice cream run. In both instances it was on one of those relatively rare nights when it was virtually impossible to distinguish the land from the sky from the water...VERY Scary! The mistake that I made was that I banged my left turn too early....I thought that I was turning down Alton Bay and instead turned into Chestnut Cove (I couldn't see the light buoy off Little Mark Island against all the lights on shore that night...or perhaps I was to close to shore and it was obscured by the mainland). I stopped the boat to figure out what I had done and got disoriented. I had to go headway speed until I finally got my act together. Having a good GPS (ideally with the Bizer map) to fall back onto in similar circumstances would give me my confidence back again to go out for night time cruises. My kids gave me a Garmin Nuvi 1300 LMT with the Winnipesaukee addon....but it is really poor....in many cases it doesn't even show the buoys.

Buy?
 

Where is there a good place to buy a good Garmin unit in the lakes region with the Bizer option? Or is it best to simply go on line?

If you go to the boatered dot com website you will see a couple threads about using an Ipad as a GPS chartplotter. Given that you can get an app with the Bizer chart for $35 it may be a good option.

Since an Ipad is $500 it may not be the cheapest but it does have a big screen and you can use it as an Ipad when you're not on the boat.

Auto GPS
 

I downloaded the Winni map from Garmin into my Nuvi auto GPS. Works great except in direct sunlight.

Thanks. I downloaded the LakeWinni app for the iPhone. We'll see how it works. We got disoriented in the fog last fall so this might be all we need. We do navigate at night but it's usually the same route, still, weather conditions can screw you!
I have an iPad but it's not 3G enabled. I think the smaller iPhone screen will work.

This is an old thread so I would like ask the same question about a good GPS that can get a Winnipesaukee database?

I have a Garmin with the Bizer chip of the Lake that would work well on a smaller boat (I think the model number is the 441S), that I may be putting up for sale.

It works well, easy to see, an has many features. It's just the smaller display size so it will fit in a smaller space.

I had it on my other boat (which was sold). I was using it as a 'backup' to my Raymarine on the newer boat, but unfortunately the Raymarine won't take the Bizer data.

I do recommend the Bizer chart, so if you get a GPS, get one that supports the Bizer chip. It works well.

Where are you located? I could let you see my Garmin if you want to see how the Bizer chart works as it's currently setup on a cigarette lighter plug so it can work almost anywhere.

Rich

I just sent you a private message.