Navionics V Cmaps

[davem2005]

I am looking to buy a plotter in the next week or so . Seems they come with a variety of charts with Navionics and cmaps being the most common.

Many plotters come with basic maps and support for other formats. Any suggestions or recommendations as to what is best and most detailed and accurate for this coast would be appreciated.

This is what I had in mind

http://www.jkmax.co.uk/Lowrance_Globalmap_5200c.html

Any comments
Dave

[mark]

I think the differences are pretty minimal these days unless you want to throw 10grand at a maxsea bathymetric chart!

I bought a cobra colour plotter couple of months back on the strength of the deal which included the full UK and Ireland coverage C-map nt+. figured if I'm gonna drag the boat around, it'd be nice to have charts for everywhere I'm likely to go, and have to say, I pretty impressed with the cobra unit as well, the display is bright as anything even in direct sunlight. I've got a navionics chart for the north east coast on the other boat and to be honest, I don't think one is neccessarily better than the other, they've both got all the same stuff on

Garmin are doing one a deal at the minute with a full UK chart bundle as well.

might be worth a look. In terms of hardware accuracy, I don't think there's anything between all of them these days, and I made the cobra descision purely on the fact they were throwing in nearly 300 quids worth of charts, and its sat next to a lowrance LMS240 and there's nothing between them (aprt from the cobra being colour!)

[Codfather]

I have the garmin blue chart, never used any other so can't compare but i've had no trouble with it.
The wrecks are almost always wear they say they are, or close by.

Just got the north east card for mine. Sounds like one of these deals with full uk charts would suit you, travelling up to scotland and all that aswell.

[ronw]

Dave I use the navionics gold have found them to be v good will also be compatible with a wider range of ploters if you ever decide to upgrade, had a butchers at the lowrance at the boatshow looked a good piece of kit for the money.

[davem2005]

Ron. That is what I was thinking as regard the navionics and upgradeability.

I cant find a cmaps plotter with a uk offer and just to cover the three areas I fish would cost an extra 300 quid over whatever I decide to pay for the unit alone.

What was confusing me was the difference beween the uk maps that come with the units and the additional cards can buy like the navionics gold and the cmaps maxcharts. Are they worth the (extra) money or would I be paying for tide and current info I would probably never use?

Do the basic maps show a decent detail ie. wrecks and bottom contours? or do you have to get the detail mapsto really benifit.

Cheers
Dave

[ronw]

hello dave

I think to be honest you would be fine with the basic stuff ,but you would be suprised how handy tides and current stuff can be.
not sure how detailed the basic maps are but they will all show contours and wrecks but you may lose some detail in comparison to the gold and platinum charts, dont rely on world base maps there hopeless only get coastline.
the lowrance charts cover the whole of the uk I think? so may suit ,I bought my last plotter from the states including a local navionics gold proved about 200 quid cheaper even after paying the bits and bobs.
Ron

[mark]

when talking about the base maps, do you mean the base maps that are built in before you bung a cartridge in??

they're pretty lame from what I've seen. rough outline of the coast and a few contours, navaids and thats it, no details for things like wrecks oibstructions etc. need a cartridge for that

Http://mesltd.co.uk were advertising the garmin map 292C will full UK blue chart for £399.95 in this months BFM


as are http://redcar-fish.co.uk/productinfo-nocats.asp?id=494 for just a few quid more, but at least theya re lcoal(ish)

[davem2005]

Sorry to bump this back but things have moved on cos I have payed the inland rev and they left me a bit

I have been offered a navman unit with a cmaps max uk and ireland card. I think its a good deal and would welcome any comments as I am a bit worried about the fact that the total uk map may contain less detail than the other option of a nt+ mappack for the ne coast.

Bear in mind I do fish all over and would welcome a uk map...but am I worried that by having a total uk map I will loose detail.

Cheers
Dave

[mark]

I had similar worries, but the mega wide chart pack has every bit as much detail as the local charts, in fact possibly a bit more as they are slightly more up to date than the local chart packs

t'other boat has a lowrance unit on it with a navionics local, and sat next to it is the new cobra colour plotter with the mega wide wide cartridge, both have the same detailed coverage as far as I can tell

[davem2005]

Thanks for that mark,

I have been offered a good deal but this local verses all the uk charts was worrying me. I fish all over and did not want to end up having vague sh*te all over coverage as opposed to detail where i want it.

Seems I will get me a new ploter at last

Cheers
Dave

[mark]

off to ardnamurchan for 3 weeks next week so will see how it compares up there

I think one of the reasons the full UK charts are now available is that memory prices have fallen and storage capacity has gone up, so they can fit the whole lot on one card

the boat in the RQ has normal cmap nt+ and they do seem to be identical

[davem2005]

Thanks mark,
The shop has set it up on the demo rig for me with the uk chart installed. They want £400 for the plotter and the cmaps max uk and ireland which seemed like a good deal to me. I will go in tomorrow and decide but if the detail on the uk chart is as you say I will get that as I would need three detailed maps to cover the areas I fish.

Cheers
Dave

[davem2005]

I bought the navman unit with the cmapsmax uk and ireland card (400 quid).

The shop put the unit on the demo stand and put each chart in to compare the localised detail one and the national cmaps max one. The max had more detail and also extra detail if you hold the cursor over a feature. Far superior to the cmaps NT card and it covers the whole uk in detail.

Superb bit of kit...a pleasure to use and very easy.

Only regret is I should have got the colour one...but it will do ...I'll just build a sun screen for it.

Cheers
Dave

[mark]

don't know how you'd turn it on in the navman unit, but the cobra reads the chart tide currents from the max cartridge, works out the time/tide and then gives you nice little arrows predicting which way its running. be interesting to see how accurate they are

[davem2005]

don't know how you'd turn it on in the navman unit, but the cobra reads the chart tide currents from the max cartridge, works out the time/tide and then gives you nice little arrows predicting which way its running. be interesting to see how accurate they are

This is the bit i did not understand how it did it..

I read the tide times at the marina office before I went out...then click the tides option and it gave me a graph as per the met office charts with low tide times, size of tide and the phase of the moon. The quoted time for low tide was 1 min different to that in the marina office..and the high tide was shown on the graph.

This is some clever technology . It defaults to calculating the tide times for the nearset "tide station" but via a menu you can work further afeild and also get forecasts ahead...just unfortunate that I havent got that far in the manual yet.

Cheers
Dave

Cheers#
Dave