www.iFourWinns.com

I want to point out that I have no vested interest in any particular GPS system. I gave some advice to someone about a particular GPS on another thread and someone else commented about finding their GPS useless. I though it might be interesting to pursue it in this area.
I will agree that most of the time, as a recreational boater, I don’t need a GPS. About once a year, I get into areas where my travels are safer with one. Every few years, I would not be safe without one. It is the same story for my radar and my marine radio. Having a GPS the rest of the time is just kind of fun. You know how many mile you have traveled during the season. You have a record of speed, fuel economy and you can track where and when you have been places.
During the winter, I download all the information to my computer and can review the previous year. The tracks show you speed, course, depth and water temperature. You can see your travels in Google Earth. Ever wonder if you went on the wrong side on an important navigational buoy and by the Grace of God didn’t hit something. You can follow you track on the computer screen and see…

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Current Boat: 1994 278 Four Winns Vista

I love my GPS. I have a multi purpose GPS purchased for use in an airplane and specifically to get real time weather across my route of flight. A nice side benefit has been my ability to use it on the boat. The weather subscription has been great while on the boat but I also use it to mark some of our favorite spots to anchor. One particular cove we anchor in has a submerged bridge that can spot on the GPS and avoid when our lake level is low. I use the GPS in the boat far more than I use it in my plane or a car. I purchased an inland lakes chip and I also have one for Lake Michigan.

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2008 Vista 278 Volvo Penta 8.1 Gi 375 hp
1999 Horizon 220 5.7 GSi

I don't boat without it, even on small inland lakes.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

I have mine whenever I'm on the ocean, and when I am camping up at Lake Mohave. I have found it very useful for getting back to my campsite - especially when it's dark.

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2002 Funship 214
VP 5.7 GX Si
2003 Tahoe

I think I need to spend some more time with mine and better learn it's benefits. So far, the only real use I get out of it is when cruising at night on bigger lakes like lake Cumberland. It does help me navigate. But I can't seem to figure out the chart plotting benefits.

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Former owner of:
1996 Four Winns Horizon 200 5.8L VP
2006 Four Winns Horizon 260 8.1L VP
2007 Sea Ray 290 Sundancer

Current boat
2004 Sea Ray 290 Sun Sport Twin 350 Mags

Basically when our boat is under power our GPS is on. Most of our boating destinations are to a GPS waypoint. I continually monitor our boat speed by GPS to engine RPM. This gives me a heads up as to when our boat bottom needs a cleaning as I notice boat speed lacking a bit as compared with engine RPM.

The majority of our boat runs are between 7 and 20 miles so using the GPS to boat in a straight a line as possible saves fuel.

With fuel prices going the way it seems to be going for the summer of 2011 we all would like to save fuel were we can.

Mike.

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Current Boat
- 2001 Four Winns 328 Vista "Hour Decision"
- 2010 310 Mercury Inflatable

Previous Boats
- 30' Doral Prestancia
- 25' Doral Citation

Yes,
Though used primarily on just a few inland lakes, I find the large display of speed and time nice when setting speed for skiers (pre-Perfect Pass). I have all the local lakes I frequent programmed in. Though not as nice as most systems available, mine (Garmin eTrex Legend) does well to keep me "between the beaches". It's a handy tool to have especially at night, if only to confirm where I think I am.

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Walt B
"Debt-Charged"
Black '07 H210SS
6.2L Bravo One turning a 21P HIFive
Wakeboard Tower with Perfect Pass Stargazer version
Missouri River; Kansas City, Mo.

I just got rid of my Garmin 76Cx handheld. I didn't even turn it on at the smaller lakes we frequent because I know them so well.

It has been helpful on Lake Michigan. I can't wait to play with my new 531s. I've watched a few videos and it has quite a few features. It should help save some fuel on some longer cruises we would like to take this summer since I purchased the fuel flow sensor as well.

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2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

If you're in a shallow draft boat with either outdrives or an outboard, and you're in waters you travel quite regularly, I could see where someone might have little use for a chartplotter. But I don't think that represents most recreational boaters. The sort that don't always travel in the same waters and only go boating on an infrequent basis. As in, just weekends, not daily like an avid fisherman might.

But like any tool it has it's pros and cons. For me it saves me time, I don't have to go back/forth between paper charts and operating the boat. Before a trip I can use the plotter to give myself a good overview of my intended route, perhaps plugging in a few waypoints. I can then refer to it off and on during the course of the journey. Mainly to get an idea as to whether there's going to be enough water for me to get through a given area. Or what I'd have to do in order to change my route quickly (like deciding to go into one creek versus another). Not all areas off the Bay have full channel navigation markers. And unless you know the waters there's no clear indication of shoals and such. So skirting around from one creek to another might be a straight shot, or require a longer trip around a shoal. The plotter lets me see that quickly without having to refer to the paper charts.

Now, don't get me wrong, the paper charts are great and I keep a full set handy. They're great for letting the admiral or guests look for things, and keep them off the plotter. While I can use the plotter to lookup nearby restaurants and the like, I find it less distracting to let others do that while I focus on running the boat.

That and I'll never have a boat without the weather setup again. Satellite weather data is fantastic for getting the most out of our time on the water. It pretty much eliminates the guesswork associated with go/no-go decisions when there's rain predicted.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Reasons I find my GPS really useful...

* Interfaces to the DSC on my VHF radio - a nice safety feature
* I use the speedo part of it all the time - far more accurate than the pitot, especially in 5 and 10 knot zones and for consistent speeds for the kids skiiing, wakeboarding and tubing
* I set waypoints to get me back to where I started and also the hot fishing spots
* As mine is a combo unit, it also tells me water depth, temperature and bottom image, plus where the fish are!
* I do use the compass part and also the charts to get around (in addition to my regular old magnetic compass)

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Alec

2006 Horizon 190
VP 4.3GL/SX, Sunsport

Me too.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

Is the weather service overlaid on your GPS screen? If so, what brand GPS do you use? What satellite weather service do you use? Dan

Dan, I believe kearney has a Raymarine chartplotter, and he is most likely using Sirrius marine Weather. Here is a link to the Sirrius site with supported chartplotters.
http://www.siriusxm.com/marineweather

Since you have a Garmin 541s, you will probably need the Garmin GXM 51 antenna and a subscription to satellite weather.
The antenna is anywhere from $500 to $650 and the subscription is about $25 per month for XM. Here is a link for the antenna.
http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Satellite- ... B001VIUD9S

I agree, it's nice to have. But my cell phone does a pretty good job of checking the weather, for much less cost, but not nearly the detail that one of these will provide.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Yes, I have the Raymarine setup with the Sirius weather subscription service. The weather data is displayed on it's own maps. I actually prefer this as opposed to it being overlaid on the charts. I found the garmin way of doing it harder to deal with. Raymarine offers some nice ways to split screens into multiple panes. I have two pages with weather/charts in different panes. One page with a vertical split and the other horizontal. This also makes it possible to use different zoom magnifications. Charts usually need to be close, but with weather you want to see what's 20 to 30 miles away and approaching. As I recall the Garmin did not offer an easy way to do this.

The Sirius setup gives you wind and storm speeds with arrows. So you can see how the winds are clocking across a larger area. This lets you make a better prediction about how the storms are likely to affect your area. Better than just looking at an animated blob of doppler radar.

Yes, you can get a lot of weather data on your phone these days. I still prefer having it on the plotter. When weather gets shitty the last thing you want to have to deal with is a handheld gizmo. But weather from the phone beats nothing, I suppose. I would also subscribe to the service if I could also get it on my Android phone. I'd still use the plotter for it while on the boat, but it'd be nice to have it on the go the rest of the time too.

For website weather I really like http://www.wunderground.com

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

We use the GPS extensively, particularly when we go offshore into the Atlantic -- to the Florida Keys --or to lakes or places we have not been to before. (such as we did they last year on vacation.)

Mine is tied into a NMEA2000 network to also get fuel uage information.

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DaleG -- West Palm Beach FL
2003 240Horizon -- 5.7Gi -Duoprop