I was lucky enough to get a nice decade old Lowrance
LMS-525C DF sonar/chartplotter unit from the previous owner. It was basically a hand-me-down off of his kid's boat, who had updated to the latest and greatest gear. I finally got it all hooked up about a month ago and couldn't be happier. Frankly, sailing as I do in the shallow and shoally Potomac and (hopefully next season) the thinwater gunkholes of the Chesapeake Bay, even more than a chart plotter I really wanted that depth finder. It looks like nowadays you can pick up
one of these older units or similar for only about $100 on eBay. Not really knowing any better about better or more modern equipment, I can still tell you that the LMS-525C DF already does more than I will ever need. The screen is clear and bright even in the summer sun, and its split display of chart and sonar with speed and compass and water temperature overlayed are just what I need and no more. The head unit mounted nicely on a little chunk of wood attached to the metal helm pedestal pole of my 26X, the sonar transducer is mounted on the stern near the water ballast valve and an LGC-4000 GPS receiver mounted on the starboard stern rail. My point is: You don't really
need to blow a "boat buck" on a shiney new system unless you really
want to.
With all that said, not having any guarantee that I could get that Lowrance working, I did check out some other GPS options (and you might also marvel at my handmade ol' skool lead weight and knotted line for depth finding with its hollow tallowed tip for bottom sampling. That's some ultra-salty gear suitable for folks who view pine tar as a hair care product
!). So here's the lowdown on a couple of the best free or nearly free electronic charting and GPS options I explored:
OpenCPN
I have a spare 7 year old little 14" HP Pavilion G4 laptop running Windows 7--my kid's old rig. Not flashy, and a little beat up, but still a solid little no-issues laptop that works just great, and was, after all, rugged enough to have survived (with an easy keyboard replacement or two) the none-too-gentle ministrations of a preteen boy followed by his kid sister to whom it was handed down, until both got snappier laptops (after which my son also built his own blazin' fast desktop gaming rig from an empty case, motherboard and other parts on sale from Newegg.com--And no, I couldn't be prouder). Of course, the old HP has no built-in GPS, so I got myself a little
GPS/Glonass U-blox7 USB GPS "dongle"
like this one. I think I paid about $12 for it. I then downloaded the well-regarded
OpenCPN (ver 4.0.0), an open source (
i.e., free) chart plotter/navigation program. With the dongle installed it works just great and is super-configurable, though perhaps a bit more complicated (read: feature-rich) than many GPS systems. A little bit of study, patience and experimentation will be required. Still, it's great to have on the table in the cabin, works like a charm, and of course the little laptop also makes for a nice compact entertainment center. A little Black & Decker 12V DC to 120V AC cigarette lighter plug inverter keeps her charged up.
OpenCPN can be downloaded for free at
http://opencpn.org/ocpn/, and it looks like there's also an Android version available now. But if you've got an old laptop gathering dust somewhere, you could still put it to good use.
MarineWays
All I'll say is that I can't believe that this great little feature-filled Android GPS and navigation app is free. For more info, go to
www.marineways.com. Get it before they realize what they are giving away
!
