Upgrades, dedicated or tablet?
Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2022 9:43 am
I guess this is my day to flood the forum with posts.
1977 Albin 30. Intended use, for the next year, the Chesapeake Bay and tributaries, possibly Washington and Philadelphia. The existing GPS is a Garmin GPSmap 441s from 2009 or so. It has sonar (depth and temp sensor) and GPS mapping built in. Having never had any electronics on any boats, it is pretty amazing to me. I come from the age of paper charts, straightedges, pencils, and dividers.
But, I know it's out dated. I have found a few iOS/ipados apps that are pretty nice... Navionics, Windy, Dockwa being the biggies so far, but the MarineTraffic and of course BoatUS apps are handy, too. I just got ahold of an older iPad with cell service and tried Navionics on it without actually connecting cell service. The non-cell ipads don't have GPS inside. It works great so far. I'm thinking for a while, this is all the info I'll need. Between what the old Garmin supplies (depth and chart data) combined with the tablet based apps, it seems like plenty and very economical. It does make the dash a little cluttered.
Comments? Suggestions?
Ed
1977 Albin 30. Intended use, for the next year, the Chesapeake Bay and tributaries, possibly Washington and Philadelphia. The existing GPS is a Garmin GPSmap 441s from 2009 or so. It has sonar (depth and temp sensor) and GPS mapping built in. Having never had any electronics on any boats, it is pretty amazing to me. I come from the age of paper charts, straightedges, pencils, and dividers.
But, I know it's out dated. I have found a few iOS/ipados apps that are pretty nice... Navionics, Windy, Dockwa being the biggies so far, but the MarineTraffic and of course BoatUS apps are handy, too. I just got ahold of an older iPad with cell service and tried Navionics on it without actually connecting cell service. The non-cell ipads don't have GPS inside. It works great so far. I'm thinking for a while, this is all the info I'll need. Between what the old Garmin supplies (depth and chart data) combined with the tablet based apps, it seems like plenty and very economical. It does make the dash a little cluttered. Comments? Suggestions?
Ed
