gps for sailing and cycling

[ludwig]

Can anyone tell me if there is a gps unit that I could use for both cycling and sailing.

[PaulF]

Garmin list 'marine' as a feature of some of their units.

For marine use do you just want hand held or do you want it to integrate into a chart plotter etc.?

[mrcharly-YHT]

I have a 'marine' Garmine.

Compared to the 'hiking' gps', it is bulky, doesn't have detailed maps. However it does have long battery life and it floats.

The ability to load charts would be the key to it being useful for both.

[frankly frankie]

Their new GPSMap 78 series are both 'marine' ie floats and 'handheld' ie usable on a bike.
The discontinued 76 series filled the same niche and might still be available at knock-down prices.

[Hot Flatus]

I have a mint Garmin 60csx that I ought to flog, if that clips your ticket

[PeteB99]

The Geonav 4C and variants have Land and Sea charts available (Navionics).

Bit bulky for a bike though - mainly aimed at motoring / sailing

[Manotea]

I have a 'marine' Garmine.

Compared to the 'hiking' gps', it is bulky, doesn't have detailed maps. However it does have long battery life and it floats.

The ability to load charts would be the key to it being useful for both.

My impression was that Garmin Bluechart Maps work on any mapping GPS though one might be challenged by the amount of information visible on an etrex screen. Is this not the case? n.b. its not an issue for landlubbers like me and its seems the bluechart series are no longer available.

[Panoramix]

If you don't need chartplotting, any waterproof gps will do. You just need to pre enter your waypoints before. This is what I tend to do but I've learnt to sail in the late 80's (pre-GPS) so I am probably old school.

I think that my Dakota 20 would read a marine map (to be bought and quite pricey), it works well as an audax GPS so you may look at this. Nevertheless to have a true chartplotter you need a quite big screen which would make it useless for cycling.

In short most gps people use for cycling would be useful on a boat but the contrary wouldn't be true.

Next time we meet, you can play with my Dakota.

[numbnuts]

I'm using an old Garmin e-map for cycling and kayaking not even waterproof so I keep it in an aquapak, I waypoint my launch site and off I go, at least I can find my way back in fog or darkness

[Auntie Helen]

My Garmin Oregon 300 has a Marine section. We've not used it (although my husband is a sailor) as we don't have mapping. There are rumours that an open source marine charting thing may happen soon - it's mentioned on the ybw.com forum apparently.

I think most of these GPSes would be pretty small to use for mapping purposes. The Raymarine radar/plotter we've got on our yacht has a screen four times as large as my Oregon and we'd still like it larger.

My husband comments that if you've got an iPhone you can get the Navionics App which would do the trick.