Garmin GPS 76C handheld color chartplotter.

[Clay Stalker]

My lovely wife has threatened to buy me a Garmin 76C handheld chartplotter for Christmas. I am appealing to folks on the board to give me some feedback on this unit...re: if you own one, your experiences with it etc. I am currently using a plain 76 with a 48 as a backup. While I do appreciate that the larger units have better visibility, I personally prefer the handheld variety for their portability, especially with the way I sail. I like to have it close at hand wherever I am and have a small holder on my pedestal. The latest version of the 76C has enhanced color and is down to a price of $449....seems reasonable. Many thanks.

CS

[Joe CD MS 300]

I have had the black and white version of the same unit for about 4 seasons. I really think Garmin is a great company. Its very easy to load maps on the unit and update the units software from Garmin's web site and their support is great. I use the unit both on water and land. I believe the color screen is a hair smaller than the B&W screen. If you have used other Garmin units the menus will be very intuitive to use. www.gpscity.com has a huge amount of Ram Mounts and attachments for the unit. You should be able to mount it almost anywhere. Tell Santa to put in your stocking.

[Marc Theriault]

Clay,

Like Joe, i own a B/W unit (Garmin map76). I love it, i even use it with my little Melonseed when i row her, i put the unit on the floor between my legs and it help me to keep a course because like you must know when you row you can't see where you go very well.

One other thing that i like to do is at the end of my sailing day i dowload my trip on the computer and i keep a record of my day.

It's a nice product, the only negative point is it will eat your batteries so fast that you must keep some spare with you. This summer i tried with rechargables batteries and i was not able to do 4 hours with a set, next time i will try with the the same kind of rechargable battery that i use on my digital camera, they are expensive but they keep working a lot more then the cheap ones that i bought at Wall Mart.

You will enjoy it and don't forget to go to the Garmin web site for the latest version of the software unit.

Happy holidays to all

Marc

[slaume]

I have had a map 76 for a few years. I originally got it for sea kayaking after seeing the merits of such a unit on a foggy winter day on Fishers Island Sound. We used it on the Typhoon to help with dead reconing. It was very useful to have some idea of the speed we were making. Batteries lasted pretty well because I would only turn it on intermittently. On our current boat we have a plug on the pedestal guard that allows us to tap into the ships battery. This is a very good set up in that you can still use it as a portable but can run the thing forever on the ships battery without it going dead. I got a chart for it and I think it was a waste of money. Ours is a B&W unit but I figured the extra information available on the charts would still be helpful. It may in fact be if you could see it. The screen is just too small to be able to decipher all the markings on the chart. If I had it to do over again I would stick with the basic Map 76 but not spend any money on the blue charts. I am seriously considering a larger screen chart plotter. The 76 will give you speed and get you home or to a point you cannot see. It is just very hard to read the screen. Maybe it is just my aging eyes but it was almost useless at night. It is great to get an idea of how your sail adjustments effect your speed. I know the unit is capable of much more than I know what to do with it, Steve.

[Clay Stalker]

Thanks Steve, Marc, Joe, and others. One of the reasons the new 76C interests me is it seems to have addressed some of the shortcomings you mention such as visibility, battery life, etc. The newest version of the GPS MAP76C gets 30 hours from a set of two AA batteries and the color has been enhanced so that visibility of the Blue Chart maps is greatly improved. I sailed last summer with a guy who brought along a new Garmin 60C, similar to the 76 but designed more for hiking etc. and I was very impressed with what I could see with his loaded Blue Chart of the area. Thanks again.

CS

[Carter Brey]

Clay,

I use the Garmin GPS MAP76C for navigating through the longer late-romantic repertoire. Snoozers like the Bruckner 8th Symphony and the Sibelius 7th are a snap to negotiate with this great device. My stand partner and I just clip the unit to the bottom edge of the music stand and-- voila! If I start getting restless during the last movement of the Mahler 5th and am unable to see the end because of severe mental fog, I punch up our position and there we are: iteration number 3 of the second subject, in B-flat major. No fear: 5 minutes, 4 seconds til the final peroration in D major and 7 minutes, 43 seconds to go til Miller Time. Hidden navigational hazards like sudden fortissimo trumpet solos and spontaneous displays of pique on the part of the conductor are clearly indicated and updated according to the latest Local Notice to Musicians.

And post-tonal repertoire? This baby's a godsend. Never again the humiliation of getting lost in the middle of, say, Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. Instead of leaning over to my stand partner and asking in a strangled whisper, "Where the **** are we?!" as I frantically improvise eastern European folk modes while looking like a rabbit in a gunsight on live national television, I just turn to the unit, input "Bar Number-> Metric Location," and I'm given a running fix (with rehearsal numbers on WAAS-enabled units).

Highly recommended!

Carter

[slaume]

I think Carter has been smokin the good stuff again. Very funny and no GPS would help me find my way in his world, Steve.

[Joe CD MS 300]

I use reading glasses occasionally and in most lighting conditions I Can read the GPSMAP 76 screen well enough. A nice feature is that you can change the font size of most information on the charts, most importantly spot soundings and nav aids. I cruise up in Maine with its infinite number of misc rocks and ledges and have found the Blue Chart maps to be very accurate.

One trick I've added for reading small handhelds is to add "cheater" lenses to my sunglasses. They are small plastic lenses which trim to fit and in effect turn your sun glasses.

[barfwinkle]

I think Carter has been smokin the good stuff again.

A: Whatever he's smokin, I want some too!

B: Thank you again Maestro Brey. Sandra and I are rolling on the floor laughing (too many grandkids around to be rolling on the floor doing anything else ) with tears in our eyes. What a way to start your day. Thanks for the GREAT laugh! You remind me of a gentryfied Jeff Foxworthy.

C: Sandra concurs on the Mahler.

Merry Christmas

[Clay Stalker]

Carter:

Those of us fortunate enough to have survived the '60s gave up smoking that stuff some years ago cause our mothers told us we wouldn't be able to make babies if we kept it up....or was that something else? Oh well, I could truly identify with your post as I really was lost when I dropped my mouth harp last year while playing for the London Philharmonic....if I had had that GPS 76C I wouldn't have had to crawl around on the floor like an idiot looking for it!

CS

[W. Kaplan]

Posted: Sat 12/17/05 11:15 pm Post subject: GPS MAP76C

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Clay,

I use the Garmin GPS MAP76C for navigating through the longer late-romantic repertoire. Snoozers like the Bruckner 8th Symphony and the Sibelius 7th are a snap to negotiate with this great device.

Carter,

Just connect your Raymarine tiller pilot to the bow of your Guadganini (instead of the tiller). Then interface the pilot with the GPS and you can snooze through the Bruckner and never miss a beat. Just do a dry run with the GPS so that it can create a "track", which you can label "Maazel". Then on performance day, ask the GPS to retrace the track and ole Lorin will never know the difference!

Warren

[Bubba]

Howdy to yoall Wal I guess I don sump'n wrong. I tried ta do sump'n like you big city folks done. I don hoked my map76 up to my ol 78rpm Spike jones record an hells bells, ya shuda seen the black smoke come outa it. Dang, wont never do nuthin like that agin. I garunty iffn yall listen to good ol boy Spike an his City Slickers, no way yall gonna fall a sleep. Yore good buddy Bubba

[MBolton]

I have one of the Garmin Map76C (Color) units and without any reservations it is absolutely one of the best purchases I have ever made.

I LOVE it! I'd previously used a Garmin GPS 12 and before that a 12 year old Magellan.

The unit has long battery life -- lots of memory (100 MB) and more cool features than you'll ever need.

I would highly recommend that you use it with your laptop or desktop computer (you'll need the free Mapsource download) and that you go ahead and purchase the CitySelect CD from Garmin. I also have the bean bag mount and power cord (that way the backlight will stay on all the time without draining the battery). I use the backlight in the daytime also -- it makes the screen even easier to see.

I bought mine the first week they came out and intended to use in on my Typhoon but with the CitySelect maps and database installed I now use it in my truck about 99% of the time. If you do plan to use it in a vehicle you will not be happy until you buy and install City Select. That's the CD add-in that has all the local roads and virtually every business and travel service that you can imagine. YOu'll love the auto-routing feature with CitySelect. Without City Select you'll find the built in base map to only be useful on Interstate highways and major roads.

The ability to use CitySelect to key in a street address at a rental cabin 400 miles away in the mountains on North Carolina and then have your Garmin Map76C lead you turn by turn to the door step it just too cool! I couldn't believe it -- this little vacation cabin was way off the main road -- on a single-lane dirt road and up about 4000' but "Gips" found it thru a fog so thick we would have never been able to read the signs nailed to the trees at the many turns.

I find myself using it all the time on trips to find better and faster routes. It has a routing feature that allows you to choose "fastest route or "shortest distance".

Now -- let's talk about the water. Again, I was not really satisfied until I bought Garmin's Bluewater Chart for my cruising area. The detail of the vector maps are as good as any I have seen and they look most simular to the traditional paper maps. I had to wait a year until my bride let me spend more money on my "toy" but once installed I was very pleased. I will use the big display of my desktop PC to do my route planning and then download that route (and map sections if necessary) to the Garmin.

And, Yes, you can have City Select maps and Blue Water Chart maps installed at the same time. The Garmin website was not very clear on this. SO, that means you can use your GPS to route you to the boat ramp and then use the same unit on the water.

Obviously, I'm very satisfied with my "toy" and I hope you will be too -- please don't hesitate to ask any follow up questions.

Hope Santa brings you one! <grin> .

Mark Bolton
Typhoon
Georgia Coast

[MBolton]

Clay:

This is the place where I have made several purchases.

They have excellent service and good prices. The Garmin GPS76C is only $354.00 now!

http://www.gpsdiscount.com/products/index.html?p=806

Mark Bolton
Typhoon
Georgia Coast

[Clay Stalker]

Mark:

Many thanks for the infor on this place...are these prices for real?? they are very low!

Clay Stalker