Hi, I have got a Garmin GPS/chartplotter purchased in 2004 and already the charts are obsolete and no longer sold so Garmin do not look after their customers!

Yes have heard of a few people having simular problems. Have you called them and if so were they able to offer you any advice?

Their web site says they are obsolete and they are really difficult to get, sometimes they come up on e-bay. From this experience, I would not buy garmin again.

I am sorry to hear of your dissapointment but have you tried telephoning Garmin UK? I have always found them extremely helpful. Their telephone number is: 0870-8501242 (within U.K.) I will be very suprised if they cannot resolve your problem. Your model is certainly not old by any streach of the imagination - try them.

A point worth considering is updates for charts etc sold by Garmin from thier own update advice are sold in US dollars. Tax is added to the sum shown. All this is fine when the us dollar is behaving the way it is at the moment but if or when it turns around prices also change. It apparently matters not at all that Garmin has a base in UK it is not governed by the currencey it chooses to use. So said my Trading standards office. Hope it helps with the decision making.

Try looking at this company. www.geonav.it
They have a suplier in UK. I have the Geonav4CXS handheld and it is a very reliable piece of kit. OK the batteries can be a problem sometimes, but it comes as standard with a charging cradle and some other goodies. Another good point is, it can be plugged into your laptop for full map and chartplotting, then just store it on the handheld.The Geonav 6 sunshine is also a very good fixed GPS chartplotter, it has won awards for best GPS chartplotter and they are reasonably priced.

Some time ago I promised Cathy that I would send her a copy of my short instructions and flow diagram for the above two hand held GPS units from Lowrance, USA. I was given the I Finder Go by my children for Christmas two years ago and it has taken me virtually to this date to comprehend how to use it. I found the manual 79 pages of nerd speak and eventually dumped it and drew out a flow diagram, which is attached to this e mail. A colleague  recently bought a H20 C model from the Southampton boat show, including  Navionics charts of the Mediterranean. By using my brief instructions  for the I Finder GO and the flow diagram we very quickly worked out how to use it and it proved excellent  for our recent three weeks sailing in the Gocek and Marmaris area of Turkey.

The Navionics charts are excellent, the Lowrance charts are not worth having.

The flow diagram of more sophisticated H20 C model appears to be identical to that of the simpler  I Finder GO, save for the Navionics charts which are not available with the I Finder GO.

Both instruments are actually very easy to use, although you would never know from the Lowrance instructions. Their manuals are only of any use hung on a string in the smallest room.