Buying a boat but don't want to spend big money on a chartplotter for occassional use unless I can use in for in car navigation as well. Any advice?
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Depends what you mean by car GPS. If you mean a tomtom type of thing then, no it won't work. But if you mean a small one you use in planes yes it would work. These cost about £299.99. Hope this helps! Happy New Year!
If you buy a handheld type GPS, (example Garmin 76), and you have a map you can use on your boat, there shouldn't be any reason why you couldn't use that GPS to plot your location on the map, whether you are in the city or the ocean. No modification necessary. You just need to worry about being able to track the GPS satellites. I'd check our Garmin's website and ask their tech support which of their products will do what you need.
The answer depends on the GPS. Some brands, some models can be reprogramed, some hve the charts in there already. A hand held that gies you lat/lon could be used to find your place on a chart. markers and program them in, the GPS can tell you the speed you are going, the direction, ETA, the bearing to get there, so yes, a car GPS could be used with charts.
All gps devices will give you a londitude and latitude but this must be accurately transferred to a chart. Some of the higher spec models can be downloaded with marine charts and will give a certain amount of accuracy. I would never ever rely on this method for navigation near the coastline choosing to use charts instead, or a pupose made chart plotter. Charts are updated regularly as shipping channels change and markers are updated and changed. The gps systems are not always up to speed. I would only use as a back up system for the trusty chart table.
Go for a nice Garmin model. They are easily made to do both.
You may find that a car gps is not as waterproof as a marine one, which is largely why they are cheaper! There is a company on E-bay(fishing boats)selling marine ones at VV good prices.(half RRP)
