New Garmin plotters include all U.S. charts
Garmin’s new 192C plotter and 198C plotter/sounder come with full detail BlueCharts for all U.S. coastal waters, including Alaska and Hawaii, loaded in non-volatile memory and ready to use! This is remarkable news because until now you had to also buy either chart cards or a CD with which you burned your own chart card. Either way, getting charts for, say, a trip down the East Coast could cost more than the total $964 price tag on the 192C, and was more hassle. One possible downside of the pre-loaded charts is that you won’t have a card or CD that you can use with a backup plotter. It’s also not clear how Garmin will update these charts, or if they will work via USB for planning on a PC. I look forward to trying one of these five-inch diagonal units, which also boast “a new look and feel”, in the near future.
Garmin’s charts-included strategy, which will likely come to other new models as they roll out (just guessing), is only one of several major changes in the world of electronic charts that I’ll try to touch on here over the next few weeks.
Very interesting strategy actually. I suspect that this will be a major deciding factor for a lot of people when they buy a chartplotter. It seems that many of the vector systems are lowering their prices and exapnding their range these days. Cmap is offering quite a bit more than they used to for less as well.
I have a new 4008 on preorder while I continue to check it out. I called Garmin and indeed the 42xx models come preloaded with the full Bluechart us coastal database exactly as it would be on a cartridge. I asked about how chart updates would be handled. The rep indicated they’d would send out a data card that would install the updates into internal memory, no need to leave the card in place once the update completes. I didn’t ask about cost but since there is a card involved I bet there is a charge.