The GARMIN GPS 72 is a worth approximately £120 depending on what accessories you buy with it. The unit has been designed for the marine environment and is water proof and floats, which is a good start if, like me you enjoy sports such as sailing or kayaking. It has no frills looks, but is solidly built and easy to use. The screen view, although grey in colour is big and clear. The unit has all the facilities that I need for navigation on my kayak and whilst walking in the mountains. I have also used the unit in my car, matching up the shape of the route with that on the paper map to obtain my position. The map database that comes with the unit is extremely simple and consists of some positions of marine buoys and major towns and cities. I have developed my own map on the unit by creating waypoints at various well known places. The gps is not at the bottom of the range, and has some useful features such as off course alarms (useful when sailing). You get a fair amount of GPS for your money from possibly the best manufacturers of gps units, GARMIN. As you may be aware, you can now buy GPS units with advance digital colour maps installed in them (such as you in-car nav systems) These are expensive! I simply use a paper map in conjunction with the information the GPS 72 gives me, its simple, cheap and you can always have new updated maps!
While travelling, a tail of your path will be drawn on the map screen, this is very useful for fixing positions and retracing your steps, however the unit does have a memory limit and the tail will start to delete at the end after you exceed this memory.
The GPS can give you all sorts of information such as your average speed, running average, top speed, trip and odometer. You can set up navigation to waypoints, and the GPS will give you the course to steer, estimated time of approach etc.
Getting a signal from the satellites: The Gps will work almost anywhere in the world, the quality of the fix however varies depending on how many satellites can be seen. If hills or trees in particular obscure the view of the sky, you wont get such a good fix. In good conditions the accuracy of the fix can come down to about 13 ft from your true position.
The battey will last a good 8-14 hours from my experience, i suggest buying rechargables with a charger, you will save £££
I would recommend you buy this model if your looking for a simple, easy to use, no frills GPS with excellent features, clear display and great accuracy. This is a must for any small boat sailor!
Hope I have helped Paul
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