Catamaran Sailing
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Garmin 12XL Handheld GPS

I just traded in the Garmin II that I bought for a Garmin 12XL. The 12XL kicks butt. It never loses the signal no matter where I have it. It picks up fine inside my brick house. I must say that I can recommend this unit after using it for just one day. Garmin also makes the IIplus which is just like the 12XL except it has an antenna and zoom buttons. I miss the zoom buttons but I don't miss the antenna at all. You also can't lay the 12XL on it's side and change the display. I still like the 12XL the best for sailing. The Magellen 3000XL is almost a duplicate of my Garmin 12XL so this would be another possibility. But after talking in the store for a while and reading some newsgroups I went with the Garmin.
My new GPS tracks much better than the other one so they are not all alike. It will track speed very accurately but it is always 2-3 seconds behind what you are doing at the current time.

What I didn't realize before I looked at these things is a few items that suprised me.

  • They give compass direction of your current direction.
  • They have speed, Max speed, Avg speed and other features.
  • They read altitude.
  • They are easy to use.
  • They are Very small. It fits in my front pocket when walking around.
  • They work well on land and sea.
  • They will be useful for a bouy race as well as a distance race.

    I can finally tell people how fast my boat actually goes. Not my usual answer of "I must have been doing about 40mph out there on that reach!!"

    I'm off to the Steeplechase to try it out. I think a race like this would be very tough without a GPS unless you knew the area well beforehand.

    Mike Hill mhill@inlink.com

    Available from West Marine. For details on this and other Garmin GPS products, visit their website at www.garmin.com.
    • Bill Mattson
    mattson@earthlink.net