All,

How are people SECURELY mounting their Garming GPSMAP series units (72 or 76) to their cats? I am looking for a solution that will stand up to a week of Tybee, no matter the complexity.

Front pocket of your PFD. you can't read it mounted on the boat, when you are on the wire

Mike is right, depending on how you're using your GPS. For the most part I found that while driving, looking at the GPS just made me drive bad. Let the crew handle looking at the GPS. We had tried strapping them to our legs into our harness leg straps. Worked for crew, not for me. Put it in a dry bag, hook the strap to your vest, either put it in a pocket or just drop it down inside the front of your vest.

Last year we mounted two Velocitek Speedpucks to the boom, one on each side. We used those for compass/heading or speed. They're big enough to see out on the wire, and for most of the sailing that's about all you need. I ended up velcro strapping my Garmin to the boom next to it, and set it to the big arrow screen and let it navigate through the waypoints put in. That display was big enough to see at a glance, gave me just enough to see where we were. If there was more I needed from the GPS I bugged Alex for it.

Sam, I got a gps dry bag you can borrow for the race that will keep it padded and mostly dry.

It clips into the shoulder strap of your PFD. We'll setup your guys' stuff - don't worry.


Also, I used my foretrex about 10 times more than the hand held. Bailey would only use the handheld when he didn't believe what I was telling him about the bearing to the mark :P

in the front pocket of the crew's PDF, then the helm can read it.
The crew has to spin it around after the tack!

Thanks for all the advice guys, and saving me machine shop time trying to build a custom bracket.

I may buy two more Foretrex's to mount on the boom, but that seems a little unnecessary if I have one on my wrist.

I scored a deal on some AquaPacks (5 for $20, they usually cost $20 a piece) that are specifically designed for VHF radios, but also fit the GPSMap.

If you use something like this you have the option of velcro strapping it in many places (body and boat).

Aquapac pro

Unless they changed the design the foretrex is vulnerable to bending and popping out the pins that secure the wrist strap if it slips down to your wrist and you put your hand down on the boat in a manouver.

Mounting on the boom with the arrow display and waypoints programmed works well. If the arrow is pointing up you are headed to the next waypoint. We use a tack tick on the pole so you can hold a bearing while keeping your head facing forward.

We rarely use the map 76 now. They stay tucked in our PFDs all day.

I agree with Chris on that one. We use a Tack Tick mounted on the front crossbeam and occasionaly look at the Garmin Etrex Legend tucked away in the life jacket just to see how far away the next beer is.
A water proof bag is recommended even for waterproof GPS's. We trashed 3 GPS's in one day during the GT one year because of the intense spray hitting them.

I wish I had a tack tick, but the cost places it out of reach for this years race. I understand the need for waterproof bags, but here's my opinion: IPX7 guarantees waterproof. If it fails for this reason, send it back to the manufacturer. IMO, if they have real customer support, they should take the unit back, warranty or not, and replace it.

Do the Foretrex's typically fail if properly sealed and the strap sealed to the back of the unit (i.e, redundancy if the pin fails)? $45 is a bit much for a wrist mounted Aquapac, considering my Foretrex was $70 shipped.

IPX7 is a calculated waterproofing rating where the device can withstand being submerged 1 meter in water. If you want to depend on that unit to pinpoint the finish line later in the day when you need it, use the dry bag.

However, unlike the Garmin Legend GPS, I have had good waterproof success with the Foretrex GPS units (the ones with sealed rechargeable batteries - 201?) using two additional techniques to keep the pins from popping. 1) I put some Wind Shear adhesive between the gps and the band to give it some more adhesion. 2) I put a spare wrist strap on my wrist between the gps wrist strap and my hand. The second wrist strap keeps the gps from sliding too far over my hand. I pop the pins when I put my hand down on the trampoline and flex it back. The second strap keeps the GPS high enough that the back of my hand can't get to it.

Sam

Take some aquaseal, 5200, liquid nails or some other kind of goo-ey sealant take glue the wrist strap to the back of the GPS unit.

This way the pin can go where-ever the hell it wants and it still stays on your wrist.

And fighting the GPS companies is all well and good - but you aint gonna be doing that during the race. Put the big GPS in a bag and not worry about whether or not you're going to have to deal with customer service on May 16th.

I've killed more waterproof gps' in drybags than out. The condensation from the heating and cooling makes it like a sauna in the bags I had. bad for the unit and fogged the plastic to make reading it tough.
Man, that aquaseal Idea is great, musta been some smart sombitch that came up with that.

'

Did I not give you credit for that? Ooops.

You are partially right in assuming that but the warranty won't be worth a soggy power bar if the unit goes out on you halfway to Fernandina and it's getting dark.
Garmin has been good about warranty stuff. It's just that you can't get it taken care of till after the race.

I've been gluing the Foretrex to the strap with Aquaseal, and it's not failed on several units. Where did you get one for $70? Thanks!

Dave

I lost a foretrex off my wrist on the Jupiter to Cocoa leg last year. While pulling a broken rudder off the transom, the whole unit velcro strap and all went away. As a far as dry bags go, the only way I could keep anything in a drybag dry was first to seal it in a ziplock bag, the seal the ziplock back in another ziplock bag, and then put it in the dry bag.

there is a new dry bag out now called the dry case that has a removable suction pump. i would GUESS that if you pump the air out... its less likely to have lots of condensation inside?

http://drycase.com/

On that idea, how about using one of those food-saver type things? You know, you put stuff in the plastic bag, the machine sucks out the air, then heat seals the bag.

You could seal it up, then put it in the dry bag. Would be great until the batteries needed to be replaced, I guess.

Mike

and all the flavor would be sealed in!