Chartplottrr

[scottu]

Anyone bought a chart plotter from the states? I take it they work ok in Uk once a Uk card is fitted?

[willk]

Originally Posted by scottu

Anyone bought a chart plotter from the states? I take it they work ok in Uk once a Uk card is fitted?

Many US chartplotter are geofenced. They will always show a location warning on startup and not display in Metric. Some will not offer certain navigation features such as autorouting. Warranty will be return to sender...

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by scottu

Anyone bought a chart plotter from the states? I take it they work ok in Uk once a Uk card is fitted?

Short answer no. But unless you are going to smuggle it in to the UK, you will very likely also get hit for VAT & Import duty + "handling fees", this will easily add 30% to the purchase price.
There are currently some very good deals on UK spec Lowrance kit.

[jeffstevens763@g]

I bought a hummingbird from the states had no probs with it, i just bought some electrical plugs from there too under the global shipping program £16 to ship no duty to pay you would have to look in to it for a plotter

[Iron Dials]

As mentioned above, geofencing is an issue (although you would wonder what happens as you sail across 30W- The Truman Show springs to mind)

I was advised by WestMarine that the best and easiest thing to do is to speak directly to each manufacturer's US customer care department- generally free to call if you are in the US or email- and ask them if the plotter you want to buy is geofenced.

When you include the cost of local charts (most come with US basemap, or 1 free US chart) I found it hard to see a big enough advantage to going down this route, US warranties, returning faulty units, etc..

[Orwell boy]

i have a garmin 541s from fllorida on a boat i bought ,preloaded with us maps but bought a chart for uk and ireland and all is good ,perfect