Does anyone still sail without a chart plotter?

[Minchsailor]

May be I belong to the category of you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but i never had a chart plotter untol my present boat so must have managed ti sail something like 50K+ miles without hitting anything.

For passage making I cannot really see the point, as most navigating it looking around for traffic, rounding marks such as headlands, or following a compass course.

Even inshore, I think it is essential to retain situational awareness and look around. I've had new crew on-board, waving the CC and DS, certificates, who have stayed buried looking at the plotter screen oblivious of whats happening in the real world - for example the coaster coming up astern.

Having said that, it is very useful in some situations; I was in NW Norway a couple of years ago navigating through the rocky skerries of the Hustasvika (between Alesund/Molde and Kristiansund) exceptionally well marked by beacons, but running the plotter was a reassurance.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

It's probably my age, but in today's society, I'm suffering from information overload both at home and on the water.

I do have a tablet (somewhere) with MX Mariner which is effectively a chart plotter for me. I have a GPS speed
and echo sounder on a hinge that folds out from the saloon if I want to see them from the cockpit. I do find
the VMG on the handheld particularly useful.

 

[Dan Tribe]

My first foreign trip was River Crouch to Ijmuiden in 1976 in a Vivacity.
All done by DR. We had a compass and a Pilot Pal RDF but never got that to work, and no log.
Navigation preparation consisted of;
1/ We're bound to hit Europe somewhere
2/ head a bit South of Ijmuiden and turn left when we get near the coast.
3/ Know where the incinerator ship Volcano was because we may see that at night.
4/ Learn how to pronounce Ijmuiden so we can ask directions.
5/ At dawn we saw planes landing so deduced that was Schipol, although it could have been Rotterdam.
We made it but at the time we didn't realise how much fun we were having.
At Amsterdam we had to go to a main post office to book a telephone call home.
Modern tech makes life so much easier.

 

[Never Grumble]

I use my iPad more than my chart plotter. Touch screen is so much more user friendly than twiddling all those knobs. I couldn't do without the chart plotter as it provides the positional data to my VHF and position read out. I always have the charts available, much easier to show kids where you are, anyway paper charts are how I learnt to navigate managed to get halfway round the world without a GPS. People relying on plotters need to learn to zoom in so they don't miss details like the submarine barrier or unlit buoys.

 

[Capt Popeye]

Used to up until the pandemic.

Use of some kind of plotter has been a part of courses for some time. So I would say most people who have their own boat or have been through training of some sort use it all the time. Which, for those doing YM exams of some sort get a tad surprised when the examiner says it's broke. Navigate. So that's what instructors do in prep weeks.

As mentioned, I get to sail some boats locally that don't have them. mostly I'm there to help friends develop in sailing so they don't miss what they haven't got.

No doubt that plotters have made sailing much safer and encouraged people to push on a bit further. But personally I'm very comfortable living without anything but the echo sounder.......

Cripes Mr C thought you would be a dedicated Lead and Tallow Skipper ?

 

[Mudisox]

I have used one or two, but more interested in the help in getting an accurate position easily and then thinking about where I will be rather than where I was.
Also I find them of little use on canals.

 

[Adios]

I did my only cross-channel trip on Jissel without a plotter, but was entirely happy to use GPS. I reckon aiming for Cherbourg and finding yourself just too far down tide to get there is an over-rated experience. I have the Navionics app on my phone and an aging tablet but, TBH, don't use 'em much as I pretty much know my way around where I go now. If I planned something adventurous, like a trip round Britain, I rather think it would be the excuse for a decent plotter, with the phone and tablet as a backup. As discussed elsewhere, a set of paper charts would be the system of last resort, but they aren't cheap either, so I'd sooner get second hand ones that I could update as I'm planning my trip, and spend the extra on a better plotter or new tablet. If there's such a thing as a waterproof, daylight visible tablet, I could well be tempted instead of a dedicated plotter.

Thats sounds about right. I reckon its a lot like in the car isn't it, fine, maybe better, to stick with the old ways for small journeys but as you say a large trip and single handed worth having all the help available. I honestly don't know how we managed before satnavs in cars now, maps on knees?? I can barely remember. And visiting a new town having to go to a petrol station for a local A-Z.

There used to be a chandlers in Hatfield Peveral in essex that had a massive stack of expired jumbled up commercial charts. I went to the Baltic on a load I got there, spent hours pulling them out ticking off the list and looking for the most recent ones. But then you want different scales and you don't know where you're going so dont know which ones you need. Was a massive pain. Ended up it being a waste of time and money as I bought leisure folios along the way, much more suitable. I'm sold on the benefits of a plotter with all that in it but still think its a shame.

 

[Adios]

My first foreign trip was River Crouch to Ijmuiden in 1976 in a Vivacity.
All done by DR. We had a compass and a Pilot Pal RDF but never got that to work, and no log.
Navigation preparation consisted of;
1/ We're bound to hit Europe somewhere
2/ head a bit South of Ijmuiden and turn left when we get near the coast.
3/ Know where the incinerator ship Volcano was because we may see that at night.
4/ Learn how to pronounce Ijmuiden so we can ask directions.
5/ At dawn we saw planes landing so deduced that was Schipol, although it could have been Rotterdam.
We made it but at the time we didn't realise how much fun we were having.
At Amsterdam we had to go to a main post office to book a telephone call home.
Modern tech makes life so much easier.

I love it. I guess the difference if you went as was normal then you would be being classed as recklessly ill equipped today. But how much of the adventure has gone, even if most of the fun was had in the pub for years afterwards.

It was pronounced "eye-mouw-den" last time I was there but natives might disagree.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Anyone choosing to stay without a chart-plotter?

Sort of. I do have MXMariner on a tablet, but more as a way of carrying lots of charts than as a navigational tool. Occasionaly we use it to check that we'll miss something.

We all our planning with a mixture of UKHO, UKHO Leisure and Imray Charts. Lots of waypoints in the GPS.

I have three reasons for staying with paper. First of all, a decent-sized plotter, even from ONWA, is still quite a lot of my annual sailing budget. Secondly, if I put it outside it's little use for planning and if I put it inside it's little use for pilotage. Thirdly, I like paper charts. All these reasons are personal and I am sure other people will have different views. I do wonder how people with a plotter at the wheel plan passages, though, particularly in Scotland ...

 

[lustyd]

a decent-sized plotter

My favourite plotter is my GPSMap 62S which has full UK charts and a 1.4" screen. Just big enough to see where you are, while the device fits in a pocket nicely. I often use this on unfamiliar boats instead of the installed unit at the helm.

a decent-sized plotter, even from ONWA, is still quite a lot of my annual sailing budget.

Extremely sensible, if it's a choice between unnecessary gubbins or sailing and maybe a pint then sailing it should be. I desperately love my tech on board but none of it is a requirement by any means.

 

[Never Grumble]

And I still carry Tidal Stream Atlases.

 

[JumbleDuck]

But personally I'm very comfortable living without anything but the echo sounder.......

I'm with you there. I feel naked without one. Only yesterday I measured up the Drascombe for the solar panels which I plan to charge a battery to keep a Seafarer whirly going on her.

 

[cherod]

My first foreign trip was River Crouch to Ijmuiden in 1976 in a Vivacity.
All done by DR. We had a compass and a Pilot Pal RDF but never got that to work, and no log.
Navigation preparation consisted of;
1/ We're bound to hit Europe somewhere
2/ head a bit South of Ijmuiden and turn left when we get near the coast.
3/ Know where the incinerator ship Volcano was because we may see that at night.
4/ Learn how to pronounce Ijmuiden so we can ask directions.
5/ At dawn we saw planes landing so deduced that was Schipol, although it could have been Rotterdam.
We made it but at the time we didn't realise how much fun we were having.
At Amsterdam we had to go to a main post office to book a telephone call home.
Modern tech makes life so much easier.

A bit like our trip from Cruxhaven home , just keep going N xW , if we were dreadfully unlucky we would land in englanderland otherwise we would land somewhere near home ??

 

[Laser310]

I have a 30ft boat - a J/92S

I thought I didn't need a chartplotter, but am having second thoughts, and might get one

It's not a big boat, and most of my sailing consists of leaving my mooring.., sailing around in familiar waters for a few hours.., then returning to my mooring, and having a cocktail at the club bar.

However a few times per year, I do venture to unfamiliar waters.. and will occasionally enter a harbour that I don't know.

I have tried using a phone or ipad.., and it's just not good enough - it's hard to scroll and zoom while steering, often the lighting makes it difficult to read, and sometimes i drop it in the cockpit. Fiddling around with the ipad takes my attention off of actually sailing my boat, and paying attention to navaids, and so on - I am probably worse off with the ipad, than with nothing.

I need something that is not fiddley, has good visibility in all lighting conditions, and just works. A chartplotter mounted on a swing-out arm in the companionway seems like a good solution - I think i can get one to swing out enough that I can manipulate it while still holding the tiller.

 

[davethedog]

We have numerous electronics (plotter at the helm, AIS, Radar, Navionics on tablets etc) and use them a lot. HOWEVER I do know how to navigate and still plot fixes etc on back up paper charts. Same theory with a bow thruster, we have one and do use it now and again (Capn Sensible - have no choice here in Mogan with our bloody tight berth!) but I always have a back up plan and could do it without it (although may not be the neatest berthing of a yacht).

The thing is, boating technology has moved on hugely in the last 10 years (like cars etc) and if people do not take advantage of it then that is their choice.

 

[Never Grumble]

A chartplotter mounted on a swing-out arm in the companionway seems like a good solution - I think i can get one to swing out enough that I can manipulate it while still holding the tiller.

What about a mount for the iPad? You could probably experiment with position etc.

 

[LadyInBed]

Cripes Mr C thought you would be a dedicated Lead and Tallow Skipper ?

Mrs C is.

 

[Uricanejack]

Yes. No chart plotter yet.
definitely much more comfortable with and prefer a chart.

confession time. I often don’t use either.

 

[Laser310]

What about a mount for the iPad? You could probably experiment with position etc.

i frequently find the ipad unreadable, or barely readable, because of the lighting.

I spend more time looking at it, tilting it a bit, and trying to interpret a chart that i can only barely see.., than is safe.

I would also like to have both touch screen and knobs/buttons

 

[Poignard]

[...] But personally I'm very comfortable living without anything but the echo sounder.......

Same here. If I was only allowed one instrument it would be the echo sounder.