What is the point?

[michael_w]

Gently boat hunting as the current ride is under offer.
It seem that a lot of designers seem to favour a sloping chart table. They're fine if you're a politician lying to the public or a clergyman haranguing your flock, but hopeless when you want to use the chart table as an impromptu bar or as a work bench, let alone try and navigate on the thing whilst sailing.

 

[pvb]

Sloping chart tables are surely an olde-worlde thing, Westerly etc. Look for something more modern - it'll probably have hot & cold water as well!

 

[Praxinoscope]

Of course most of the time the chart table won't be level anyway and could well be sloping to Port or Stbd depending upon which tack your on.
I can see advantages and disadvantages to a top to bottom slope on the chart table, but as I have never sailed on a boat with a sloping chart table I can't quantifythem accurately.

 

[mjcoon]

I'm sure I have sailed with skippers who reacted badly to any use of "their" chart table as a bar or breakfast table, however impromptu. Maybe it is pressure from that old school that leads to the sloping table?

 

[bitbaltic]

I have never heard of or seen such a thing. What boats have sloping chart tables?

still it’s prob better than a modern boat with no chart table at all.

 

[prv]

I’ve seen one with a near-vertical chart “table”, like an old-style draughting board. It swung down from the deckhead on hinges and was about four feet wide.

You won’t be surprised to learn that this was an eccentric - though by no means impractical - homebuild, not a production boat.

Pete

 

[Concerto]

Sloping chart tables are surely an olde-worlde thing, Westerly etc. Look for something more modern - it'll probably have hot & cold water as well!

Funny that my Fulmar has a flat chart table and have not seen a sloping one on any Westerly I have been on.

Personally I can manage without a chart table and frequently use the table. You could always change a sloping table for little money if the rest of the boat is right.

 

[pvb]

I have never heard of or seen such a thing. What boats have sloping chart tables?

Funny that my Fulmar has a flat chart table and have not seen a sloping one on any Westerly I have been on.

Westerly Renown, and Westerly Pentland, for starters. Our local Westerly expert needs to get out more!

 

[bitbaltic]

Westerly Renown, and Westerly Pentland, for starters. Our local Westerly expert needs to get out more!

View attachment 115296

Don’t lump me in!

hanse’s barely have chart tables but that’s not my fault

 

[pvb]

Don’t lump me in!

You asked the question...

 

[bitbaltic]

You asked the question...

True!

 

[LittleSister]

Sloping chart table gives better visibility of the chart (even more so if the chart faces across the boat and the boat is heeled away from you), but most importantly you will know which end your pencil has rolled to!

If you want a horizontal surface for the display of canapés, objets d'art and pot plants then a chart table is probably not for you.

 

[mikegunn]

Gently boat hunting as the current ride is under offer.
It seem that a lot of designers seem to favour a sloping chart table. They're fine if you're a politician lying to the public or a clergyman haranguing your flock, but hopeless when you want to use the chart table as an impromptu bar or as a work bench, let alone try and navigate on the thing whilst sailing.

The advantage of a sloping chart table is that it discourages the placement of any thing other than a chart upon it.The clue is in its title “Chart table”. If a pencil or parallel rule is by chance left upon it, it will gravitate to the bottom of the table awaiting its next application. If you want to use it for some other purpose, such as repository for a bowl of fruit or cup of tea, then place some chocks under it. Best not to go sailing like that though.
Mike

 

[lustyd]

still it’s prob better than a modern boat with no chart table at all.

They’re called work areas now and generally designed for laptops but most models do still have them and all I’ve seen function as a chart table on the rare occasion someone would use one. Personally I’d agree with OP and think the bar on Uma is a great feature and way more versatile.

 

[johnalison]

I had a sloping fold-out chart table in my Mystere. this was my last pre-Decca boat, when navigation at the chart was one’s only way of knowing where one was. I don’t recall the slope being a problem in any way, and the posture you could adopt was less prone to induce sea-sickness. I have misgivings about half-size chart tables. Some of my charts are in folio form, but not all by any means.

 

[Tranona]

The MG 335 featured in this month's PBO is commended for its sloping chart table.

 

[lustyd]

What was the reasoning behind that?

 

[Tranona]

No particular reasoning, just part of the general positivity of the navigation area (and the whole boat, he is a fan) - although it did say it was "quite steeply raked" which is not how it looks in the photo!

 

[Koeketiene]

I'm sure I have sailed with skippers who reacted badly to any use of "their" chart table as a bar or breakfast table, however impromptu.

Guilty as charged. ?
However, since I sail mostly singlehanded these days...

 

[jimi]

Westerly Renown, and Westerly Pentland, for starters. Our local Westerly expert needs to get out more!

View attachment 115296

Probably to encourage sailing on starboard tack ;-)