Chart plotter on a budget

[Topcat47]

I find this very interesting. I have a pretty good nav station on Snark, but recently, when single-handing, I've wished for a plotter I can use in the cockpit. Something small as I've not got a lot of free flat surface to mount it and definitely cheap as I"m a notorious tightwad. How would an android tablet in a rugged case match with the small budget plotters currently available?

 

[Poignard]

How will you see it in strong sunlight?

 

[johnalison]

Me too. Having to use a leadline or a calibrated pole would be a great inconvenience. Unless I was very familar with the area I intended to sail in, I'd be reluctant to put to sea without a depth sounder. The absence of any other electronic navigstional instrument wouldn't bother me.

It happened to us on our last boat. The Navico sounder self-destructed while we were cruising the Dutch Frisians for the first time. We didn't feel like forking out for a replacement until we got home. I think the inventor of navigation buoys should have been given a medal.

 

[blampied]

That must have been an interesting cruise. Have you written it up anywhere?

Did you have an outboard as backup?

Not unless you count the 2.5 tender outboard, wouldn't do much to push a 33' Aquastar.

 

[blampied]

That must have been an interesting cruise. Have you written it up anywhere?

Did you have an outboard as backup?

I was going to write it up, Motorboats Monthly agreed to feature the trip, sent them the first installment but they wanted higher resolution photos to go with it, went out and bought a new camera, sent the photos, heard nothing else.
A month or so later when I went home to Jersey for a week, I pick up a copy to see if it was in that months, only to find it was last edition, the Magazine had closed down.

 

[dolabriform]

I am.

Depends on the situation, of course, which is why I asked the OP where he's sailing. But please remember this is a 17-foot boat being used for local pottering by someone who's still learning how to sail. He's not going to be lost in fog off the Casquets.

Try not to project your own style of sailing onto what the OP is likely to be doing.

When I was a kid we didn't carry any kind of chart in our Wayfarer cruising around Chichester Harbour. The OP's boat is only a foot longer, and his sailing may well be similar at least to start with. Since he can't just pull up his centreboard a little when he nudges a sandbank (though, with two-foot draught he could potentially get out and push ), and since it's relatively cheap these days, he might as well install the Navionics app on his phone to keep an eye on what's around him below the surface. But really, it's probably going to be mostly eyeball anyway.

Pete

As a L17 owner all I can say is +100

 

[dolabriform]

How will you see it in strong sunlight?

I use the flap on my ipad case as a sun shade, works really well

 

[Poignard]

I use the flap on my ipad case as a sun shade, works really well

That's an idea! My tablet case is hinged at the bottom so it wouldn't do but I'l experiment with something else. I suppose even a cardboard box would do at a pinch :encouragement: