Chartplotter courses

[Skylark]

I agree about practicing, it was something I got a lot of marital stick for - until we ran into fog one day. Although I have read about plotting target positions and so on, I don’t trouble myself to do any of this in practice, and imagine that this goes for most yachtsmen. It is easy enough to set up a bearing and range line onto one or two targets on my set and although it may offend the purist, I can be reasonably sure that no risk of collision exists if the target moves off the line. In any case, this would be supplemented by AIS data, which is much handier than marpa, which I have but don’t use. I find ‘wakes’ useful too as a general guide, especially if there are multiple targets.

A very pragmatic approach and I can’t see it offending anyone.
Modern Doppler radar sets have incredible capability. Showing a “trail” (wake) is common and some sets can toggle between true and relative motion such that it’s easier to assess aspect.
Plotting three range and bearings of a target over a 12 minute interval doesn’t compare very favourably to your approach. The value of radar in poor viz relies upon the user knowing which way to turn, applying R19d, depending upon which quadrant of the screen where the target appears.

 

[billyfish]

That's very comprehensive. The radar packed up just after I was getting the hang of it. But have not replaced as I find Ais much easier to use. And as I understand it all commercial fishing boats will have to have it soon , the sooner all craft have transponders the better . The only ones that dont like it are the ones that are up to no good.