Topcat47
Well-known member
I wish I had a chart table. Not everyone is completely at ease relying on a chart plotter and autopilot to see them safe.
Comeback for chart tables?
- Thread starter Minchsailor
- Start date
weustace
Member
I have a home-made ply box that passes for a chart table in my Achilles 24... it sits in what would usually be the starboard saloon bunk, and I find it stays put in all weathers happily. When the outboard well plug is not in use, it is inverted in the cabin and makes an excellent nav seat. The chart table is sized to contain an Admiralty leisure folio with room to breathe in the x-y direction and a couple of these plus a full copy of Reed's in the z direction--it also looks after all important boat docs when they're on the boat and keeps my charts from getting soaked (mostly!)... prefer the nice solid chart table on the 36' HR I sometimes sail on though!
SimonFa
Well-known member
Mine's next to the 12V supply so tends to be cluttered with charging phones, tablets and assorted electronics.
jordanbasset
Well-known member
Same as mine, at the moment the slow cooker is on it cooking a lovely smelling casserole
KAL
Active member
What? A 12v slow cooker? Tell us more!
jordanbasset
Well-known member
No, it's 240v with a separate inverter, which is fixed at the bottom of the chart table and runs to a 4 point electrical socket block fixed to the side of the chart table
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ithet
Well-known member
The chart table area is my on board 'Den'. But we do use it for planning and the log.
Its must be pulling +20A from 12v?
Its must be pulling +20A from 12v?
BelleSerene
Active member
Why do you think that?
[3889]
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Me too, but it's soooo much easier on the saloon table
'Tis for me - and a superior substitute.
Saloon table....and relocate it to the middle of the saloon?I totally agree, its absolutely necessary for the nav laptop. Perhaps we find a new name instead of chart table? Any ideas
angus
Never understood the point of a plotter below, more of a HUD to be briefly referenced as required on deck. When I win the lottery I'll buy a boat with folding leaves on the saloon table, such luxury.
I have one and I'm still not sure I'm a real skipper. Do I need a sharp tongue and a single bulging eye as well?
That's more like it, though I maintain CTs could be better adapted to provide additional galley space.
How about your lap, which has the advantage of disappearing when you stand up?
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Colvic Watson
Well-known member
We've never had a boat with one. I suspect they're more man cave than essential because the saloon or wheelhouse table is just fine.
lpdsn
New member
Dehler 43. It works very well. I can even read some displays at the chart table when standing at the wheel.
lpdsn
New member
I made the mistake of putting a USB charger at the chart table. Daft idea. I even added one in each cabin subsequently but still have to shoo crew away from the chart table one.
BelleSerene
Active member
The more sorely deprived among us have to make do without a wheelhouse.
john_morris_uk
Well-known member
Plotted at chart table below because navigation is MUCH more than just driving a boat round a screen. Even on a relatively simple passage like Guernsey to Salcombe, you need tide tables and almanac etc to work out the best time to leave and even which way round Guernsey you're going to go before heading West. This plan then gets reviewed while you are on passage.
The plotter is fantastic for telling me where I am and where it thinks I will be and even allows for tide NOW but it doesn't allow for tide in the next hour or the change of tide in four hour. It's much more difficult to plan ahead for an inshore eddy that you know will occur off Prawle Point etc etc.
All this is done better at a chart table.
Navigation and pilotage is more than driving a boat round a screen.... put the screen at the helm and that's what you end up doing.
My perfect solution is to have two screens. Master and slave with one at the helm with the AIS on it etc.
Andy61
Member
On the subject of chart tables, I found a great accessory for mine; an IKEA Pröjs desk pad. It is 650mm x 450mm, transparent, quite thick but easily cut to size if required. It saves (pair of) compasses spike from damaging varnished woodwork etc and provides a non-slip surface. Only costs £4.50. I keep my radio licence details (mmsi, call sign and emergency calls procedure) underneath it still perfectly readable.
prv
Well-known member
Quite agree regarding the planning - just that I prefer to do that side of things on an actual chart where I can see the whole area, draw on it, use dividers and a Breton plotter, etc. We inherited a plotter at the chart table, and I never found it useful for that sort of planning. Reviewing progress - again on something like a cross-Channel passage I will have drawn in my expected track, and I can easily see how closely (or not) the line of fixes is following that. I don't really know how I'd go about doing the equivalent operation on a plotter.
As you say though, the plotter is fantastic for what's going on right NOW - and when I need to know about right NOW I will be in the cockpit
I do treat conning and steering as separate tasks though, and put the plotter at the front of the cockpit rather than in the helmsman's face.
Pete
