Comeback for chart tables?

[Topcat47]

I wish I had a chart table. Not everyone is completely at ease relying on a chart plotter and autopilot to see them safe.

 

[weustace]

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]

Mine's next to the 12V supply so tends to be cluttered with charging phones, tablets and assorted electronics.

 

[jordanbasset]

Mine's next to the 12V supply so tends to be cluttered with charging phones, tablets and assorted electronics.

Same as mine, at the moment the slow cooker is on it cooking a lovely smelling casserole

 

[KAL]

Same as mine, at the moment the slow cooker is on it cooking a lovely smelling casserole

What? A 12v slow cooker? Tell us more!

 

[jordanbasset]

What? A 12v slow cooker? Tell us more!

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

 

[ithet]

The chart table area is my on board 'Den'. But we do use it for planning and the log.

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

Its must be pulling +20A from 12v?

 

[BelleSerene]

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?

Why do you think that?

 

[[3889]]

Yes, I use electronic charts and have 3 x redundancy, but still put a plot on the paper chart and check the bearings as a backup and because I love seeing the progress on passage.

Me too, but it's soooo much easier on the saloon table

The saloon table is no substitute. CT is essential as I do all passage planning on paper charts.

'Tis for me - and a superior substitute.

I totally agree, its absolutely necessary for the nav laptop. Perhaps we find a new name instead of chart table? Any ideas
angus

Saloon table....and relocate it to the middle of the saloon?

We use our chart table at sea and in port. At sea the saloon table leaves are invariable folded down and secured leaving a tiny area big enough to store your sun glasses or a mug of tea. If we opened one side up there are no real fiddles to stop the chart falling off.

Our plotter is at the chart table (no where to put it at the helm and I think there's an argument to be made for people on watch to look up and out rather than drive the boat round a screen.). The (separate) radar is also at the chart table. We keep a plot going on a paper chart on all but the shortest passages.

The chart table has a secure seat and I can wedge myself in to read when on passage. It's where we passage plan etc.

I'm not averse to having a quick look at Navionics on my phone when I'm in the cockpit but eve got a repeater on the panel over the companionway that shows BTW and distance to run and even a rolling road display with a countdown of miles to go to the waypoint.

If we win the lottery and we're buying a new boat, I wouldn't buy one unless it had a chart table.

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.

You are not a real skipper until you have a chart table to lounge at. I love em.

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?

Same as mine, at the moment the slow cooker is on it cooking a lovely smelling casserole

That's more like it, though I maintain CTs could be better adapted to provide additional galley space.

Need somewhere for the laptop.

How about your lap, which has the advantage of disappearing when you stand up?

 

[Colvic Watson]

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]

So is that on a Feeling 44 ? That's the only production boat I've ever seen that arrangement on, and I think it's rather a good one.

Dehler 43. It works very well. I can even read some displays at the chart table when standing at the wheel.

 

[lpdsn]

Mine's next to the 12V supply so tends to be cluttered with charging phones, tablets and assorted electronics.

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]

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.

The more sorely deprived among us have to make do without a wheelhouse.

 

[john_morris_uk]

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.

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]

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]

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.

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