Course Up?

The point is not which method is quicker but which is less prone to errors of interpretation. I can't presume to speak for others but I respect the opinions of professional radar operators in relation to radar. As for charts, it is purely personal, but I would find course up very peculiar myself, as well as it being unsuited to my screen layout.
 
It's another one of those strange subjects - a number of posts where grown men are being rude about which way up other people put the pixels on their chart plotter. Are we sailers inherently over opinionated? Why do we care so much about what other people do, strange and a bit weird :)
 
mjcoon said:
Try thinking clockwise and ACW instead of left/right port/starboard. Unless you're one of those who have to spin a winch to remind yourself which way round they go... ;-)

Mike.
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Comment was tongue in cheek.! 30 years in aviation where you always orientate the map course up its what I'm used to.
 
My plotter has several preconfigured pages. Page one is chart North up similar zoom to real chart size. Page 2 is chart course up, zoomed in. I find it most convenient to see the overview as if looking at a real chart and swop pages for approaching hazards or following a river.
 
I use course up when piloting
I'm more interested in what's ahead of me than what I have passed.
By putting the boat icon down at bottom edge of the display I utilize the screen surface better.
If I'm approaching a turn i can move the boat starboard or port on the chart.

My MFD let me choose between
1. North up (NU) - Only use this if have to find a remote location on the chart (where i know
2. Heading up (HU) - Compass heading up
3. Course up (CU) - which is next waypoint at the top (hardly use this)

It's clearly visible what mode that is active.

Anther feature I use is the COG/SOG predictor arrow, it's an arrow from the bow of the boat icon where the pointy end shows my predicted position in 5 min (inshore - adjustable time)

I have no problem relating to the paper chart that is always north up.
 
Since having a radar and later a plotter, I've always used course up.
N up is I think particular to charts and a navigator with his head buried somewhere below.
When I was taught to read maps in the Army, I was taught to orientate the map and fold it so you effectively use it course up, so I have no problem using my plotter that way, and it is nice when coming up on deck sleepy eyed to look at the plotter and know that what is at the top of the screen is in front of you rather than have to check the compass first to see which way we are pointing!
 
Really surprised that so many people use course up. Head up i can understand but i find course up the least useful of the 3 options. And I dont see how course up can work for pilotage at all. Thus I think some people are saying course up when they mean head up. They are not the same thing.

It just shows we all think differently. My car satnav is north up too so it's not a speed thing. I never confuse left and right but i do if on course or head up.
 
No I meant course up. Head up leaves the display moving about too much. I set the next waypoint and the image is a nice stable one, if you use head up it's constantly changing. It's different on long passages, tidal offset means North up works better for me so I can relate it to the paper chart which I only ever use for passages where cross tides are involved, calculating cross tide effect over an 80 mile passage isn't very easy on a 7 inch screen.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
No I meant course up. Head up leaves the display moving about too much. I set the next waypoint and the image is a nice stable one, if you use head up it's constantly changing. It's different on long passages, tidal offset means North up works better for me so I can relate it to the paper chart which I only ever use for passages where cross tides are involved, calculating cross tide effect over an 80 mile passage isn't very easy on a 7 inch screen.
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Well that shows you understand the difference and that is very logical. It makes sense, but you cant use course up for pilotage can you? Unless you have loads of waypoints.
 
I think the confusion with head up or course up is partly due to individual plotter software. Although I use a course up display, it is only true course up when waypoints / autopilot info is being used. If nothing is entered it defaults to instantaneous heading, although the smoothing algorithm feels better than head up.

K
 
Kerenza said:
I think the confusion with head up or course up is partly due to individual plotter software. Although I use a course up display, it is only true course up when waypoints / autopilot info is being used. If nothing is entered it defaults to instantaneous heading, although the smoothing algorithm feels better than head up.

K
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That's interesting and sounds very sensible if you like non north up. What plotter?
 
I always use north up. I think that in a boat it is the magnetic bearing that aligns me as often you don't have visual clues. When orienteering I turn the map to correspond to head up as I can then align visual clues such as topography. On the boat my head has a north up chart of the UK in it (and the world in less detail). The paper charts correspond to this and I like the plotter to do so likewise. If it was head up then it may be locally useful but would be gobbledygook in the bigger picture.

The plotter has an icon for the boat with a coloured port and starboard and a clear bow shape so it is not hard to orientate yourself to it. If it kept changing every time I looked at it I would lose my mental image of where I was which is, I think, the most important thing for if the equipment fails.
 
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Elessar said:
Really surprised that so many people use course up. Head up i can understand but i find course up the least useful of the 3 options. And I dont see how course up can work for pilotage at all. Thus I think some people are saying course up when they mean head up. They are not the same thing.

It just shows we all think differently. My car satnav is north up too so it's not a speed thing. I never confuse left and right but i do if on course or head up.
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You are quite right I should have said head up.
I was thinking of COG when I said Course up which again isn't the same as Head up!!

my plotter doesn't flick around as the head moves with wind and wave action, I can set the number of degrees that the head has to move before the plotter chart reorentates itself. I think I have it set to somewhere between 30 and 40 degrees.
 
Kerenza said:
Nothing esoteric, Ray E80 on helm with repeater down below.
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Ok you have taught me that I dont know how my own plotter works !

It makes sense now. I am still of North up persuasion myself, but I need to give people options when I'm teaching them. I am genuinely surprised how many people like course/head up but that shows i need to get familiar with it and teach it. Learn something every day....
 
LadyInBed said:
...
my plotter doesn't flick around as the head moves with wind and wave action, I can set the number of degrees that the head has to move before the plotter chart reorentates itself. I think I have it set to somewhere between 30 and 40 degrees.
Click to expand...

as thats my main objection to head up, the world moving around you (a bit medieval with Earth/Sun though dont you think :) ), that sounds a useful feature - what plotter?
 
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