Electronic or paper charts

[Eric79]

I'm currently working through the theory part or the Day Skipper course. In the part on navigation which I think was written at least 3- 5 years ago they state most skippers prefer paper charts to using a computer. I was wondering if this still is the case or to people now only use paper as back up?

 

[Otter]

iPad as plotter, paper as backup.

 

[maxi77]

I must admit that although I was taught with paper nearly 50 years ago and used it professionally I now prefer electronic. Even so I do believe that until you can use paper properly electronic has potential dangers, you need to have a decent grasp of what the electronics are doing for you to see when there are problems

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Both; they do different jobs. Paper for a good overview, for planning, for getting the lie of the land, to put on the dining table when talking over the possibilities for tomorrow. And, of course, to practise the skills of pilotage and coastal navigation; you never know when the electronics will fail (and I'm too familiar with electronics and software to believe they won't fail!).

Electronic for detail, for convenience and for an integrated navigational system.

I mostly use the electronic charts but have a full set of paper charts for my area, and ensure the right ones are on the chart table when on a passage beyond the area I know well.

 

[Chalker]

Plotter to use regularly but I always have paper for when the electronics packs up.
Imray scale level and a good almanac is the minimum fallback for me
This is from someone who spent 30 years designing waterproof radio equipment and the networks.
Paper just doesn't have the failure modes of electronics!

 

[forelle541]

We may all end up with electric charts if virtual buoyage takes off.

 

[maxi77]

We may all end up with electric charts if virtual buoyage takes off.

I agree it is clearly going down that path, I do find though that the plotter does not give the spatial awareness you get from paper, and I fear that in an all electronic age that spatial awareness will be lost

 

[NB Willawaw]

I navigate in a professional sense and I like both. They both have pros and cons.

I like to do my passage planning on paper and then use electronic for route monitoring.

I'm currently working through the theory part or the Day Skipper course. In the part on navigation which I think was written at least 3- 5 years ago they state most skippers prefer paper charts to using a computer. I was wondering if this still is the case or to people now only use paper as back up?

 

[forelle541]

In the UK we do have both synthetic and virtual buoyage in use now.

 

[PhillM]

Recent day skipper (2 seasons)

Paper for planning and day sailing

Hand held GPS for waypoints and help to identify harbour enterances etc

Have notepad with chart plotter and ais but so far never used it while sailing. Useful for planning but tbh I work with computers so last thing I want to use onboard is a pc.

 

[Blue5]

Both; they do different jobs. Paper for a good overview, for planning, for getting the lie of the land, to put on the dining table when talking over the possibilities for tomorrow. And, of course, to practise the skills of pilotage and coastal navigation; you never know when the electronics will fail (and I'm too familiar with electronics and software to believe they won't fail!).

Electronic for detail, for convenience and for an integrated navigational system.

I mostly use the electronic charts but have a full set of paper charts for my area, and ensure the right ones are on the chart table when on a passage beyond the area I know well.

+1 nicely explained.

 

[LadyInBed]

iPad as plotter, paper as backup.

Chart plotter, paper for wiping bum

 

[duncan99210]

Chart plotter for actual navigation, backed up by Open CPN on the laptop and full paper charts of the cruising area. Handheld GPS to back up plotter and smartphone with the Navonics app to back all of the above up!

That said when we're actually in our main cruising grounds, most of the nav is done by pilotage anyway

 

[Neil_Y]

I've often just printed the electronic charts at different scales either at home or on board A4 size. So we had paper and electronic. If I do them at home they are laminated so I can use chinograph to plot position updates.

 

[Laurie]

All of which seems to point to a Yeoman plotter...............

 

[rob2]

As others have said, the electronic screen just doesn't lend itself to giving a meaningful overview. I am just too tight to go electronic, although it does have advantages in conjunction with paper in poor visibility - one can eyeball one's position rather than dead reckoning or plotting the Lat/Long from the GPS.

It's the longer term effects that worry me. I have a friend who is so reliant upon the Tom Tom in her car that she can't find the pub over the road without it. When it was my turn to drive, I asked her which way she had been going (weekly) for the past six months and she had no idea! It's this reliance on technology leading to a lack of observation of one's whereabouts that will prove lethal at sea - well, probably too near the coast!

Rob.

 

[prv]

Paper for navigation, with Yeoman to automate the clerical work which provides an equivalent of both the "you are here" arrow and the moveable cursor that reads out range and bearing, that are found on a chartplotter. I also gain the situational awareness you get from a full-sized chart rather than a little window, and can sketch, draw and measure things directly, which suits the way my brain works. There's also something rather reassuring / satisfying about going below, mid-Channel at night, to plot an hourly position, write the time and log reading next to it, and see how the line of little marks is progressing across the chart and roughly following the sketched-in S-curve. Gives me a nicer feeling than just watching an arrow moving across a screen, maybe I'm odd

I do have a small plotter, whose official purpose is night pilotage into unfamiliar ports, but in practice it's mostly only been dragged out of its locker to act as an AIS display across the shipping lanes.

I keep my paper charts up to date, since it's free, and let the plotter card age gracefully, since it decidedly isn't.

Pete

 

[oldsaltoz]

I must admit that although I was taught with paper nearly 50 years ago and used it professionally I now prefer electronic. Even so I do believe that until you can use paper properly electronic has potential dangers, you need to have a decent grasp of what the electronics are doing for you to see when there are problems

+ 1 from me.

 

[aslabend]

I like to do my passage planning on paper and then use electronic for route monitoring.

+1

Working through the route carefully on paper charts before inputting those details into the chart plotter and then using that as a check means I've had two chances to get the details of the route into my thick head. I mainly singlehand so the less time I spend below checking nav the better.

 

[temptress]

I'm currently working through the theory part or the Day Skipper course. In the part on navigation which I think was written at least 3- 5 years ago they state most skippers prefer paper charts to using a computer. I was wondering if this still is the case or to people now only use paper as back up?

We use both. On longer passages (say at least one night at sea) we tend to use electronic for the passage and paper for local routing.

I prefer looking at the paper when doing pilotage in unfamiliar waters. Can't remember when I last did a 3 point fix or running fix or used the sextant in anger, although we sometimes switch off all the electrics on a passage just to prove we can still do it without.