has GPS/chart plotter made you more adventurous

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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www.keepturningleft.co.uk
it has me

much less frightened of fog, rocks or the dark than I used to be


one of my web friends said that sailing is less fun than it used to be - no more enjoying the excitement of having a bouy or headland come up just where you predicted it would

yours

Timorous Dyl
 
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It has certainly taken the skill out of navigating. This then perhaps gives people the confidence to navigate where they previously might not have.

Does beg te question what people would do if their GPS failed.
 
Knowing where you are definitely gives you confidence, without GPS you can still suddenly find yourself in a fog bank and before I had a GPS weather forecasts were less reliable so it did happen. With a GPS you set off on days you probably would not have, if the GPS fails you are in the same place as being caught out with the weather before GPS existed. (Never has failed in 15 years though)

I'm glad I did navigate cross channel before GPS but I wouldn't be without it now. It was good when ch1 appeared exactly where it should, less fun on someone else's boat with an Rdf set when we were 15 miles out between Cherbourg and Alderney and almost got caught with the tide turning against before getting into Braye harbour.
 
Certainly.

Isn't the old saying about the fact that there "no old brave pilots/sailors about"? relevant here?

We cut closer to rocks and shave miles off journeys through limited passages that were unthinkable before.

If it fails, we'll go back to the old ways (using one of the back-up GPS as well!) until we can get it fixed!
 
dylanwinter said:
it has me


one of my web friends said that sailing is less fun than it used to be - no more enjoying the excitement of having a bouy or headland come up just where you predicted it would
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And much more fun then when the buoy did not turn up where you predicted it would.

Compass steering is a much more relaxed operation as accuracy of the helm no longer decides whether you know where you are.
 
dylanwinter said:
I can find the shallow bits where the ships can't get me
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No guarantee of safety. I left Dover one morning and found myself in thick fog, really thick fog. With radar/plotter in cockpit, I was motoring merrily along when I suddenly passed a small dinghy with a couple of fishermen in it. It was only a few metres away. Didn't show on radar. I could so easily have smashed into them. So shallow water isn't necessarily safe.
 
If by "adventurous" you mean travelling further, I think the answer for me would be "no". The furthest I have been is Baltic Poland, much of the sailing being coastal and therefore not hard from the point of view of navigation. I have done the North Sea crossing a number of times pre-Decca and I don't think that fear of getting lost has held me back. Possibly, radar has allowed me to set out when I previously woundn't have, not necessarily in fog but when poor visibility was likely.

What GPS has done has been to allow me to sail with less stress, modify my plans on the way, and allow my wife, who took her day-kipper, participate fully in the process.
 
Nah to the original question, just more like driving a car..

Wait till you sail where the water is crystal clear, that makes for adventure as you push the boundaries and tickle the lee bilgekeel and main sheet and tack round the dark bits ( works in Poole harbour too:)
 
tillergirl said:
Wot chart plotter?
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+1. But seriously considering it now mainly for the benefit of AIS. Mind you much of the above applies equally well to paper charts and GPS.

Trying to work out the best place to mount a plotter in the cockpit of a 1970s designed 29 footer with tiller steering.
Flush mounting in the bottom washboard is the current favourite.
 
DJE said:
Trying to work out the best place to mount a plotter ....
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We gave up with our 1971 model and fitted it below, where it could be seen from the cockpit and over the Nav Table, next to the charts.

We find we don't need to have it in view all the time. Just keep a weather eye on it etc when it gets serious.
 
GPS for small boats has been around for 25 years or more. The question for me would be: If GPS were no longer available would you become less adventurous?
 
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