How important is it to have a chart plotter at the wheel pedestal?

Kukri

Kukri

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A friend and fellow member of this place suggested it and I rubbished the idea saying I wanted my chart plotter at the chart table.

Now I am having second thoughts and thinking of adding another plotter, at the wheel.

(The boat is not an ideal ditch crawler.)

What do people think?
 
We faced this dilemma 10 years ago. We had no plotter, but purchased a plotter and radar system for installation.

Our sailing is invariably coastal cruising. Entering tricky Ports and Harbours, often at night or in bad visibility was of great importance to us, so I knocked up a bracket and it was mounted at the pedestal. Never regretted that decision.

If you are crossing Oceans, switching on once a day to mark the position on the hard chart and enter the position in the log would suffice. Once within 100 NM of your destination have it on 24/7. In those conditions a plotter at the chart table is fine.

IMHO, of course.
 
My previous boat also had its plotter at the chart table, but that really is a remnant of the way it used to be, a paper chart on the chart table.
This boat came with the chart plotter under the sprayhood and I have become a huge fan of this arrangement. First of all, the cockpit is where your plotter is at its best, it affords you a permanent update that you can immediately relate to what you see around you. No more popping your head out of the companionway to check what you see on the chart. Secondly the location under the sprayhood gives you shelter, shades your screen and enables anyone else in the cockpit to keep an eye on navigation/pilotage, which is a boon for crew involvement. A plotter at the wheel does not have this advantage.
I have no need for a plotter on the pedestal. Even with my poor eyesight I can see enough of the screen from behind the wheel and at the same time the screen does not distract me from the surroundings. If there is a dedicated navigator, communication with the helm is instant, without shouting up and down the companionway. If I combine navigation and helming, the autopilot enables me to go to the screen to navigate.
I regularly sail solo and I have never felt the need for a plotter at the wheel. When I’m on my own, the autopilot does most of the steering and I sit in front of the wheel, navigating and trimming as necessary.
 
Right by the wheel. Unthinkable for me anywhere else. Even the spray hood is too far away. I sail a lot amongst reefs and it would take too long to walk forward or worse, to go below to check my position. If relying on the radar to navigate it’s also necessary to have it close.
 
Agree with the above. At sea location for the plotter isn't critical 99% of the time although with AIS display on my plotter even at sea it's nice to have the display in the cockpit. However as rotrax said, entering a tricky harbor at night, with nav beacon lights hidden in the lights from shore, maybe a cross channel here and there, a plotter right at the helm is the best location by far.
 
I have one at the wheel and a smaller one down below on the chart table.

The one below is the master one and where the Navionics sim card is kept. I always think a chart table looks bare without a chart plotter. It is very useful when in a windy anchorage and you have the anchor alarm on and the track going. And passages are usually planned and way points entered on this one.

I have always though chart plotters above deck out of reach of the helmsman is very strange idea! westhinder has explained everything!

I like to switch to radar every now and then - and click on AIS targets and see what big ship are coming my way and how fast and if I need to alter course. So a plotter at the wheel is essential. It is especially useful when anchoring. And when entering marinas at night - even though I try not to it still happens. For night sailing I set my radar and AIS alarms and will often put the cover on so I can enjoy the moonlight.
 
Most definitely plotter in the cockpit, I would say, if there's only to be one. Much more useful there, in my view.

If you can afford 2, then the second one below is a nice to have.

My thinking will be probably be influenced by my style of navigation (and boat). I've never had a boat of my own with a dedicated chart table, though I've used them (and second plotters there) as navigator on others' boats. I tend to do my 'strategic' nav and passage planning on paper charts any way, so my main use for the plotter is the detail of what's around now and coming up in the near future .

Though it's nice to sit below in the warm while punching in the next waypoint for the poor soul on the tiller in the rain, I can't see there's anything that can be done on a plotter below that can't be done in the cockpit if need be, while (from my perspective) most of the benefit of a plotter is from having it right there in front of the helmsman/woman and would be lost by having it below, if there were only one plotter.
 
I have survived all these years with no plotter or radar in the cockpit.... but both are viewable from the cockpit.
I would have a radar upstairs before a plotter.... and if I did have instruments in the cockpit they would be under the dodger... which the wheel is not...
Offshore I am rarely on the wheel.
In close pilotage waters if serious pilotage is involved then crew is on the wheel while I manage the pilotage.
These days I have an iPad with an I-sailor Chilean portfolio on it. Can have that under the dodger ... for what little use it sometimes is....IMG_0015.jpg
 
Another one very strongly in favour of a plotter in the pedestal at the wheel. One warning: get the height right as it may interfere with the line of sight ahead of the yacht. One of my regular crew is a wee bit height challenged and cannot see over ours.
 
Plotter at chart table works fine for us.

If we’re really worried about our position and can’t be bothered to go below to check, it either adds excitement to the day or I might have a quick look on my phone app.
 
At the wheel, though it's nice to have a second one at the chart table. If only one, at the wheel. If I had to do without instruments, the first to go would be the wind dials, the second the chart table plotter, the third the speed log, then the plotter at the wheel, then the depth instrument, and finally the handheld battery GPS.

I've sailed a lot of miles with NO instruments, but my favourite now is a plotter at the wheel. Though you do have to be able to confirm visually that the charting is right - like Frank above I've sailed OVER an island in this case in the China Sea on the plotter track, whilst safely sailing past it. Now here in SW England the plotter could take me to my exact mooring in almost zero visbility, or onto an specific pontoon berth..
 
We had the chart plotter both at the helm and at the chart table on a AWB
there were pros and cons for both places but if limited to one the helm would take preference for our type of sailing normally two up
the main dislike I found with the helm unit was that visitors or less experienced would zoom in both on the display and in reality .
in one occasion sailing into a bay rather than round a headland
when introducing people to sailing I would in fact switch it off
 
My plotter is by the wheel and the crew can see it. Makes it so much easier when navigating amongst the rocks at The Scillies. Can make the boat course interesting as the helm 'plays' with plotter without the autohelm on!
 
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