How often are chart plotters used in home waters?

[onesea]

the rules are out of date. With AIS and DSC it is safe and commonplace to use VHF for collision avoidance.

Hmmmm now there you could raise question... Just cause they have AIS and DSC does it mean they can understand English?

Better to stick to the rules than to cause a question did they really understand? Fine if you can alter course in a second....

Still its a personal choice...

Allot depends on where you are how much radio noise there is and how significant you think its going to be.

As always you can only make a best decision on the information available at the time....

 

[Elessar]

As always you can only make a best decision on the information available at the time....

exactly. If in doubt err on the side of caution.
It is the case however that ships of all nationailities use VHF routinely to agree, for example, a green to green pass. Fraught with danger if there is any ambiguity. But it is the norm.
I've spoken to ships myself to point out that I intend to stand on. They are happy to alter course. So many small boats break the colregs when they see a big ship so the ship has to guess. They are delighted not to have to.

 

[Rossynant]

Hmmmm now there you could raise question... Just cause they have AIS and DSC does it mean they can understand English?
Better to stick to the rules than to cause a question did they really understand?

Can't say for UK waters, but here is a route with a kind of turning point from danish straights to Baltic, big ships going in line one by one. Tricky. So they adjust the position and place, course, speed, side, etc among them all the time, by VHF, interesting listening when you tack across whole lot
Any accent possible, Germans, Fins, Svedes, Russians, Poles and so on.

Well, me understand bit english too
The only people I found trouble to understand are from UK - some could reeeely do us foreigners a favour learning to pronounce clearly.

Not to mention important thing: we foreigners learned English language. Nobody teaches us London Slang...

 

[Beamishken]

I think a lot of people are missing the point about keeping a listening watch are we all to expect the coastguards limited resources to hear every mayday or panpan

Even if there is no legal requirement to keep a listening watch surely anyone who was within rescue distance of a casualty would WANT to hear the mayday or panpan & if they assisted in the rescue of someone in trouble would feel an enormous sense of pride that they may have helped save a life

to all those who turn off there radios because the iritate them I hope you never need rescue SHAME ON YOU!!!!!

 

[onesea]

exactly. If in doubt err on the side of caution.
It is the case however that ships of all nationailities use VHF routinely to agree, for example, a green to green pass. Fraught with danger if there is any ambiguity. But it is the norm.
I've spoken to ships myself to point out that I intend to stand on. They are happy to alter course. So many small boats break the colregs when they see a big ship so the ship has to guess. They are delighted not to have to.

I communicate daily at work with various nationalities, the less that needs to be spoken the better is my experience...

When it comes to collision situations most vessels are happy to keep out of your way if you say you are going to stand on. Its when there are complications and its not that simple it can all get out of hand...

Can't say for UK waters, but here is a route with a kind of turning point from danish straights to Baltic, big ships going in line one by one. Tricky. So they adjust the position and place, course, speed, side, etc among them all the time, by VHF, interesting listening when you tack across whole lot
Any accent possible, Germans, Fins, Svedes, Russians, Poles and so on.

Well, me understand bit english too
The only people I found trouble to understand are from UK - some could reeeely do us foreigners a favour learning to pronounce clearly.

Not to mention important thing: we foreigners learned English language. Nobody teaches us London Slang...

As an English a native speaker (often surrounded by various foreign nationals) I know exactly what you mean, it is very easy for an English speaker (even if unintentionally) to say the same thing 100 different ways. As you rightly say there are regional accents in the UK that many struggle to understand.

The limited vocabulary of non English speakers often makes communication easier...

 

[FWB]

to all those who turn off there radios because the iritate them I hope you never need rescue SHAME ON YOU!!!!!

*******s!
I enjoy the peace and quiet of a sailing boat. I don't expect my fellow sailors to come to my rescue. You have a mobo so perhaps you don't know what it's like to be out on a sailing boat with no engine or radio noise.

 

[Zagato]

Thanks for the chuckle Dylan, too many saps out there these days!! (not calling you a sap Ken, just nice to hear people speak their minds for a change!)

I have never used one before but is it all so black and white, if you are anchored overnight are you expected to keep the damn thing on all night?

I'm not sure how much use I would be in an emergency, I'd probably ram them or run them over in the water. If it was a mobo I would probably put the poor bugger out with my boat hook Ah C'mon I'm kidding!!

I sent off for my Radio licence 2 weeks ago so will get a better understanding of all this soon.

 

[BrianH]

My plotter is on when I cast off. It sits in a protected dog-house visible from the entire cockpit. In local waters its main usefulness is its SOG display window, which is infinitely better than the VDO system it has taken over from, whose paddle-wheel transducer stopped transmitting. I was anyway fed up with having to keep removing it to clear the crud off.

 

[NormanS]

Thanks for the chuckle Dylan, too many saps out there these days!! (not calling you a sap Ken, just nice to hear people speak their minds for a change!)

I have never used one before but is it all so black and white, if you are anchored overnight are you expected to keep the damn thing on all night?66.

I'm not sure how much use I would be in an emergency, I'd probably ram them or run them over in the water. If it was a mobo I would probably put the poor bugger out with my boat hook Ah C'mon I'm kidding!!


I sent off for my Radio licence 2 weeks ago so will get a better understanding of all this soon.

O. K. Think of it this way. Once when lying at anchor, I heard a Mayday. It got no response. I called him, and ascertained his problem. (Dragging his mooring down onto rocks in a gale). I was able to alert the CG, who called out the lifeboat, which certainly saved the man's life.

I have no interest in any legal requirement, or not, about keeping a listening watch. I just consider it to be good seamanship. My radio is switched on all the time that I am aboard, and awake. It may be something to do with sailing in the less frequented areas, where there is still a tradition of helping each other.

 

[DaveS]

I'd switch the at-the-helm one on just to warm it up: it's supposedly IPX7 waterproof but actually isn't very. If it is not run regularly to dry out the insides the screen steams up when you do turn it on. Besides, it's interesting to see your track after a tack. In familiar waters I don't really use it for navigation.

Care to quote make and model to protect the unwary?


Oh, and in response to the OP, I usually switch on my plotter before departure and off on arrival.

 

[jwilson]

deleted

 

[jwilson]

Care to quote make and model to protect the unwary?

Garmin 3005C, old model now but nearly £1,000 with charting when bought in 2005/6.

 

[jwilson]

*******s!
I enjoy the peace and quiet of a sailing boat. I don't expect my fellow sailors to come to my rescue. You have a mobo so perhaps you don't know what it's like to be out on a sailing boat with no engine or radio noise.

Agreed entirely .....

 

[bitbaltic]

Please don't mind me butting into this VHF thread

My original question came about because I had a choice this season of whether to install a plotter or second GPS for the cockpit (we have fixed GPS at the chart table), I thought long and hard about it and decided I'd not really use the plotter in our home waters, so went for a GPS on the basis that we know what's out there. The question was prompted by a fellow pontoonee who installed a plotter straight away last season because 'there are lots of buoys out there'! It looks to me as though most use their plotters primarily for GPS functions (track, SOG etc) in home waters, so I think I made the right decision on balance.

Now, did somebody say something about VHF?

Cheers

 

[wotayottie]

But since we are explicitly warned not to use VHF for collision avoidance I don't really think we can include that within the meaning of Colregs

Nothing in colregs about that. But no doubt your brief would / will try that argument in court. Good luck!

Now had chance to look at the ITU regulations which govern the conditions under which your licence is issued to you and I guess this is the bit that Antarctic pilot is referring to. The regs say:

31.17 § 8 1) Ship stations, where so equipped, shall, while at sea, maintain an automatic
digital selective calling watch on the appropriate distress and safety calling frequencies in
the frequency bands in which they are operating. Ship stations, where so equipped, shall also
maintain watch on the appropriate frequencies for the automatic reception of transmissions of
meteorological and navigational warnings and other urgent information to ships. However, ship
stations shall also continue to apply the appropriate watch-keeping provisions of Appendix 13
(see Resolution 331 (Rev.WRC-97)*).

However, and its a big however, this bit of the regs governs the implementation of GMDSS which is obligatory to SOLAS vessels but in the most part not to us. But then when you read the court reports from the relatively few serious yachting accidents you find that the courts often read into the laws what they see as prudent professional seamanship. My guess is that they would include having the VHF turned on in their prudent seamanship if not having it turned on was a factor in whatever happened. So as I said earlier, its all wooly. The sensible thing is to have the damned radio switched on.

 

[Grumpybear]

OK- but the trip odometer is the GPS function of the distance over ground, isn't it? As I said, and I should have been more clear, what functions over fixed GPS are you using a chart plotter for in home waters?

My GPS displays SOG but not distance run, so I use the CP for that. Although it is indeed only an aid to navigation, I always switch it on before slipping, like all the other navigation aids. It is also the means available to provide me with an alarm when anchored.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

The argument that you are selfish if you leave your radio off, could be extended to say how selfish you are for not having a radio at all!

This is why there are regulations for commercial vessels and why so many people fight having those sort of regulations creeping into the leisure sector.

I am firmly in the peace and quiet camp. Used to do the same thing in aircraft as well. It is perfectly legal and possible to fly right across Europe not speaking to anyone and we went out of our way to do so.

 

[Beamishken]

O. K. Think of it this way. Once when lying at anchor, I heard a Mayday. It got no response. I called him, and ascertained his problem. (Dragging his mooring down onto rocks in a gale). I was able to alert the CG, who called out the lifeboat, which certainly saved the man's life.

I have no interest in any legal requirement, or not, about keeping a listening watch. I just consider it to be good seamanship. My radio is switched on all the time that I am aboard, and awake. It may be something to do with sailing in the less frequented areas, where there is still a tradition of helping each other.

Glad all Yachties aren't selfish b------- & some do care about there fellow water users !!

 

[maby]

Please don't mind me butting into this VHF thread

My original question came about because I had a choice this season of whether to install a plotter or second GPS for the cockpit (we have fixed GPS at the chart table), I thought long and hard about it and decided I'd not really use the plotter in our home waters, so went for a GPS on the basis that we know what's out there. The question was prompted by a fellow pontoonee who installed a plotter straight away last season because 'there are lots of buoys out there'! It looks to me as though most use their plotters primarily for GPS functions (track, SOG etc) in home waters, so I think I made the right decision on balance.

Now, did somebody say something about VHF?

Cheers

OK - back to the original question - it depends on the nature of your home waters - we sail in a river estuary and do a lot of creek crawling - channels are narrow and depths uncertain - I cannot remember them all and the plotter at the helm is a valuable aid.

 

[maby]

The argument that you are selfish if you leave your radio off, could be extended to say how selfish you are for not having a radio at all!

This is why there are regulations for commercial vessels and why so many people fight having those sort of regulations creeping into the leisure sector.

I am firmly in the peace and quiet camp. Used to do the same thing in aircraft as well. It is perfectly legal and possible to fly right across Europe not speaking to anyone and we went out of our way to do so.

I should say that your attitude is a pretty good argument for regulating the leisure sector, actually.