How useful is navtex to cruisers

[mocruising]

Anybody got any first hand experience wrt navtex how good are they in the med. My experience in the middle east is that the forecasts pumped out by Bahrain are very generalised. What set to buy would be another +.

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[Spacewaist]

Can talk about Med. However, they are invaluable for the kind of passage you intend to make to get there.

Regular English Language forecasts up to 300+ miles from land from forecasters close by. ie French and Spanish. As someone has sadi - Frenh forecasts often seem more accurate in French waters than UK based.

To have access to a frog without habving to kiss a prince is useful.

As to the type, I have a paper based Nav 4 for years. Id now go for a scrolling electrical read out. Paper too noisy and too clumsy, (although you cna print the forecasts out for the log book - makes good reading a couple of years on).

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[boatless]

Used a cheapy Nasa for about 8 years around Greece. IMHO weather info there is next to useless, but the safety and nav stuff is usually spot on.

<hr width=100% size=1>my opinion is complete rubbish, probably.

 

[SimonJ]

I do not have one but the oft heard comment around Portugal this year was the information sent out was out of date, inaccurate and sea areas were too general.

<hr width=100% size=1>SimonJ

 

[Keith]

have had one now for seven years, an invaluable aidwhen coastal sailing, the electronic ones are now very good and i have my eye on the furuno, expensive but you get what you pay for.......keith

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[BigART]

Can't say much about the Med, but we have been very happy with our dual frequency NASA Navtex Pro in the Channel area, it has worked very well. Unless you can speak the local lingo, the dual freq bit would not be so useful in the Med though. The ICS Nav6 looks very smart but much more expensive.

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[DavidJ]

I've found Navtex very useful during my Rome to Barcelona via the French Coast trips with transmissions from Rome and Toulon (I think?) The biggest problem for me, in a motor boat, is that the transmissions are weak and apparently are weakened by vertical masts etc so generally poor reception in marinas. My yachty friends with more flexibility of where to mount the aerial get far better reception. Reception is very dependant on a decent earth also.

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[charles_reed]

Very useful

But limited use for the weather forecasts, which tend, as already pointed out, to be too generalised and on too short an horizon for passage planning.

Example - I left Fiumicino on a Friday pm, Meteo France issued a gale warning for Bouches de Bonifacio at 20.27 on saturday, by which time I'd already had 37 knots on the anenometer - what didn't help was that I was trying to lay 280 and the wind was WSW, added to which I was being as sick as a dog.

I've found the NASA Weatherman, using RTTY Deutsche Wetterzentrale more value, tho' that too got that particular blow wrong and is also too generalised for the vagaries of the Mediterranean.

By far the best for Central and E med is the Italian continuous automated forecasts on vhf 28, which you can receive, albeit with a lot of background noise, over nearly the whole of the Med.

Withe regard to reception, excepting mountain-ringed marinas, I've had good reception on Navareas I, II and III from the NASA Navtex Pro right through W Approaches of the Atlantic, round Spain and well into Central Med. UK and French stations are best, Portuguese and Spanish tend to be slightly off frequency and the Italian ones are dodgy.
My aerial is about 3m above sea-level, mounted on an aft gallows which carries the wind-generator, solar-panel, radar reflector and radome.

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[davidbains]

I've had one in the Med for several years now and it's a lot better than nothing
but Corfu reception is unreliable and I rely on Split when in the Ionian and
Adriatic. Like several other skippers I have now bought a Weatherman which
gives a five day forecast on RTTY. If you're not a luddite it's possible to download
forecasts into a laptop. I prefer to hear them read out by some techie on 8122Khz
at 05.30GMT every morning. This net gives good warning of approaching bad weather
since you can hear what's happening to boats further west.
The internet when onshore is now a good source of Wx info, particularly Meteomar
on Eurometeo, and its' associated links.
None of them are foolproof (or should I say weather proof) and you need a sailplan
which can quickly vary from BIG to tiny! A bloody great engine helps although I
haven't got one!!

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[MedMan]

More than useful - I would say essential.

I have been in the Med for 7 years and there is no way I would do without Navtex. As with all forecasts, some Navtex stations are better than others, and Navtex, by its nature, is often very general. However, it is frequently the only information available and it has the huge advantage of always being switched on.

Often, the most useful information in Navtex forecasts is the General Synopsis. Local effects predominate in the Med so you have to build up your own forecasts based upon whatever information you can get.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtretreat.com>http://www.yachtretreat.com</A>

 

[charles_reed]

Amazing isn\'t it..

how boatbuilders and marine engineers insist on underpowering (for the med) sailboats.
It's obvious they seldom go cruising in that area.

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[Bayfly]

Shook my chain when someone mentioned the 'synopsis' at last! Forecasting weather will always be dodgy. all we can hope for is some warning of dire moves up there. Navtex does that as well as any, & is cheaper than most!

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[Melody]

We use Navtex on a daily basis in Greece and find it pretty good. (Greek weather can be as hard to predict as British though!)
Large Gin Palaces moored next door can cause rececption problems.
Usually back Navtex up with computer charts via the Internet from Poseidon or University of Athens - don't know if there are similar programs elsewhere.

<hr width=100% size=1>Melody McKay Burton
Yacht Valentine, Greece

 

[dart]

In my experience it works well when anchored or sailing but can be hopeless in a marina. As this is when you make your go/nogo decision this is important. For my 2nd boat I got a Worldspace radio instead of Navtex because if you can see the sky you can get a forecast. This was true I only once couldn't get a forecast (satalite obscured by high cliffs) BUT often the forecasts were/are out of date which was a real shame ...

<hr width=100% size=1>Marine weather maps by mobile: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.zipget.com>ZipGet</A>

 

[Guest]

On a side issue, I would speak up in favour of a Navtex set that prints paper rather than a digital display. I have the ICS4.

The paper has the following IMHO huge advantages over on-screen display:

1. You can rip off the print out and read it in the cockpit. For people who are immune from seasickness, this may not be so important, but sitting down below and fiddling with buttons while squinting at a display means that reading the print out in practise is likely to be put off.

2. Following from above, it's more obvious when a new message is received, because you can see the paper physically printing out, and hear it too. Makes it less likely you'll miss a gale warning when at sea. In harbour, by the way, to stop it keeping you awake at night it can be put on 'pause' to print out in the morning.

3. I've interfaced my Navtex to the GPS. The Navtex therefore prints out our position, heading and speed every 15 minutes. If the ship's/GPS's battery dies and I have omitted for any reason to print our latest position on the chart, I always have a print out of our position not more than 15 minutes old.

The disadvantage is that you have to buy paper for it occasionally. I find that I have to buy a new box (10 rolls) about every 4/5 years.


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