Is Navtex still necessary?

stuartwineberg

stuartwineberg

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Just had an interesting chat with the usually very well informed people at Hardy Marine who made my boat. I will be going cross channel in the summer and instinctively want to get a Navtex unit so I can get English language weather info. Their advice was that although no problem to fit a unit, they rarely do so now on their boats as people are going to other sources for weather info. I assume they mean internet and phone but all these cost money to access. what's the consensus out there - is Navtex a dinosaur?

Cheers
Stuart
 
IMHO the answer to your question is definitely not.

1. Navtex gives you navigation warnings as well as forecasts and weather warnings for both sea area and coastal waters. You only have to learn a few French weather words to understand there coastal forecasts.
2. If you leave it on while onboard, the information in 1 above will be available to read at any time and relieve you from having to stick to the CG MMSI broadcast schedules
3. As you say its free and doesn't rely on any internet or 'phone connection being available.
 
Not a dinosaur but also not a necessity. It's nice to have.
In addition, you may decide to just get a Navtex engine and display the info on a multi purpose display. i.e. Raymarine chartplotter.
 
Up to you, I suppose.
Necessary for a channel crossing? Nothing is: you can get there by Eurostar...

Desirable? To me yes: if it works, it is an independent source of information that gets recorded and is available at any time.
 
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but also not a necessity. It's nice to have.

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I disagree, the moment you are away from your home port and home port luxuries, such as nipping home etc etc. navtex becomes IMO a necessity on board.

For day sailors or marina hoppers I can possibly accept your point, but for those who spend time on anchor or moorings then no, I believe you are wrong.

OTOH. a pedant might argue that navtex was not found on cruising yachts until the mid eighties with the nasa navtex units. But lets not argue progress, otherwise we should all own coracles.
 
Away from the coast mobile phone forecasts are unavailable.

I was reading the other day that extra content will be added by the Niton transmitter as an experiment. If successful it will be added to the other uk transmitters.

Google navtex to find out more.
 
I like it a lot, especially for the fact that bulletins are recorded there and there is no need (well less so) of listening to radio broadcasts at fixed times

I am not sure to agree with others about french coastal forecasts: bulletins available in French language are offshore bulletins, not coastal.
Sea areas are Antifer, Casquets, Ouessant, Fastnet, Sole, Iroise, etc.
http://secours-meteo-fr.axime.com/FR/download/mer/large-France.pdf


Don't know much about differences in the channel, but in south brittany where I sail (mainly coastal), navtex bulletins cover sea area Iroise and for the variety of usual reasons they are often different from those heard on the VHF which are coastal bulletins; oh and weather is sometimes different too /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

for info, these are the coastal areas
cote.jpg


I asked the guys at Meteo France stand at the boatshow about coastal bulletins in local (French) language from French navtex stations but they said it is not even planned at moment, they seem to stick strictly with GMDSS requirements.
 
[I disagree, the moment you are away from your home port and home port luxuries, such as nipping home etc etc. navtex becomes IMO a necessity on board.]

It's ok to disagree but it's not about wether or not you have Navtex it's about wether or not you have the ability to get a forecast. Once you are away from your home port and home port luxuries there are many ways of still getting a forecast. Hence the need for Navtex depends upon what other means you have for getting a forecast.
 
Sounds as if too many people aren't using a lot of the available Navtex features...

Also I can't recall the specifics but I think its a coding requirement for some due to GMDSS.

W.
 
[Sounds as if too many people aren't using a lot of the available Navtex features...]

Bear in mind the question was about weather. Not other safety/navigational info. Cue thread drift.

[Also I can't recall the specifics but I think its a coding requirement for some due to GMDSS.]

Not a requirement for the typical charter boat. (Cat 2.)

We have Navtex on board and generally it’s another source of info but surplus to other sources. Especially no need for the x-channel Solent/Cherbourg type of trip where there is detailed weather info before the start of the jouney at both ends. However, if cruising around anchorages for a week in say the Channel Islands it becomes very useful and we're glad to have it. However, just as good info can be obtained from numerous other sources.
It's like anything, it solves a particular type of need but you can work around it.
This is where the bigger question opens up about ‘What do you need for a Channel Crossing?” and if you can’t afford everything what are the priorities and the answer to that depends upon your starting point.

I think an anecdotal question on the ‘live a board’ forum would be ‘Is SSB still necessary for an Atlantic Crossing?” discuss.
 
Thanks to all for that. Clearly a hot topic. One contributor mentioned interfacing a Navtex engine to an existing plotter which is what I wanted to do. Not sure if I should start another thread on this but I was advised it was complex to interface to my E120 as the NMEA port was already in use - I think for the autopilot. Some talk of needing a multiplexer. I am no electronics expert and yet again would be interested in replies

Stuart
 
Glasson Dock to Lagos in 2006, and Lagos to Malta over 5 months in 2007, I used mobile internet to get the weather off the web.

I've got Navtex on board but would have to relearn how to set it up for different stations. Also find it downloads and stores piles of stuff I'm not interested in, (although I guess there will be a way of filtering this out).

Given the hassle involved in sorting out Navtex, and the fact that I'm fairly commited to mobile internet access made it more trouble than it was worth.

Horses for courses i guess.
 
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Navtex is free -

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Is it? B&gg%r, I must have gone the wrong shop, had to pay for mine. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
But getting back to the original post, cross channel a few weekends a year and 2/3 or 4 weeks summer cruise down france- why bother? Assuming you've got a laptop which connects a mobile which connects to the internet of course. Most people will want to email and gloat anyway and forecasts are much more localised and detailed, ugrib's just fantastic (www.grib.us ).
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is Navtex a dinosaur?

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Definately not, nav warnings are V useful and offshore it might be all you have.
 
The easiest and most reliable free weather info source. Get a NASA set, easy to install, can be reprogrammed easily to get the stations and messages that you want.
Make sure it is permanently powered!
Never get the 'blue screen of death', always there, stores the messages to read as and when.
You might guess I'm convinced, after the GPS it's the best bit of kit I ever bought.
Take some care on getting the aerial at a reasonable height. Our current set, a geriatric thermal paper, uses the mast. works everywhere - bit stuffed if we get lightning hit I expect
 
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