Kicking and Screaming

[peterandjeanette]

Having been dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century by SWMBO, I am now informed by my two sons that I must undergo the same torture to get into the 21st century. Is there no justice?

OK. Computerised passage planning. Having accepted the general idea, what and/or where do I get the programme? Do I carry a laptop on board (or should I stick with lapdancing - now that I DO understand!).

Any thoughts from all you whizkids on the forum would be gratefully accepted.
N.B. Please use words of one syllabul. I am over 50.

 

[Renegade_Master]

A very good PC (laptop) nav software is Tsunamis Navigator available from Transas Datacom 02392 674016 ask for James Woodward say Clive Neighbour gave you the number.

 

[tcm]

GPS, Chartplotters All Explained

Okay here how it all works.

1 You go to the shop with your son, and he drools over some electronic thing.

2 Test that it's isn't shite by saying that it looks a bit cheap, and he'll have to get all indignant and waffle away. You can look sideways at the shopkeeper whilst he's rabbiting on, winding him up by saying that surely for a bit more you could get something decent? Of course you could learn all the technoshite, or just buy the Most Exoensive, which is likely to be pretty damn decent after all isn't it? Of course it is.

3. You hand over the credit card in the traditional manner of all expert seafarers.

4. Your son and various vistors come on board and say cor wow you've got a xT660 series K72! or whatever it is.

5 . You can check if it works by going down to the next lock and coming back, but it's probably the fluxgate wassername or the contrast needs setting up properly, never mind.


That's all there is to it. Five grand, I reckon, and no worries whatsoever.

 

[syd]

Hiya Pete,

You can't beat a chart and a Garmin 128. Works every time and is a nice ease into the electronic navigation world.
That should give you the taste for the plotters/maps once you've mastered it.

Cheers

Syd

 

[Trevor_swfyc]

Peter, I can tell you want the best. I am also over 50 so should talk your language.
First you should look for a system that uses ARCS (Admiralty Raster Chart Service) these I hope most will agree are best. It is also best to have a system that plots your position on the chart, this position is taken from a GPS connected by the serial port on the Laptop. Garmin supply leads for this connection, my Garmin handheld GPS12 works fine. The system I have used for over 4 yrs is Navmaster supplied by PC Maritime Ltd. have a look on www.pcmaritime.co.uk you can obtain a demo disc on this site.
Clearly the best is not cheap as I think it cost £400 for the Offshore version and £200 for the passage plan shore based version. Also the charts are about £100 for a folio of 10 charts, this is the best method of purchasing charts, you can also select your own 10 charts to make up your own folio.
Another point is that the SOLAS regs now require ALL vessels that do a passage outside a river to have a passage plan so in theory you could be asked to produce this.
Happy plotting.
Trevor

 

[jfm]

There was an excellent magellan hh plotter for sale on the FS forum but it's sold now after a frenzied bidding war among many discerning buyers.

IMHO get a garmin 176c from milltech's website, about £500 plus chips, fantistic toy, and works in the car too because has a worldwide background road map

 

[Trevor_swfyc]

PS

SOLAS (Safety Of Lunatics At Sea)

 

[jfm]

disagree re ARCS

No no no! ARCS charts are nothing like as good as C-Maps. The ARCS are just scans, whereas the CMap charts are vectorised which is 100x better. Confused? - you should be.

The best way to get lots of CMaps is secondhand off a ship, because they upgrade the CDs often. Most of the world fits on one CD. Retail - £25,000. Off a ship - £10 (if you find the right ship.....). Or you can buy individual chart folios on CD for the same money as ARCS. Byron might have a ship or two (I'll check on ebay <G>)

 

[Renegade_Master]

"these I hope most will agree are best". Cant agree Raster are best as they are "scanned" charts, vectorised charts better in detail, zoom you name it IMHO

 

[longjohnsilver]

Saw an ad in a fishing mag today for a Simrad Dif GPS with sounder and chartplotter for £599, sounds like a good buy, advertised by Russell Simpson marine, should be worth a look.

 

[burgundyben]

Rasta = crap

quite right rasta charts are crap, just a big jpeg, best get vectored ones.

Load of old bollx anyway, I use paper chart and cheapo gps thats got a fablon cover.

"Who was he?"

 

[jfm]

fablon navkit

yes well you would because your boat is nanky shite

 

[tcm]

Flames!!

Nanky shite?!! You can't call BB's boat nanky shite! I may have a little derogatory in the past but have never called it that! And especially not now, after he's removed all the Fablon off it, sandpapered it for a week and now varnished with (i understand) guaranteed no bits in the varnish whatsoever and it's more shiny than any Sunseeker inside. And outside, it has numbers on the hull, like an Escort Mexico or a MiniCooper, showing that it's very sporty compared with other boats that were available in 1967. So, it doesn't sound at all like nanky shite. Anyway, the name "Nanky Shite" has been taken by an earlier model, so you're simply wrong to call it that, imho.

 

[Renegade_Master]

Re: Rasta = crap

"Load of old bollx anyway, I use paper chart and cheapo gps..........".

Yes Ben but imagine your gps position i.e. your little boat, being shown in real time on the paper chart, so you now exactly where you are all the time by looking at one screen.

 

[BarryH]

Re: Rasta = crap

Then what happens when the batteries go flat or the bloody laptop throws a wobbly and packs up just as your entering the little russell or somewhere just as damn tricky.

Nah! leccy nav aids are good fun to play with on a boring day in the office, rely on them never. Aids they maybe, the be all and end all....nah! I thunk too much is made of the 'leccy revolution' in the field of navigation. Look how many ships have hit that Tricolour in the channel!

I'm not anti the leccy stuff, just pissed off thet the tax man nicked all my money so I can't afford to buy a boat big enuff to stick it all on!

 

[Renegade_Master]

Re: Rasta = crap

Barry my reply was to BB's post saying a paper chart and gps is all he needs. He indeed could have the gps fail, as easy as I could have the laptop fail, so one thing we are all agreed on is that we paper chart the route, along with the electronic passage plan so we have the charts in the event of failure.

My point was if you gonna go the gps route, might as well use the gps in line with the PC nav package. I have been many miles using the PC, never had to programme the waypoints into gps, just use the handheld for a signal, plot the route on laptop in comfort of home, and have route on charts for back up.

 

[BarryH]

Re: Rasta = crap

You got the jist of my post all wrong, read again and keep the words "tounge" and "cheek" in mind! /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

 

[hlb]

Re: Rasta = crap

Well, nav aids can break down I suppose. But at least mines nailed down and cant blow away, unlike the charts I loose off the fly bridge!!

<font color=blue> Haydn

 

[tcm]

Re: Paper charts: very dodgy

I had a paper chart all nicely set up, and a freak bit of wind blew it away! No such problem with the gps, of which i have thre separate pickups and five displays, two of them portable.

When oh when are people going to start realising the very dodgy nature of these paper charts, easy to scrunch or go soggy or blow away? having papaer charts as primary or even as backup is like having a wooden tree trunk as a spare liferaft

 

[jfm]

Re: Flames!!

Let's get something straight tcm. You might make a lot of posts hereabout but each person still has right to say what he/she thinks. Think of it as an e Hyde Park Corner. So if I think a boat is NS then I will say so. And I do, so I did. The comments about fablon are somewhat exaggerated but there is still quite a lot of formica about the place