modern hi tec navigation and instrumentation

lustyd said:
Our instruments are at the helm under the plotter so visibility is identical aside from the font size.
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It would obviously vary greatly between boats, but your plotter I presume would not be viewable by people sitting forward of the helm. I would prefer others to be able to see the depth and maybe warn me if my attention were elsewhere. I believe this may have happened to me once or twice.
 
johnalison said:
It would obviously vary greatly between boats, but your plotter I presume would not be viewable by people sitting forward of the helm. I would prefer others to be able to see the depth and maybe warn me if my attention were elsewhere. I believe this may have happened to me once or twice.
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You’re in good company, think of Harold Cudmore.
 
johnalison said:
It would obviously vary greatly between boats, but your plotter I presume would not be viewable by people sitting forward of the helm. I would prefer others to be able to see the depth and maybe warn me if my attention were elsewhere. I believe this may have happened to me once or twice.
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Nothing is visible forward of the helm unless you go down to the chart table. We use the seats to relax so don’t want instruments in the way.
Not sure who these people might be anyway, or how they would get onto my boat 🤣
 
mrtoomanytoys said:
Watching this thread as I have little in the way of nav gear.. and I am wondering the same questions.. some plotter and nav equipment for sensible price that will last and be capable enough..
I have NASA Duet log and depth, will get the remote wind speed/direction unit too..
It has an old Garmin nav unit (will retain as back up as it does work).

Auto helm is not operational so will either repair (if possible) or replace at some point.
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Mark one eye ball and a good brain is difficult to beat.

I am not into modern hi tech nav equipment. I am not really denigrating it; my personal experience and practice. Have managed for decades without a dedicated chart plotter.

Depth is essential and if no electronic equipment (that I have always had and liked) a lead line is essential (always had one as backup for electronic failure).

A mobile phone with gps and charts is as modern as I go at moment and is pretty luxurious and makes me feel lazy). Mobile phone for coastal areas is convenient I admit even if I don’t fully trust it for tricky navigation.

I now have AIS reciever.

I align modern hi tech nav gear (up to a point because I know it can and is of good use and value) with road use navigation systems that take your mind off how to read a map and can take you on strange roads that you don’t want to be on). I used to be able to drive far and wide with a map and a good memory. Nav systems denigrated my ability and are often a real pain for driving.

Personally I manage with charts, gps, (sextant rarely used if ever), mobile phone, AIS, compass, binoculars, common sense and what I have learned from reading, sailing (experience) and other people.
 
Roberto said:
FWIW, I am mostly under pilot and very rarely stand behind the steering wheel (except during those moments when steering is a pleasure and instruments become circumstancial), I would use an MFD on the steering binnacle probably 5% of the time, so I have none there :)
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We have nowhere else sensible to put it. Im rarely behind the wheel either, but on passage I’m also not really looking at electronics. When we’re close enough to land that it matters i go to the wheel and sail a bit more actively. We also rarely tack while on passage so placement of winches is also not really an issue.
 
Cerebus said:
Depth is essential and if no electronic equipment (that I have always had and liked) a lead line is essential (always had one as backup for electronic failure).
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Only essential if knowing depth is of use to you for safe navigation of the boat. So important if you sail in the shallow areas of our coast but irrelevant in many cruising areas.

The thing with all aids is to assess their usefulness to you and act accordingly - but one of the problems is that you don't always know what can be useful until you try it. On my last boat I had a full set of goodies apart from radar and quickly learned what was useful to me and ignored the rest. One of the new discoveries was how useful the wind instrument was as it enabled the autopilot to sail to wind rather than a compass course.
 
We've had four different yachts now, with a variety of instrumentation.
Once we got to about 40ft I found wind direction was hugely reassuring. We've done thousands of miles dead downwind. You don't want to risk an accidental gybe in the pitch black of night.
The current boat didn't have a wind instrument and we managed for a few weeks. Huge relief when we finally fitted one.

We've mostly managed without a dedicated plotter, and have just used our phones and Navionics. But that's got drawbacks. In certain cruising areas (e.g. the Bahamas) you just can't adequately see enough detail over a big enough area when the screen is so small.

A tablet would obviously be much better but you still have problems with charging, waterproofing, and screen brightness. So we're finally biting the bullet and fitting a plotter, probably an Axiom 9".

Our previous boat had radar which we used a handful of times. But having just passed through the very foggy east coast of the USA, we feel very vulnerable without it here, and plan to add it soon. I don't think it would a priority in any of the other places we've sailed.

AIS is a bit of a no brainer, somebody up thread quoted about £700 to fit it but I'm pretty sure you can do it for about a third or that?
 
lustyd said:
Currently cruising in Scotland and the depth gauge is pointless. It goes from 150m to 20m and then straight to 0.5m most of the time. The depth gauge in such waters simply confirms you've not yet hit the land.
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It might not be the tool you use the most but there’s plenty of Scottish anchorages and even entrances like Arisaig where not having depth information would be uncomfortable.
 
Sea Change said:
AIS is a bit of a no brainer, somebody up thread quoted about £700 to fit it but I'm pretty sure you can do it for about a third or that?
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That sounds like the difference between receive only (useful if you have plotter but not everything is shown) and transmit and receive (so others with a receiver see you too).
 
Sea Change said:
A tablet would obviously be much better but you still have problems with charging, waterproofing, and screen brightness. So we're finally biting the bullet and fitting a plotter, probably an Axiom 9".
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The reconditioned ones London Charplotter sell seem to cope fine with all those limitations. If you want a budget solution, but if I was speccing a tablet style plotter from new I’d probably go Orca - if the areas I sailed were well served by their maps.
 
ylop said:
It might not be the tool you use the most but there’s plenty of Scottish anchorages and even entrances like Arisaig where not having depth information would be uncomfortable.
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Agree. Loch Moidart without a plotter would be pretty scary. Or crossing the bar at Soay. Etc etc.

ylop said:
That sounds like the difference between receive only (useful if you have plotter but not everything is shown) and transmit and receive (so others with a receiver see you too).
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It depends where you are comfortable buying. Alibaba will sell you a Masutec transponder for £200.
Our ONWA transponder was £600, but it's also a 7" plotter with free global charting.

ylop said:
The reconditioned ones London Charplotter sell seem to cope fine with all those limitations. If you want a budget solution, but if I was speccing a tablet style plotter from new I’d probably go Orca - if the areas I sailed were well served by their maps.
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For my needs, I really need an MFD because I want to add radar as well. AFAIK it's not possible to simply hook up a radome to a tablet.
 
Sea Change said:
For my needs, I really need an MFD because I want to add radar as well. AFAIK it's not possible to simply hook up a radome to a tablet
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Furuno do a wifi only one. Its one of the reasons i walked away from a boat i was buying, i cant think of anything worse. I’m sure it was cheaper to buy than a proper set.
 
Sea Change said:
Agree. Loch Moidart without a plotter would be pretty scary. Or crossing the bar at Soay. Etc etc.


It depends where you are comfortable buying. Alibaba will sell you a Masutec transponder for £200.
Our ONWA transponder was £600, but it's also a 7" plotter with free global charting.


For my needs, I really need an MFD because I want to add radar as well. AFAIK it's not possible to simply hook up a radome to a tablet.
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If you have a moment could you link to the Matsutec transponder... Sounds good.
 
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I wouldn't go for either. I think the Onwa KP 27 A is a way better option for a very small extra amount has full and future connectability, mini chartplotter with optional wind and depth display class b+ sodtma higher output ais. The onwa is better value than either matsutec and comes with uk support. Ideal as a cockpit display connected to a tablet with a WiFi converter or direct to a large screen plotter at the nav station.
Pardon our interruption...
 
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TSB240 said:
I wouldn't go for either. I think the Onwa KP 27 A is a way better option for a very small extra amount has full and future connectability, mini chartplotter with optional wind and depth display class b+ sodtma higher output ais. The onwa is better value than either matsutec and comes with uk support. Ideal as a cockpit display connected to a tablet with a WiFi converter or direct to a large screen plotter at the nav station.
Pardon our interruption...
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small extra amount......thats a joke right?
 
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