Modern navigation practice

[Wansworth]

Been watching on yt a family sailing in a cat up from the east coast of Africa to the Suezcanal and it all appears to be so simple .Big screen withB&G on it just a question of touching buttons and there is an overlay with AiS ,winds and tides,pointers showing course and v g m Etc .Alsoon approching a coast or harbour the scale increases.Looks too easy .What would be a minimum sizedscreen and would it need to be in the cabin to avoid sun glare.

 

[Frank Holden]

Is that the same family who sailed motored in circles for several hours off the east coast of Australia one night without the watchkeeper noticing? begins with Z?

 

[Wansworth]

Is that the same family who sailed motored in circles for several hours off the east coast of Australia one night without the watchkeeper noticing? begins with Z?

Sounds like the same boat,I must admit things do seem a bit slack but the vids Ihave seen only start off the coast of Somalia……. That’s as maybe but would this “modern” navigation be for me who I openly admitís challenged setting up a new TV

 

[Tranona]

Been watching on yt a family sailing in a cat up from the east coast of Africa to the Suezcanal and it all appears to be so simple .Big screen withB&G on it just a question of touching buttons and there is an overlay with AiS ,winds and tides,pointers showing course and v g m Etc .Alsoon approching a coast or harbour the scale increases.Looks too easy .What would be a minimum sizedscreen and would it need to be in the cabin to avoid sun glare.

Don't need to have it in the cabin. Modern chart plotters work fine in the cockpit, although string direct sunlight from say, astern might be a bit of a challenge. I had a 9" at the helm, but a 12" would be nice. The functions you describe are quite normal (and more available!) although on long passages like that largely redundant.

Remember being on the bridge of Barfleur a state of the art Britanny ferry 25 years ago marvelling at the displays which are now available on my £695 Garmin.

 

[MADRIGAL]

The Royal Institute of Navigation's publication called "Electronic Navigation Systems: Guidance for safe use on leisure vessels" (free download or hard copy) advocates a more rigorous approach that avoids going around in circles without noticing (see post 2)

 

[johnalison]

I only have experience with two systems, a B&W one from over twenty years ago and my current e7 which is about ten years. The old one was brilliant but the later colour one brillianter by far. I do not have the space or money for a large screen, nice though that would be, but the speed of zooming and scrolling makes a large screen less essential. It is, in any case, good practice to regularly change the zoom levels, since some features on vector charts only appear at certain scales. My answer to your question is that a small screen such as my 7" can be adequate and size then becomes a matter of choice. Whether inside or out may depend on the boat's layout, with a plotter at the wheel being normal but with a tiller the inside position may be preferable, as on my boat.

 

[capnsensible]

I think that modern navigation systems can be fantastic. They give the ability for so many more people to get out on the water safely.

When I sailing for money, having weather information, tides, radar, ais all pumping I to a suitable device makes my life so much easier.

However, when I sail for fun, I much prefer to use more traditional navigation. It's just more....enjoyable for me. Again, personally, I think that having some skills in basic navigation makes skippers much more aware of what's going on around them and more in tune with the sea. Others will no doubt disagree but when I'm out locally, I really don't need to be screen watching.
Further afield, yeah, very handy and that's the bit that allows less experienced sailors push the boundaries and improve their skills. Once the basics are mastered. In my opinion.

What I like best on a screen is football and cricket.

 

[Wansworth]

I think that modern navigation systems can be fantastic. They give the ability for so many more people to get out on the water safely.

When I sailing for money, having weather information, tides, radar, ais all pumping I to a suitable device makes my life so much easier.

However, when I sail for fun, I much prefer to use more traditional navigation. It's just more....enjoyable for me. Again, personally, I think that having some skills in basic navigation makes skippers much more aware of what's going on around them and more in tune with the sea. Others will no doubt disagree but when I'm out locally, I really don't need to be screen watching.
Further afield, yeah, very handy and that's the bit that allows less experienced sailors push the boundaries and improve their skills. Once the basics are mastered. In my opinion.

What I like best on a screen is football and cricket.

Probably easier for newcomers to sailing to get the hang of electronic stuff and be happier with the reliability of modern electronics

 

[AntarcticPilot]

A previous thread is useful: Royal Institute of Navigation - booklet on electronic nav

 

[capnsensible]

Probably easier for newcomers to sailing to get the hang of electronic stuff and be happier with the reliability of modern electronics

In my experience, the other way round is best.

 

[Wansworth]

A previous thread is useful: Royal Institute of Navigation - booklet on electronic nav

Thanks

 

[Wansworth]

In my experience, the other way round is best.

Yes,true but anything on a screen these days is easily assimilated by err younger people……I suppose I was saying

 

[Bilgediver]

Been watching on yt a family sailing in a cat up from the east coast of Africa to the Suezcanal and it all appears to be so simple .Big screen withB&G on it just a question of touching buttons and there is an overlay with AiS ,winds and tides,pointers showing course and v g m Etc .Alsoon approching a coast or harbour the scale increases.Looks too easy .What would be a minimum sizedscreen and would it need to be in the cabin to avoid sun glare.

Just make sure you have backup before running from the pirates .

 

[Sandy]

It would never work in the UK as it rains so much.

 

[KompetentKrew]

Over the last week I've been testing my new anemometer / wind transducer with my B&G Vulcan.

The anemometer is made by LCJ Capteurs and its NMEA2000 adaptor has a built in barometer.

I noticed that the Vulcan can show barometric pressure as a line chart, so you can notice if it drops steeply. My depth transducer also passes water temperature to the network, so I guess this would help in identifying that one has entered the gulf stream?

Image of a B&G display grabbed from the web:

 

[Wansworth]

Over the last week I've been testing my new anemometer / wind transducer with my B&G Vulcan.

The anemometer is made by LCJ Capteurs and its NMEA2000 adaptor has a built in barometer.

I noticed that the Vulcan can show barometric pressure as a line chart, so you can notice if it drops steeply. My depth transducer also passes water temperature to the network, so I guess this would help in identifying that one has entered the gulf stream?

Image of a B&G display grabbed from the web:

Incredible

 

[Chiara’s slave]

We’ve recently done a complete instrument refit, well almost, we have retained the Raymarine ST40 speed and depth cos they fit above the hatch. We have a 12” plotter, dedicated wind display, and an NMEA2000 display unit. Love it, though it does not mean you can discard common sense and some old fashioned know how and techniques. It does enable us to utilise very shallow water if tacking against the tide, and gives real confidence using the inside route at Portland and suchlike. Ours is all cockpit mounted, we sail 2 handed and in the Solent you can’t just pop below every time you want to look. Too much traffic.

Our expansion plans include AIS, heading sensor and even possibly radar. It’s all so achievable and affordable even on a smallish boat. We did buy the plotter from a guy on eBay for about half price though. New, boxed, and checked it was working when we picked it up.

 

[ylop]

Been watching on yt a family sailing in a cat up from the east coast of Africa to the Suezcanal and it all appears to be so simple .Big screen withB&G on it just a question of touching buttons and there is an overlay with AiS ,winds and tides,pointers showing course and v g m Etc .Alsoon approching a coast or harbour the scale increases.Looks too easy .What would be a minimum sizedscreen and would it need to be in the cabin to avoid sun glare.

Is it easier? I’m not sure - that’s like asking my mother if she wants to use an online banking app. It is not difficult but she’s been happy balancing her chequebook by hand, going to the bank, paper forms and stamps etc for 60+ years so to her the new tools have a learning curve, a hassle factor etc. because she’s not in the way of thinking of software user interfaces stuff which to any user of iOS/Android is intuitive (like swiping down to refresh, or how you go back a screen) is all confusing. People who switch banks or phone operating systems get similar frustrations when they can’t find the function they want. Electronic navigation is similar - once you do it enough it’s so easy that going back to paper seems ridiculous but switching to another vendor’s UI can be irritating.

how big does the screen need to be? As big as you can fit / afford. Just as you can do most stuff on a smartphone screen you can do a lot with a small plotter screen, but once you start overlaying ais etc suddenly you find yourself zooming in / out a lot. The other temptation is to clutter Screens with wind/speed/depth info etc; because modern plotters can. But personally I’d rather have that on separate instruments to maximise plotter space (as my budget does not stretch to screens that big). I’ve never heard anyone complain their plotter was too big!

 

[doug748]

Been watching on yt a family sailing in a cat up from the east coast of Africa to the Suezcanal and it all appears to be so simple .Big screen withB&G on it just a question of touching buttons and there is an overlay with AiS ,winds and tides,pointers showing course and v g m Etc .Alsoon approching a coast or harbour the scale increases.Looks too easy .What would be a minimum sizedscreen and would it need to be in the cabin to avoid sun glare.

In the context of your elusive small boat, 5in is perfect (Ey up, oo -er), handy to accommodate and manageable power consumption. Best place for it is above the companionway under a spayhood, in there even modest screens are always bright and readable in our latitudes, even old, cheap or used.

You want to avoid "features", anything which interferes with scale and orientation is a pain in the bum. Get AIS in a separate box if you think you need it, many (maybe most) don't.

The only tricky bit is fitting and switching on, after that the little boat on the screen goes where your big boat goes.

.

 

[johnalison]

In the context of your elusive small boat, 5in is perfect (Ey up, oo -er), handy to accommodate and manageable power consumption. Best place for it is above the companionway under a spayhood, in there even modest screens are always bright and readable in our latitudes, even old, cheap or used.

You want to avoid "features", anything which interferes with scale and orientation is a pain in the bum. Get AIS in a separate box if you think you need it, many (maybe most) don't.

The only tricky bit is fitting and switching on, after that the little boat on the screen goes where your big boat goes.

.

I find it perfectly practicable to combine AIS with a 7” screen as on my e7, in fact, I don’t fancy the idea of having to divide my attention. Seeing the targets in their charted positions can clarify the situation, as when a ship is about to enter or leave harbour and I have never been bothered by clutter. I also have radar combined. I have the option of overlaying on the chart, a split screen, or changing screens. In practice I don’t find the overlay much use as I don’t get the full range of functions this way, such as wakes and multiple levels, and I prefer radar in course-up with the chart on north-up. Both chart and radar are too small with a split screen.