Mounting chartplotter in small sailng boat

bedouin said:
I have been considering the tablet as a solution for working at the chart table and so concentrating on mounting the chartplotter for visibility in the cockpit. I don't see myself going for a tablet only solution - for a start I think I want a chartplotter with buttons as in my experience touch screens don't work well when wearing helmsman's gloves.
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I’ve been sailing small boats for a long time now and it was 10 years ago that I first got a plotter. Makes life so much easier, especially when sailing single handed, if it can be seen clearly from the tiller. My first one was mounted as you describe, on a swing out board in the companion way. I didn’t find it inconvenient to have it partially blocking the companion way, simple enough to swing it out of the way. If you have a spray hood you could fit a bracket on the coach roof at one side of the companionway to clip on the plotter. Either of these positions also makes it a simple matter to get power to the plotter.

For the last couple of years I have used a tablet with Navionics when down below, and for passage planning. The tablet is far better for this than the small plotters but would be impractical in my cockpit. For one thing, it is too big, my last plotter had only a 4.5 inch screen but was perfectly adequate when at the tiller.
 
There was a paper fishfinder based on the same whirly gig principal, the printed paper came out in a curve, very odd, but it worked up until the straight graph types were made available.
 
RichardS said:
That's what surprised me. I chartered my first yacht in the Ionian in about 1990 and, more or less, every year or three since, and I've never seen a whirlygig. It seems that I was about 20 years too late. :o
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You have no idea of the deep joy you've missed! I don't suppose you've ever encountered the amazing experience of using a Seafix radio direction finder either?
 
bedouin said:
For me visibility at the helm is absolutely key - it is primarily a device to show position, nav information, AIS etc from the helm. However in a small boat with tiller steering even that is not easy if I want to be able to opeate the controls without letting go of the tiller
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A mount on the coachroof under the sprayhood would allow you to remove the plotter for security when you leave the boat, but it might be too far away for you to press the buttons unless you use a tillerpilot. If you're tempted to recess mount it on the bulkhead, be sure that the screen will work for you at the vertical viewing angle - some screens have quite limited viewing angles.
 
pvb said:
You have no idea of the deep joy you've missed! I don't suppose you've ever encountered the amazing experience of using a Seafix radio direction finder either?
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Had one of those useless ornaments too, though the later digital display was an improvement.

Fortunately for RichardS, he has been spared the experience of blithely sailing in supposedly deep water only to glance at the sounder and see the depth going rapidly down 8 feet-7 feet-4 feet-3 feet-yikes! Adding 60 feet restoring sanity.
 
On our last smaller boat we had two mountings for our Lowrence plotter, one on the coach roof and the other inside on the bulkhead, the cables were loomed together ang long enough for each position. In the event we hardly ever used it down below.
 
pvb said:
A mount on the coachroof under the sprayhood would allow you to remove the plotter for security when you leave the boat, but it might be too far away for you to press the buttons unless you use a tillerpilot. If you're tempted to recess mount it on the bulkhead, be sure that the screen will work for you at the vertical viewing angle - some screens have quite limited viewing angles.
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+1

We had ours mounted, a semi-waterproof Standard Horizon CP180i (or was it CP300i?) like that, and it worked fine for visibility, operating and coping with the weather. I originally mounted the bracket 'temporarily' in position using gaffa tape (the cable threaded up thru a convenient vent) to see how it worked out before drilling holes, etc. It stayed like that for years, with the tape replaced a couple of times, and I never did drill the holes!

The only downsides to the position were (a) it obscured the view forward a bit for the First Mate who is shorter than me, and (b) with the sprayhood down (we often sailed that way) there was a temptation/danger of grabbing the plotter as you stepped down into the cockpit, particularly if it was a bit rough. It coped with this and the give in the gaffa tape mounting prevented the bracket being broken.

The bracket allowed the angle to be adjusted - e.g. almost vertical for viewing from the back off the cockpit, or tilted back for close inspection, entering way marks, etc. It would have been hard to operate and view mounted vertically on the bulkhead. I did contemplate mounting the bracket horizontally on the bulkhead to provide the adjustability, but it would have lost one of the favourite seating positions - facing backwards, back against the bulkhead.

I never found the absence of a plotter below a problem. On a couple of occasions I used the plotter below just in my hands, with the 'external' cable pulled back through the vent. I mainly did only passage planning below using paper charts, or went into the cockpit if I wanted to inspect the plotter.
 
I am coming round to the idea that dual mounts is a better approach than the swing out - especially as in practice for most sailing I am not going to need to use it from the chart table - the use down there tends to be for passage planning.

However where to mount it is a question - under the sprayhood, or even on the bulkhead, is a long way from the tiller, but mounting further aft would cause problems with trailing wires
 
bedouin said:
I am coming round to the idea that dual mounts is a better approach than the swing out - especially as in practice for most sailing I am not going to need to use it from the chart table - the use down there tends to be for passage planning.

However where to mount it is a question - under the sprayhood, or even on the bulkhead, is a long way from the tiller, but mounting further aft would cause problems with trailing wires
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Trailing wires are not on. Sprayhood or bulkhead should be fine, and really the only answer if, like me, you don't have a binnacle. The practical way to deal with this in operation is to engage the autopilot when you want to deal with the plotter, which should be visible enough for most purposes.
 
I know you've discounted pads, but with a similar dilemma in a small boat - the only solution that has worked on ours (tiller steered too) is to have a Cellular iPad mounted centrally on a plastic car bracket which swivels up out of the way when not in use.

Coupled with our SH radio via a second hand wifi sender for the nmea data, I can run Navionics without AIS or if needed - iNavX with AIS overlay. I have not had an issue with the screen (both in terms of visibility or altering things) since we bought the boat some 5 years ago and put this into place. Becuase the app is free to use on the various iPhones we have too - thats my chart table solution (not that we have a chart table!) for down below.

I have found that the only alterations I need to worry about with regards to the screen is to zoom in and out, other functionality whilst useful isn't absolutely required to use the app. No issues with brightness either - I have the auto lock turned off and the iPad plugged into a USB charger with the lead tucked neatly into the roof. I use a Lifeproof Waterproof case - and of course take it with me when leaving the boat.

Added bonus that we can also watch Netflix on it.
 
Scala said:
I think all of us started sailing in the 60s / 70s will have some fond (or otherwise) memories of those!
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Shortly after I first installed one I ran aground on rock accidentally for the first time - it allowed me to cut corners more than I would have done without a sounder.

For the OP's question I'd look at a plotter on deck with built-in wifi and a tablet below deck - my Vulcan 7 gives a very nice display via wifi to an laptop or Ipad below - including a bigger screen view. I believe some other makes can do this too.
 
bedouin said:
However where to mount it is a question - under the sprayhood, or even on the bulkhead, is a long way from the tiller
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How big is your small boat? I can't remember it ever being a problem (but I did have a tillerpilot). I suppose if the plotter were very small. . .

As I suggested earlier, you can rig it up somewhere temporarily and see how it works out before committing yourself.
 
I had a swinging bracket on my Moody 33 that I suspect had been used for a whirligig echo sounder at some time. It was a fairly substantial stainless strip welded to a collar around the companion way steps rail. Swung inside it was above the aft facing chart table that dropped down over the quarter berth. Swung out it was in the middle of the companion way. A bit inconvenient but perfectly workable. I mounted my Garmin GPSMap 700 to it and it was a perfect set up. Easily viewable from the wheel and out of the way down below when needed there.
 
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