Navigation

[doug748]

Really? I don't remember much ridiculing a couple of years ago. Who was responsible for that?

Nobody worth mentioning. I thought post 6 was a joke. Maybe not.

I had my first handheld GPS, capable of handling sufficient waypoints to function as a crude plotter, around the start of this forum, I can't recall much moaning though you always get one; it's an internet feature nothing to do with the topic at hand.

As soon as I clapped eyes on the real thing, I had one, no brainer.

.

 

[Gustywinds]

Of course maybe i pad is out of date / fashion

Ive installed the latest 13 in air alongside my Garmin Display and have the VNF Navi app, Google or Apple Maps and teh Victron battery app up on that most of the time. Currently playing around with getting the boat fluid levels up too via the Gerbo.

 

[MontyMariner]

Actually I have to say we use radar at night and in fog. It is not safe to rely on AIS.

A sensible approach, Ok for bigger boats but given your fog scenario, I aim this at mainly paper chart navigators, let's say it's a small open mobo out for a day's fishing and the fog comes in. A compass and local knowledge will get you in, but now that you can put charting apps on a smart phone, using that and knowing with confidence when to make any turns and know exactly where your destination is, what's not to like?

 

[Buck Turgidson]

the 1990's just called and asked for their topic back!
Meanwhile in 2024 we are working out how to avoid relying on GNSS as we see how easily it is corrupted

 

[Sailing steve]

In the meantime new electronic kit arrived every day it seemed and I never did learn to use it. Someone was going to teach me how to put Way Points on a plotter thing but he had problems elsewhere so those lessons were never learned.
I was well aware that a little knowledge can be a bad thing, so rather than try to learn the new techniques I stayed away, working on the theory that at least I was competent with the old system, but to try fiddling with a system that I didn't know could result in me berthing in Piccadilly Circus.

I learned to navigate in the '70s and I feel your pain.

My current boat came with an expensive chartplotter and an instruction book of 100+ pages. I'm sure it does what it's meant to do but after much thumbing back and forth and poking of buttons and getting way out of my depth in the miniate of electronic navigation whilst repeatedly fighting off the temptation to simply unplug the wretched thing and lob it overboard I eventually found the screen displaying my SOG and lat/long.

Happily when you switch it back on it displays that same screen and until my son comes for a sail that'll have to do for me.

 

[johnalison]

Actually I have to say we use radar at night and in fog. It is not safe to rely on AIS. AIS is indeed more accurate than radar and it is brilliant at forecasting CPA's but there are many vessels out there not broadcasting their position and you need radar particularly if visibility is poor. I can usually spot a vessel on radar way before I can see its lights. Having both gives me great confidence.

Yes, I too have been using radar for over twenty years but I was really thinking of its use for inexperienced sailors sailing in clear daytime weather, when AIS can still be useful and a great reassurance.

 

[Boathook]

I had radar before AIS, and last year was in Poole bay in thick fog. radar is a standalone Furuno one whilst the AIS is shown on the plotter screen. Whilst a lot of boats showed up using the AIS the radar showed that at least 50% didn't have AIS. Fog and inshore waters means radar is king to me.

I was tempted to renew the radar to one that will show on the plotter, but the hybrid plotter (raymarine es7) has lost use of the touch screen so it will be a new plotter first.

 

[lustyd]

Which is fine all the time it is working.

I've been on a couple of lifeboat jobs this year where a plotter has conked out. On one of them, the singlehanded skipper couldn't see his mobile phone screen in the bright sunlight, he was unfamiliar with the area, the breeze was getting up, he didn't have any paper charts as a back up, and large sandbanks were starting to appear all around him as the tide ebbed.

That’s not a consequence of the technology. That skipper would be in trouble regardless of the decade.

 

[johnalison]

That’s not a consequence of the technology. That skipper would be in trouble regardless of the decade.

I think it is. The skipper might not have gone to sea without the help from his tech. Alternatively, he might have taken charts, but then again, possibly not.

 

[lustyd]

I think it is. The skipper might not have gone to sea without the help from his tech. Alternatively, he might have taken charts, but then again, possibly not.

How’s that different? Idiots have always been overconfident and underprepared. Tech changes nothing in that regard.

 

[rogerthebodger]

How’s that different? Idiots have always been overconfident and underprepared. Tech changes nothing in that regard.

That does not only apply to navigation. When you are overconfident, and /or underprepared you need to be adaptable nut the overconfident and underprepared are generally not adaptable