North Up or Course Up

I always use course up. Afterall, if I need to know which compass direction I'm heading in I can just look at my compass. Course up though immediatly tells me if the mark I'm going to is directly ahead or to port or stbd because the setting is on relative setting it means the map is relative to the real world around me. I look at a piece of land on the left of the screen and there it is on the left (port) of the boat.
That's how it all works for me but it's all about what you've got yourself used to!
 
Good point pcuk. If I was on a large boat and sat at a chart table I'd definately have my GPS North up. In a little 14ft speedboat like I've got though I seldom look at a chart as I can just look at the shore and see where I am. If visibility is bad I head for my slipway waypoint. In a speedboat, I'm changing direction that much, my Gps in North position confuses me but in relative mode it always makes sense.
 
You mean a paper street atlas? They're printed north up so you dont have to turn them. You'd only turn them if you want destination up. Or do you mean car satnav? I prefer and always use north up but I can see that many folks prefer course up
 
Always N up on boat, anything else looks odd. But satnav it's course up just so I can see bends in road and side streets a little easier.

Went out on boat last w/e and someone had set the chartplotter to course up, I zoomed out and it was only when most of Europe was displayed did I realise what had happened! And I was only going to Burgh Island.
 
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You mean a paper street atlas? They're printed north up

[/ QUOTE ]I was also puzzled by KevB post.
...and was beginning to wonder which sort of paper atlas are you folks using, besides travelling on the wrong side of the road! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Spot on. If you're used to navigating from a chart on a chart table, then north up on a plotter is much more familiar
 
Me for one. I always used an atlas north up. The SWMBO,on the other hand, always used to twiddle the road atlas about to get her bearings which would elicit some helpful comment from me whereupon she would usually throw it onto the floor in a huff and politely inform me that I could navigate. In fact, it's true to say that SatNav has saved my marriage and lowered my blood pressure 20 points
 
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The 70/30 thing is totally separate from the course or north up question. You can have the 70/30 function with north up or with course up (on Raymarine, and probably other makes)

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Agreed - but why might you want to have your vessel anywhere but in the centre if you always use North up? If you head South, you would only be seeing 30% of where you were going. ( I praps should explain that my chartplotter has a 5 inch diagonal screen. I guess your plotter has a much bigger one? )
 
Come off it.. Don't we all turn a street atlas so the road in the same direction as we are travelling? Maybe not so much when we are looking at a wide area but at street level surely? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
Nah, there are plotters which automatically move the boat position wherever necessary to use most of the screen for the area where you're heading to, regardless of your route, whilst keeping the N up orientation.
You'll see the boat at the top of the screen in your example, when heading South.
 
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automatically move the boat position wherever necessary to use most of the screen

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Can't see that. You'll be scanning the screen to find out where your boat is.

Anyway the definitive answer is course up and boat down the bottom of screen. There....
 
If I may ask, do you also adjust the atlas reading angle when going up/downhill?... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
North up.

It's easy to tell straightaway if you see land at the top of the screen and you're heading south that it's behind you.

Always read a car atlas north-up as well. I like to instantly know my bearings.
 
No, seriously, I don't. I dunno about anyone else. I find it easier to visualize where I'm going on a map if I can relate it a compass direction. I think it's because I carry a rough picture in my head where the destination is relative to my position and using an atlas course up would spoil that picture. When I'm thinking about turning left or right, I'm thinking more about the direction of the turn relative to the destination and, in fact, I occasionally mix up lefts and rights when directing other people but I still know which direction I need to turn. Same with SatNavs. I always use them north up
I don't know whether I've explained it well enough but thats how my head works
 
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The 70/30 thing is totally separate from the course or north up question. You can have the 70/30 function with north up or with course up (on Raymarine, and probably other makes)

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Agreed - but why might you want to have your vessel anywhere but in the centre if you always use North up? If you head South, you would only be seeing 30% of where you were going. ( I praps should explain that my chartplotter has a 5 inch diagonal screen. I guess your plotter has a much bigger one? )

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No, the software (on the ones I've used - Raymarine) is smart enough to figure it out and it moves the boat towards the top of the screen if you're heading south. It works really well in practice and is nicely damped so the boat doesn't move around as you change course slightly
 
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