Paper charts versus Chartplotter

[Refueler]

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SWMBO would love it - the most intuitive piece of kit on a boat!

They do come up second hand.

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Used one - liked it but not price. Second I can think of many other more likely items on board to spend such money on.

The only real advantage I ever saw in one is the click to upload waypoints to a Plotter. Rest IMHO is debatable. My schoolboy compasses and triangle do a pretty good job.... at vastly cheaper price ! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[maxi77]

Like several here I tend to use the GPS most of the time, but I am confident that at a moments notice I could revert to manual plotting, but then I was trained when radio aids to navigation really were aids. I do agree with others that today's electronics are very reliable and if one has a back up then you are likely to be able to keep going without to much problem. Even so I would persevere with manual plotting, you never know when you may need it, and the only way you can get to the skill level where you can take and plot a fix every 15 mins and still spend most of the time on deck keeping a good look out etc.

 

[oldharry]

The majority of cross channel and North Sea ferries keep their plotted position on a paper chart - in case, as one Watch Officer told me, the engine room pull the wrong switch and black out the bridge!

Interesting to note was the enquiry report after a ferry grounding a couple of years back, where they were notkeeping a paper chart plot while sheltering from a storm off the Kent Coast. The bridge team were diverted by a smoke alarm issue, and failed to notice their GPS autopilot was switched to low scale and did not show the submerged obstruction they grounded on.

 

[maxi77]

I was not advocating paperless navigation as such, rather suggesting the electronics did the hard work and suggesting that developing and maintaining good plotting skills is sensible at worst and more likely essential for the foreseeable future.. As for using the wrong scale of chart on the plotter, how often has some one kept on the passage chart too close inshore.

 

[oldharry]

"I was not advocating paperless navigation as such, rather suggesting the electronics did the hard work"!

Neither was I - just commenting that professional 'good practice' on modern ships still includes maintaining the plot on a paper chart - even when the 'office' has the latest electronic position finding gear.