Plotter at Nav station or garage?

Mount Plotter

  • Hatch garage

    Votes: 36 72.0%

  • Nav station

    Votes: 14 28.0%
  • Total voters
    50
Javelin

Javelin

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Messages
1,413
Location
Southwold
www.southwoldboatyard.co.uk
Got my Christmas present next to me.
B&G Zeus2 9" plotter.

Trouble is I can't decide whether to mount it at the nav station, in place of my old plotter and use the ipad repeater (go free wifi) in the cockpit or in the garage above the main hatch.
Alternatively make a new garage to accept the Zeus and use the ipad repeater at the nav station.

Tiller steered boat so no wheel binnacle to mount it on.
 
It depends how good your sprayhood is. Although I have an HR screen, my plotter is below (+ iPad). The usual alternative is not on the garage but on a bracket above the reefing lines etc.
 
I tend to worry, not about the plotter being waterproof, but about the connections, which I feel might become unreliable over a period of time. Maybe if it were recessed into an enlarged garage this wouldn't be a problem, as with a binnacle, but I tend to prefer an uncluttered view. If you have a liferaft stowed ahead of the screen, this could make a difference.
 
Sorry logic being;

iPad only ok in the sun
iPad not waterproof
You spend most of your nav/pilotage outside and only need an internal repeater occasionally.
Zeus2 is good in the sun and will not mind water
 
Another vote for in the cockpit. It should tolerate life there better than the iPad. It should be easier to see than the iPad. And we've found navigating at the chart table is rendered largely redundant by having the plotter on deck.
I think 'johnalison' is right though that the connections are the weakspot, both in terms of potential poor connections, water ingress, and looking after them when they are disconnected. Perhaps not much of an issue if it's just 12volts, but if there's a radar connection, an external aerial, etc any of them might give trouble.
 
On deck, obviously.

Putting plotters in the cabin is an outdated habit left over from using charts, which had to stay below most of the time for good practical reasons. We operate our boats from the cockpit, there's no good reason to keep climbing down below where you can't see what's going on, except to keep paper dry. If you're not using paper, stay on deck.

I like paper charts, I have complete, current, and hand-corrected coverage of my cruising area and I use them routinely. But I also have a plotter, mounted where it belongs, on deck:

FA13D2C3-0EF6-4B5A-B77A-62CD5D7FF550_zps0mks0lje.jpg


14119FE9-BF83-4CA8-B84A-61A9D1838BAC_zpsyzdpmze8.jpg


Pete
 
Javelin said:
Got my Christmas present next to me.
B&G Zeus2 9" plotter.

Trouble is I can't decide whether to mount it at the nav station, in place of my old plotter and use the ipad repeater (go free wifi) in the cockpit or in the garage above the main hatch.
Alternatively make a new garage to accept the Zeus and use the ipad repeater at the nav station.

Tiller steered boat so no wheel binnacle to mount it on.
Click to expand...

For many years I resisted having a plotter in the cockpit because the only way to mount it in my boat would have been to cut a hole in the coaming and I didn't want to do such permanent damage for electronics that rapidly become obsolete or potentially fail (yes, I know grp is inherently repairable, but I just couldn't face cutting the required aperture). I had a small Garmin plotter below decks which I was happy with. However I have now mounted a garmin 751 which just about fits in the hatch garage and coupled it with AIS and haven't looked back.

99 % of the time I know where I am so wouldn't look at the plotter, but to constantly have a plethora of chart data and AIS info broadcasted "at you" is really useful. It's simple little things like "I wonder how far beyond the channel marker there is deep water" that I would never have been bothered to go below to look at - but now I can have that info readily available. An example was beating against the tide up the west solent last year and managing to find a shallow "valley" type feature I could tack into but being able to see exactly when I should tack out of it. Frankly it made the difference between just about being able to sail against the tide Vs having to motor ;) So I am now a complete convert to having the plotter in the cockpit, brings another dimension to sailing
 
Under the sprayhood for me, for all the good reasons the others have given.
On my boat there is a bracket on the sliding hatch and one at the chart table. The plotter is on a long lead that does not have to be disconnected when it is moved, so no risk of connections deteriorating.
I would never go back to having the plotter only at the chart table.
 
Not upgrading the radar yet (can't see the point given how little I use it)
And that resides at the Nav station on the old plotter.
So it looks like new plotter in a new garage,
ipad below next to the old plotter, which I'll only use with radar as it won't work with the new nmea2000 sensors.

Thanks for the help in making my mind up.
 
The plotter should be in front of the person who is steering the vessel. It is also likely to be the device displaying radar, and AIS data - which is important if you're trying to recover an AIS located MOB. As time goes by and we all contribute* data to the chart publishers, the displayed info will become accurate enough to be confidently relied upon for rock-hopping navigation.
* http://www.teamsurv.eu/Home/tabid/56/language/en-GB/Default.aspx
 
Billjratt said:
The plotter should be in front of the person who is steering the vessel.
Click to expand...

I disagree slightly - it should be in front of the person who is navigating the vessel (or possibly commanding, without meaning to sound too formal and militaristic about it). The helmsman might be a complete beginner, they might be someone who's good at driving a boat to windward but has no interest in navigating, or they might in fact be a headless robot underneath the aft cabin bunk. All three of those spend more time steering Ariam than I do, but if I'm in charge I want to be able to keep an eye on the plotter without having to go to the aft end of the cockpit and peer over the top of the binnacle at an upside-down screen. Hence its carefully-chosen location at the front of the cockpit in the pic above.

Pete
 
Binman said:
What was in the sandwich Pete.
Click to expand...


:)

Sausage, bacon and egg - but a cold Tesco one sadly rather than a proper fryup.

It's the best picture I seem to have of the general cockpit layout, but was actually taken to illustrate a tweet about going for a quick sail after work. Isn't pictures of your dinner one of the main clichés about Twitter? :)

Pete
 
prv said:
On deck, obviously.

Putting plotters in the cabin is an outdated habit left over from using charts, which had to stay below most of the time for good practical reasons. We operate our boats from the cockpit, there's no good reason to keep climbing down below where you can't see what's going on, except to keep paper dry. If you're not using paper, stay on deck.

I like paper charts, I have complete, current, and hand-corrected coverage of my cruising area and I use them routinely. But I also have a plotter, mounted where it belongs, on deck:

FA13D2C3-0EF6-4B5A-B77A-62CD5D7FF550_zps0mks0lje.jpg


14119FE9-BF83-4CA8-B84A-61A9D1838BAC_zpsyzdpmze8.jpg


Pete
Click to expand...

What's on the other side? I can see the fushion (the stereo controller most probably) but what's next to it. Looks like another plotter (!).
 
If you have no cockpit canopy like myself, then you have a problem, I have a SH plotter to set up, thought about fixing to a hinged plate that I can swing into view, problem again is extending the leads back to my VHF and the electrical panel, so not that straight forward. I do a lot of single sailing to boot, do have an auto-helm,
 
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