Plotter essential?

Is a chart plotter essential/vital to your sailing?

  • I have a GPS

    Votes: 72 35.1%

  • I have a chart plotter

    Votes: 40 19.5%

  • I have both

    Votes: 113 55.1%

  • I have neither

    Votes: 5 2.4%

  • A GPS is a must have

    Votes: 63 30.7%

  • A GPS is a nice to have

    Votes: 73 35.6%

  • A chart plotter is a must have

    Votes: 30 14.6%

  • A chart plotter is a nice to have

    Votes: 114 55.6%

  • More than happy to sail without electronic nav gizmos

    Votes: 84 41.0%
  • Total voters
    205
Koeketiene

Koeketiene

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www.sailblogs.com
I've been following the 'Seems to be legal...' thread with some amazement.
Was particularly surprised by the number of people who seemed to regard a functioning chart plotter as essential/vital.
I find this point of view even stranger since most forumites seem to be of SAGA qualifying age.

Anyway, poll attached
 
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"Saga qualifying age" often coincides with buying a seagoing vessel without knowing North from South. If you can't sail without screens you can't sail,full stop.
 
jerrytug said:
"Saga qualifying age" often coincides with buying a seagoing vessel without knowing North from South. If you can't sail without screens you can't sail,full stop.
Click to expand...

Luckily most Saga qualifiers were educated in an age where concepts of north/south, arithmetic, etc. were battered into them during their education. Also lucky is their ability to remember such things from 50+ years ago even though the facility to remember day to day happenings is beginning to fade. It's the tits with modern education and more money than sense you have to watch out for!
 
I have sailed and would sail without electronics, but in real terms a modern functioning plotter on a tablet, smartphone or laptop is not a massive investment, particularly as most people have these devices anyway. Why not pay the money to turn your smartphone into a plotter if you have nothing else? I prefer a proper plotter but if on a really tight budget, an open source charting package plus some time scanning charts is legal and cheap.

I started with the €10 Navionics Android App, then got SeaClear plus scanned charts on an old laptop, then bought the SH CP300 and replaced SeaClear with OpenCPN + compatible charts. I'm not even sure paper is the cheapest solution any more - my last set of charts cost €30 more than the Navionics HD tablet app for a fraction of the coverage.

To deliberately ignore mature modern technology doesn't make much sense IMHO.
 
KellysEye said:
>Plotter essential?

No, as said in another thread you have to carry charts so a plotter is a waste of money.
Click to expand...

Sounds as if you have never used a plotter.
As for paper charts, well if you have an iPad you can stuff it with up to date charts and use that as your back up to the fixed plotter. Not only that the iPad will be a plotter as well.
 
Nothing wrong with plotters but remember the cheaper they are the less reliable they become. The most accurate and reliable charts are the admiralty paper ones. That is why they are so expensive. The charts for navionics and other plotters do not always have the correct information on them and all plotters have a welcome screen warning you of this. It's easy to disregard but I've seen enough errors on navionics charts to convince me never to navigate with them and I've only used the system three times.

So yes, paper is not a cheaper option compared to a plotter. But remember that is because the plotter charts do not have to be correct.
 
Like all the other grown-ups here, I keep paper charts. On the other hand, we sail for pleasure, and a plotter can add greatly to that pleasure. Much of my sailing involves coastal trips well away from home and a predetermined route allows me to get all the navigation done before I set off. With GPS alone it used to take me about 3/4 hr to set up a route, since a dozen or more waypoints needed to be created. On a plotter it is all over in a minute or two. Usually, I rely entirely on the plotter, double-checking any problem points against a chart.
 
I have a GPS for backup. The great thing it does it record where I have been and gives me all sorts of data.
 
Baggywrinkle said:
To deliberately ignore mature modern technology doesn't make much sense IMHO.
Click to expand...

I have trouble with Luddites. I can understand the traditional nature of the sea and sailing and we're all (hopefully) trained to do without GPS and chart plotters in extremis, but why ignore the usefulness of modern aids and spend more time enjoying the sailing itself? After all, I enjoy an open fire. But I stopped cooking on one when I left the scouts!
 
I have no problem using charts and all the other paraphernalia for finding my way around the place.

But being an idle git, a decent plotter is preferred method of finding my way around.

Would think twice about going on a long trip with a non working plotter, and would not go without a working GPS.

With the demise of Decca and RDF there are now no poor vis fixing aids, radar exempt.
 
Well as a newbie to all this I feel most secure with a chart and will be finally buying a Garmin 551s tomorrow mainly to easily see my position at a glance, the chart plotting facility etc will come in very useful I'm sure when I have learnt to use it. I would ALWAYS have a chart on board in case the technology ever packs up!
 
cliveshelton said:
I have trouble with Luddites. I can understand the traditional nature of the sea and sailing and we're all (hopefully) trained to do without GPS and chart plotters in extremis, but why ignore the usefulness of modern aids and spend more time enjoying the sailing itself? After all, I enjoy an open fire. But I stopped cooking on one when I left the scouts!
Click to expand...

Being capable of navigating without recourse to electronics and possibly preferring to do so and being proud of the skills involved is hardly "luddite". Going on board others' boats and smashing their plotters, or even just purloining the data cards, would be a better example and I wasn't aware there was a concerted movement setting out to do that though it might explain the missing maps on another post.

What is worrying is the idea that ~50% of responders to the poll would not be happy to sail without their electro-toys. Ah well, if it's on a screen, it must be right, mustn't it?
 
Pinnacle said:
Could you please explain why?
Click to expand...

I guess because your chart plotter & charts normally carry a warning saying they are an aid to navigation and should not be relied on, and you should always carry another means to navigate your boat safely.

I guess that means that if your batteries go west and run aground due a navigational error, (hitting a well known sandbank or outside a channel, isolated rock, etc, your insurance Co would fight the claim (and rightly so), as you had no other back up so it is neglect of duty, not prudent seamanship, whatever.

You'll find nearly all commercial operators use paper charts as when bought they are corrected up to date, and you have weekly, monthly corrections to keep them up to date. Just how in date are your electronic charts? I know mine are quite a bit out and they are quite new.

As for their accuracy, well I've always found the cartography to be excellent, but it's position on the ground sometimes quite a bit out. Due I'm told to the original maps & sounding being accurate but the position of the actual islands, etc wrong, now with GPS being super accurate and all that, you'll find some big errors - Greece is classic example of this and they even use a different GPS data system (not WGS84).

So in areas like this then a paper chart is more accurate, as YOU have to determine where you are, you are not relying on GPS and electronic charts.

Anyway, I'm no ludite but still carry paper for the area I'm working in, and it doesn't eat electric either!
 
awol said:
Ah well, if it's on a screen, it must be right, mustn't it?
Click to expand...

I think you're doing those who know how to incorporate modern technology into their navigation and pilotage a great disservice. It is a means to provide a position which many people would be uncomfortable without. Nothing wrong with that - the position needs to be double checked though, just as you'd double check a bearing or a transit, light or landmark.

I use the plotter to show my position, then I check chart, pilot book, bearings to land-marks, transits if available and depth sounder - if it all matches what the plotter is telling me, I trust the position, if not it's back to tradition with bearings and paper.
 
I think ive responded to this pole before.
last time I was the one and only non GPS. ludite.
Is GPS essential? No. I get arround just fine with out. Nice to have, I supose I'll find out. I just bought one a used Garmin I believe cost me 30k.
at least I will be able to tell the time.
Plotter essential? No. Nice probabaly they all seam to have little tiny screens I cant see. of course I cant see the darn chart anymore iether. expensive so spending the cash on something else.
Im more than happy to sail without the electronic aids. but if Iv got one why not use it? I probabaly wont most of the time as its down on the chart table. And I spend most of my time in the cockpit in shore round rocks and islands and I just looks out sees em and goes arround.
The 30k included a used furuno radar. curently not working.
 
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