Plotter Help

[rhino_mac]

Ive just bought a Monterey 250 and it has a Standard Horizon plotter, which I think was an option as most seem to have the same model fitted. It's about 6 years old but it's positioned just by my left knee horizontally on the dashboard and is almost invisible when at the wheel standing up unless you crouch down which isn't very safe!

I'm new at this and would like to use the boat at night to watch the fireworks at Bournemouth and Poole but nervous about navigating through Poole Harbour to Parkstone Bay marina in the dark. A friend has suggested a better plotter would help generally by following tracks and I wondered if people had any suggestions.

I guess I would be willing to go to about £1000 including fitting costs and it would need to be more visible, so on top of the dash, much like a Tom Tom in a car. Fish finder not a necessity but might prove useful one day. Would like it to have an anchor alarm but key to this is it must be really easy to use with a good user interface. My current one is a mystery and the charts are very basic!

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'll most likely get the marina guys to fit so an idea of what I can expect to pay would help too.

Thanks in advance

 

[rafiki_]

I have a Garmin 550 which is quite intuitive. Cost about £500 if I recall. Fitted myself, but i guess about £100 max to have it fitted. I would suggest you spend the other £400 on a training course.

 

[hlb]

Is there a reason why you can not place the plotter some where else?? There should be loads of wire.

Tuther way, is just buy a Garmin or maybe others, About £500 and plug it in to the cig lighters, I had a few. Upstairs and down. The man at the shop will mostly fit one for you.

 

[PaulGooch]

As HLB said, just move the Standard Horizon. It's not a bad plotter, but if the charts are 2006, get them updated.

If you really fancy a new one, a 5" Garmin 551 is a nice plotter, but a bit small. The Garmin 750 is a 7" touchscreen plotter and is also very nice.

 

[Elessar]

Ive just bought a Monterey 250 and it has a Standard Horizon plotter, which I think was an option as most seem to have the same model fitted. It's about 6 years old but it's positioned just by my left knee horizontally on the dashboard and is almost invisible when at the wheel standing up unless you crouch down which isn't very safe!

I'm new at this and would like to use the boat at night to watch the fireworks at Bournemouth and Poole but nervous about navigating through Poole Harbour to Parkstone Bay marina in the dark. A friend has suggested a better plotter would help generally by following tracks and I wondered if people had any suggestions.

I guess I would be willing to go to about £1000 including fitting costs and it would need to be more visible, so on top of the dash, much like a Tom Tom in a car. Fish finder not a necessity but might prove useful one day. Would like it to have an anchor alarm but key to this is it must be really easy to use with a good user interface. My current one is a mystery and the charts are very basic!

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'll most likely get the marina guys to fit so an idea of what I can expect to pay would help too.

Thanks in advance

I cover my plotter up at night, because even in night mode it ruins night vision. One of my staff wrecked his boat using a plotter to "navigate" at night. Its a boat, not a nintendo game.

So I apologise for this bluntness, but this is my view.....

Spend £100 on moving the plotter, the rest on a decent course.

 

[lisilou]

Hi Rhino. I wouldn't ditch the SH personally. We had the c180 (i?) on our Monterey and it was really very good. Do as others have said and reposition it. It really will do everything you need it to do including tracking so I would just spend some time reading the manual and getting to grips with it.
L

 

[oceanfroggie]

I cover my plotter up at night, because even in night mode it ruins night vision. One of my staff wrecked his boat using a plotter to "navigate" at night. Its a boat, not a nintendo game.

So I apologise for this bluntness, but this is my view.....

Spend £100 on moving the plotter, the rest on a decent course.

Tend to agree. Night nav you need good night vision view ahead to see nav lights when inshore without suffering reduced vision caused by staring at bright plotter screen. I use auto helm extensively at night steering by small course adjustments, just occasionally glancing at plotter (brightness set very dim) to check track ok. Hand steering check heading and steer to a distant light when inshore or there is a distant light off shore. With a little experience and practice it becomes second nature. One of the biggest pains about inshore night nav outside channels is rope from pots, hence on long night passages I tend to stay at least 6m offshore depending on the area.

Ps. Radar is a good aid at night

 

[landlockedpirate]

I have to agree about the training. Do a course (I think even the Day skipper covers some night work) and all will become clear.

Daft question about your current plotter, has it got a chart card installed ? Most plotters will only give a very basic chart without the card.

If all else fails, my vote would also be with a Garmin, mount it on the dash with a bracket. I think the 750 will look quite large on your boat, the 550 may be a better fit.

 

[prv]

I find the Standard Horizon 180 has a very good night mode. The backlight goes very low indeed, it didn't have any noticeable effect on my night vision. The only problem is that if it's in night mode it's impossible to read in daylight (not bright sunshine, just ordinary daylight), so if you turn it off at night and then turn it on during the day you can't see the menus on the screen to put it back into day mode. The first time I did this I thought the screen had broken. Eventually I figured it out, but then had to put a bag over my head and the plotter, and let my eyes adjust, before I could make out enough of the screen to change the mode.

My advice would be to relocate the plotter to somewhere less daft, and consider updating the charts in it. Wouldn't disagree with the suggestion of training either.

Pete

 

[volvopaul]

I have standard horizon plotter on my boat, why they are so overlooked in favour of the mainstream 2 makes is beyond me, after all they get you from A to B using the same cartography as many other plotters, it has zoom, tides etc, highway all for a fraction of other makes.

As said mount it where you can use it, and buy some training either on your own boat or a schools boat, no matter how much you spend you can't beat actually going to sea and learning after some decent training , above all be safe.

 

[John100156]

....I cover my plotter up at night, because even in night mode it ruins night vision.....

Agree with Elessar - I knew of the issues associated with white/bright lights impeding night vision.

But on one trip in 2008, single handed, I brought a Targa 34 around the top of Formentor/Mallorca about 2am in the morning. Lots of cloud cover that day, so no help from the moon and stars. I had my chartplotter on quite bright from the trip over (120nm).

It was difficult enough to make out where the rocks/sky/sea met! I had a low level red light on my paper charts.

As I approached Pollenca (first time in that area) I dropped into displacement mode to check my approach on the chartplotter, when I looked up, I could not see a thing fro several minutes (I realised then the importance of dimming down displays). Very soon after I just managed to make out a 45ft+ sail boat anchored way off shore, with no lights on whatsoever, it was beam on, it certainly woke me up I can tell you!

Fortunately, the T34 is a great boat and I easily manouvered around the obstacle, but it did give me quite a stir! Lesson learned.

 

[PaulGooch]

I have standard horizon plotter on my boat, why they are so overlooked in favour of the mainstream 2 makes is beyond me, after all they get you from A to B using the same cartography as many other plotters, it has zoom, tides etc, highway all for a fraction of other makes.

As said mount it where you can use it, and buy some training either on your own boat or a schools boat, no matter how much you spend you can't beat actually going to sea and learning after some decent training , above all be safe.

Nothing wrong with Standard Horizon Paul, very good company for support too. Unfortunately though, the CP180/300/500 are getting a bit long in the tooth. Other companies bring out newer, better models and they are the same as several years ago. Gamin have brought out better plotters that are now cheaper the SH's old models. Lastly, they are OK as stand alone units, but as part of integrated systems, they aren't very good at all. AIS and radar implementations are poor and they don't even have a heading up mode. They take input from a fluxgate compass, but don't orientate to it, only orientating to GPS heading. Fine if underway, but hopeless if you're drifting or swing at anchor.

 

[Elessar]

Ps. Radar is a good aid at night

agree - the mostly black display on dim seems OK on eyes unlike a dim chart.

 

[DavidJ]

The S37 has the plotter mounted quite low, with the disadvantage that you point out, but with the advantage that because it is somewhat shaded you can see it clearly in bright sunlight.

 

[mlines]

As others have said, Standard Horizon are a great little plotter and dimming it down etc. makes it perfectly suitable for night mode.

As with all tools, including maps and radar, its only an indication of where you are, not an absolute. Always use a number of sources, including the MK1 Eyeball, to assess your position.

I have done Poole Fireworks on a couple of occasion with my CP180 and it was a good cross-reference to the visual clues, however it does not show lobster pots.