Plotters/Charts Obsolete?

[Wild Urchin]

Having just bought a boat and considering buying electronic charts for her new sailing area with existing plotter, I realised I could spend many hundreds of pounds on old obsolete gear that I could get for my iPhone for £20 or thereabouts!! i.e. Navionics phone apps or same for iPad for a little more.

When will the dinosaur age of bespoke maps and data cards catch up I wonder? Not to mention people on eBay trying to sell stuff for many times their market worth.

Waterproof? - I could buy at least 5 iPads with maps and throw them away if they got wet for the price of the historic plotters/charts?

Let's hope they learn the lessons of other media markets soon.

 

[ARO]

Waterproof? - I could buy at least 5 iPads with maps and throw them away if they got wet for the price of the historic plotters/charts?

No need for that. You could buy a waterproof case for the first one at a fraction of the price of the second one.

Let's hope they learn the lessons of other media markets soon.

They will, but it is a painful process.

 

[Dockhead]

You will find it very valuable to have an up to date chart in a real marine chart plotter, obsolescent or not. The IPad is a great backup or repeater.

 

[doug748]

What are these iphones and hiphads of which you speak?
I say there is the devil in them!

On a less whimsical note. You might even find that you could throw away the lot and replace it with a chart and a 50 quid GPS.

 

[Reverend Ludd]

I think 2 mins after your battery goes flat you will see the value of a chart.

 

[GrahamM376]

I think 2 mins after your battery goes flat you will see the value of a chart.

Agreed. Electronic devices can easily fail, get dropped or batteries go flat. Paper charts are well worth the cost.

 

[prv]

Agreed. Electronic devices can easily fail, get dropped or batteries go flat. Paper charts are well worth the cost.

Never mind that - show me a plotter with 1200dpi resolution and a 28-inch screen that I can draw on.

Pete

 

[Polux]

Try to find your way between islands or reefs solo sailing in 30K wind with spray flying everywhere using a PC. There is nothing that can substitute a good plotter on an outside pod. Good plotters are waterproof, not only to rain or spray but underwater waterproof.

A computer or IPad will have a limited use. It can be enough if you only sail only in good weather.

 

[timbartlett]

Never mind that - show me a plotter with 1200dpi resolution and a 28-inch screen that I can draw on.

Pete

28 inch screen -- no problem: I 've got one on my desk -- complete with hi-res charts of the entire USA -- both coasts plus Alaska, Hawaii, the Bahamas, and inland lakes.
1200dpi resolution is more of a problem. But paper charts aren't printed at 1200dpi either!

 

[Sybarite]

Try to find your way between islands or reefs solo sailing in 30K wind with spray flying everywhere using a PC. There is nothing that can substitute a good plotter on an outside pod. Good plotters are waterproof, not only to rain or spray but underwater waterproof.

A computer or IPad will have a limited use. It can be enough if you only sail only in good weather.

Or get a sensible boat with a wheel shelter.

 

[robinsoncrusoe]

Where do you buy charts from anyway - I want one for Swanage area just to get some practice in understanding them etc but cant seem to locate one

 

[Twister_Ken]

Where do you buy charts from anyway - I want one for Swanage area just to get some practice in understanding them etc but cant seem to locate one

If you just want a practise chart try and find a used one: eBay or a chart exchange. If you want new instore or online from a chandler.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

..... When will the dinosaur age of bespoke maps and data cards catch up I wonder? ...... Let's hope they learn the lessons of other media markets soon.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=294527

You can buy a full set of UKHO UK charts for £30 on a cd. You can legally print these. .....

The above quote is from Post 12 on the link to the thread about illegal copying of charts.

So for £30 and a cheap lap top you can have a full set of UKHO UK charts on a plotter that can be interfaced with a remote screen in a water proof housing.

 

[sighmoon]

Try to find your way between islands or reefs solo sailing in 30K wind with spray flying everywhere using a PC. There is nothing that can substitute a good plotter on an outside pod. Good plotters are waterproof, not only to rain or spray but underwater waterproof.

A computer or IPad will have a limited use. It can be enough if you only sail only in good weather.

Sounds like a disaster in the making. A lot of the data that's on the charts (or plotter) is from pre-GPS surveys and can be out by several miles.

 

[prv]

28 inch screen -- no problem: I 've got one on my desk

Sure, and I've got one approaching that size on my desk too. But I couldn't run it on my boat.

Pete

 

[Vara]

It is essential to have a paper back up for all important systems on boat.

 

[doug748]

Where do you buy charts from anyway - I want one for Swanage area just to get some practice in understanding them etc but cant seem to locate one

These folk seem to have charts from about £4:

http://www.chartsales.co.uk/


PS: Chart 2610 would do you - Portland Bill to Anvil Point.

A chart pack would be better value, from £9 - 5601 East Devon and Dorset coast.

 

[Polux]

Sounds like a disaster in the making. A lot of the data that's on the charts (or plotter) is from pre-GPS surveys and can be out by several miles.

That is not so. Top providers of digital charts make annual actualization and the digital chart is as precise as the last better paper chart you can find on the market. If the charts are bad, the information on the plotter can be misleading, as it misleading as on the charts. actually that is a good business for them because those actualization is expensive.

Of course you have to have the Plotter on the same cartographic system that is used on the chart and I have already been on boats that had neglected that and the plotter give about a 400m error, but that is a skippers fault.

Of course, with a paper map or digital one your eyes or radar should still be your most trustful tool.

Since I have digital maps I have made about 20 000 miles of coastal navigation and I had only found once a submerged rock that was not in the map, in a place full of submerged rocks (Costa da Morte). Maybe that is because most of those miles were done in the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal and on the med coast and Islands of Spain France and Italy were cartography is good. I really don't know about Brittany or eastern med.

 

[Polux]

Or get a sensible boat with a wheel shelter.

On a small boat (less than 40ft)? You call sensible to that? On a small boat a wheel house or shelter will have a disproportional surface regarding to the cabin area and will constitute an hazard providing a lot of grip to the wind and breaking waves with an huge influence on high wind sailing and regarding safety. Sensible?

 

[Wild Urchin]

The point is that plotters and associated electronic charts are far to expensive compared to other media and hopefully the manufacturers will recognise this. Maybe pointing this out through forums like this will help reduce the prices, because yes I'd prefer to use my plotter for our new base, if only I could afford the charts or at least justify the cost vs other options.