Scrapping the navigation table/area

[Carib]

Perhaps HR offer custom layouts to buyers of new vessels, said buyers opting for a chart table?

I don't think so. They're mass produced essentially. The larger models will have different (but standardised) layout options.

 

[johnalison]

I don't think so. They're mass produced essentially. The larger models will have different (but standardised) layout options.

HR can't be told anything. They're are very businesslike and straightforward, but you get what it says on the tin. A fellow-owner wanted a variation in the seating in the saloon of his 39 and insisted they build it or no sale. He was charged a few thousand for the, very nice, split seats on one side. The following year it was offered as a free option.

 

[jbweston]

I agree that my (or is it Penguin's?) chart table is very useful - mainly in harbour as office, writing desk, additional galley work surface, cocktail table, etc. The only strictly nav use is to keep the paper charts and deck logs and for passage planning (otherwise known as 'working out where we're going next') in harbour.

I do have the luxury of a dry flat cabin top chart area under the pram hood though and at sea it accommodates the plotter, a folded paper chart, binocs and deck log, etc.

 

[zoidberg]

They carried frozen food?

No, just frozen navigators.

The Outside Air Temperature at height was usually 40C or below. That meant the inside of the aircraft's alloy skin was similar. On a long high-level trip of more than a couple of hours, the moisture from one's exhaled breath froze solid, up to an inch thick, on the bare metal. In the long descent to land, it would melt and dribble down ones' neck and all across one's meticulous chartwork.

Cockpit heating? Ha! That was for wimps and pilots..... Theirs worked, ours didn't.

 

[dulls]

We have looked at several yachts and have seen several where the space occupied by the nav table and area could ( perhaps?) be put t a better use.
twenty years ago a 'proper' navigation centre' would have been a great asset, instruments and chart table all to hand etc. but are they as valuable today.
We still like to plan using a paper chart but the dinning table is easilly cleared for this and we rely on the chart plotter day to day.
has anyone modified their yacht in this way?

Our last boat did not have a nav table. Did not miss it and did not need it. Saloon table for charts if needed. We had a canvas blue pouch that held nav gear. The surface was our freezer near hatch and ice box far hatch. The pouch as you can see holds a chart in half. All nav electronics were here. Best set up i have ever had.

 

[Kukri]

Thanks all, interesting views. i spent years working doing inshore surveys, we used to charter local boats and build makeshift chart tables. Essential then as every ( sextant) fix had to be plotted directly onto the ( permatrace) chart Station pointers, 10 points, etc were the main aids.

Lurking right at the back of my chart table drawer, waiting patiently to be called on, is an Admiralty station pointer, in its elegant wooden case.

Meanwhile, it stops all the other stuff from sliding out of reach...

 

[Elessar]

We have looked at several yachts and have seen several where the space occupied by the nav table and area could ( perhaps?) be put t a better use.
twenty years ago a 'proper' navigation centre' would have been a great asset, instruments and chart table all to hand etc. but are they as valuable today.
We still like to plan using a paper chart but the dinning table is easilly cleared for this and we rely on the chart plotter day to day.
has anyone modified their yacht in this way?

Mine pulls in and out like a drawer. It has a freestanding chair in front of it. The chair is like an armchair and matches the saloon seating.

When using the boat as a boat the table is pushed in, and the chair faces the saloon. It looks like fixed seating.

When using the boat as an office, the chair turns round and the table pulls out.

It was a good feature as a chart table when the boat was built - it had a factory fit DECCA.

Its now never used as a chart table but remains a vary useful feature.

boat mode.

(Stupid forum software. Both boat and photo are upright)

office mode