Scrapping the navigation table/area

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pcatterall

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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?
 
For us the chart area is an absolute essential - but not so much for charts (although that’s where our IPad sits as our only chartplotter). As my wife works remotely onboard (especially this year) then it’s the self-contained mini-office where she can sit and work and teleconference without being in the way at all, even at sea. The dining table is too big and not nearly as convenient.
 
pcatterall said:
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?
Click to expand...

I have sympathy with this view and when on passage spread my chart on the dining table under the main light holding all down with plastic antislip sheets. However that does not indicate the chart table should be ripped out or turned into a bar. When entertaining, it's nice to sit at the chart table and lob irrelevancies into the conversation whilst prepping the next day's passage.

And boats don't come with too many flat and reliable interior surfaces for all the personal clutter you want to spread out - next season you will need a nice writing surface to fill in the 1000's of forms required if you sail anywhere E of the UK / France maginot border line!! Woodman spare that table.
PWG
 
Personally I very much enjoy having a proper chart table/ navstation. Even if you're mainly using a plotter, you still need to passage plan. It's somewhere to read up on pilot books, look at charts (obviously), work out tides, and do anything else where you need a bit of space to concentrate (I like that it's rear facing in this respect). It rather depends on the boat, and who else is on board, but if you're doing more than daysailing the saloon seats are likely to be used for berths so using the saloon table for any of this isn't really an option.

Hallberg Rassy don't think so though (just one example - I noticed at the boatshow). You don't get even a pretend chart table in their smaller models.
 
The chart table is the boat’s workstation: it’s where the blog gets written, the courses are planned, bits of small, delicate kit are repaired and so on. And the table itself contains all those little bits of stuff that are used once every blue moon: the bit of batten which ticks the end of the Velcro retainer into the pocket, the collection of o rings for the dive gear, spare bulbs. And of course, the charts.
No way I am going to give up the nearest thing to a man shed on board..... Anyhow, it’d only become more hanging space for the Admirals’s clothes.,
 
I think the verdict is that it's not navigationally essential in this day and age, but think carefully about all the other potential uses you'd be giving up, and whether your proposed use is more important.

Personally I do like to keep a chart on the table when outside of local waters I know well, but most of my navigation does happen in the cockpit.

Pete
 
OK, just so Carib isn't disappointed, Jissel doesn't have a chart table and I've never missed it.

On the rare occasions I've had to plan my passage on board, I use the dinette table. At sea, I have a notebook (dead tree version), a paper chart in a plastic wallet so a wave doesn't reduce it to papier maché, and the GPS, not to mention a phone and a tablet with Navionics. If the weather's so bad they aren't safe under the sprayhood, I'm staying in port!
 
Carib said:
Hallberg Rassy don't think so though (just one example - I noticed at the boatshow). You don't get even a pretend chart table in their smaller models.
Click to expand...

I'm a little surprised that HR in particular would go this route, given the reputation of their typical owner as older and conservative, but I suppose it shows the way things are going.

Did the layout have anywhere that would do for all the non-navigational uses people are bringing up?

Pete
 
prv said:
I'm a little surprised that HR in particular would go this route, given the reputation of their typical owner as older and conservative, but I suppose it shows the way things are going.

Did the layout have anywhere that would do for all the non-navigational uses people are bringing up?

Pete
Click to expand...
I was surprised too, and no.. Just checked their website; here's what would have to pass for the nav area on an HR 340.

HR.jpg
 
Having a roomy chat chart table would indeed be a luxury.... and that capacious drawer under the lid that becomes a mini 'man-shed' crammed full of all sorts of junk..... :LOL:

I'm reminded that many hundreds - perhaps thousands - of RAF navigators on Canberras used a rickety fold-up 'chart table that was no larger than the HR one illustrated ( without fiddles to control one's pencil ), and just got on with it.

One swiftly learned how to fold a large En Route chart so that any section of it could readily be made available, and both triangular and flat 'carpenters pencils' were S.O.P. as they could slide but not roll.... and carry a small towelling cloth for mopping up the condensate dripping from the deep-frozen ribs overhead. All 'tricks of the trade' put to good use on saily boats! :ROFLMAO:
 
prv said:
I'm a little surprised that HR in particular would go this route, given the reputation of their typical owner as older and conservative, but I suppose it shows the way things are going.

Did the layout have anywhere that would do for all the non-navigational uses people are bringing up?

Pete
Click to expand...
Perhaps HR offer custom layouts to buyers of new vessels, said buyers opting for a chart table?
 
zoidberg said:
Having a roomy chat chart table would indeed be a luxury.... and that capacious drawer under the lid that becomes a mini 'man-shed' crammed full of all sorts of junk..... :LOL:

I'm reminded that many hundreds - perhaps thousands - of RAF navigators on Canberras used a rickety fold-up 'chart table that was no larger than the HR one illustrated ( without fiddles to control one's pencil ), and just got on with it.

One swiftly learned how to fold a large En Route chart so that any section of it could readily be made available, and both triangular and flat 'carpenters pencils' were S.O.P. as they could slide but not roll.... and carry a small towelling cloth for mopping up the condensate dripping from the deep-frozen ribs overhead. All 'tricks of the trade' put to good use on saily boats! :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
They carried frozen food?:)
 
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.
 
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