Time for a new chart plotter?

[DanTribe]

A friend tells me that my old chart plotter is out of date & I should get a more modern one.
It has been very reliable for years, but the pencil is getting short and the rubber has gone hard. The parallel rule has got sloppy hinges, but is still useable.
I am going to the Boat show this week, any recommendations?

 

[prv]

Treat yourself to a new pencil and one of these instead of the parallel rules?

Pete

 

[alahol2]

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?382556-Antique-parallel-rule-in-box

 

[prv]

Being serious for a moment, the best thing about the boat show is that you should be able to have a play with all the plotters on offer. That's what I did at the Southampton show when I bought my first one for Kindred Spirit in 2011. That was a Standard Horizon CP180, which is quite good but was long in the tooth even then - I'm sure there must be better machines three years on.

So, my recommendation is to visit all the manufacturers' stands and see for yourself (assuming they all still turn up to this supposedly declining show?). Don't expect a great discount on the price - the best I could get for mine was persuading a supplier to match the price I could have bought it for from MES, including postage, and he wasn't very keen even on that.

Pete

 

[Iliade]

+1!
That's a rolling rule, which I found great to use, though it did keep rolling off the table :0)

Personally I now use a square protractor as it has no moving parts to seize up and weatherproof charts for which a chinagraph is ideal...

 

[Bertramdriver]

Why change? If the old system works what's the problem?

 

[pvb]

Why change? If the old system works what's the problem?

Because his friend says it's out of date - serious social stigma.
.

 

[alahol2]

Because his friend says it's out of date - serious social stigma.
.

The more serious stigma surely is the, now public, lack of lead in his pencil?

 

[laika]

So, my recommendation is to visit all the manufacturers' stands and see for yourself (assuming they all still turn up to this supposedly declining show?)

They don't! No Navico this year. I didn't see Standard Horizon either but I wasn't looking for them. Garmin, Raymarine and Furuno yes. There was a B&G MFD set up on the MES stand, but no big simrad/B&G/Lowrance presence.

 

[Bertramdriver]

So new MFD 's and integrated network data sharing makes you a better man, sailor, whatever? In my experiance every time I upgrade I then spend weeks making it work and then more weeks angsting over whether it will be reliable.

 

[FullCircle]

Because his friend says it's out of date - serious social stigma.
.

Ha, this is the bloke that dunks his grandkids in essex creeks to get some free mud.

 

[PetiteFleur]

Just get a tablet and download the Navionics app. Excellent and almost as good as a dedicated plotter. Much cheaper as well and you have a usefull computer as well.

 

[DanTribe]

The more serious stigma surely is the, now public, lack of lead in his pencil?

Oi!
who have you been talking to?