to those who use laptops for chart plotting

wotayottie

wotayottie

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how do you hold them down? has anyone found a good and easy way to stop them sliding about in a seaway? short of buying the expensive articulated laptop holder thingies
 
I use the nonslip pads they sell for stopping plates and so on slipping about. It's worked so far ...
 
I use some very thin but strong 1" ribbon bought from a hobby store. It is held in place under the lid of the chart table by velcro pads and the loose ends are simply tied above the key pad in the hinged part of the laptop.

The ribbon is thin so the chart table easily closes as does the laptop if required with the tied ribbon in place.

It's done North Sea crossings like this and never moved.
 
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I use the nonslip pads they sell for stopping plates and so on slipping about. It's worked so far ...

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Yep, me too. Excellent!
 
I use a thin cord in the hinge area, two padeyes say 6" away from the sides of laptop, and a lump of strong elastic to tension the lot,lives under the chart table flap where the charts used to be!.I also use a lorenz 7" suncolor plotter,with its own inbuilt GPS.When the going gets too tough for the laptop, I shut it down, or it does this itself! then close lid of chart table until matters improve. Small plotter can also be used at the helm if there are loads of obstructions, like off Brittany coast!
not ideal system but works, as laptop is not used to drive Autopilot, this is done by Lorenz. Getting routes to agree is a bit of a pain.Must think of a simpler option someday!
 
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I use the nonslip pads they sell for stopping plates and so on slipping about. It's worked so far ...

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Yep, me too. Excellent!

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Another vote for the soft bobberly holey stuff, Poundstretcher or similar sell small rolls for a quid. Where's the problem?
 
I would expect that you might require a different type of mounting depending on whether you have a 40 knot planing hull (full ahead both) or a sailing yacht cruising making passage at 5 knots.

My recommendation for a yacht is a thin piece of marine ply with the exact footprint of the laptop having been removed from the centre using a router. When not needed, the ply board can be tucked under a spare bunk. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I cut off the screen then drilled and screwed it into the drawer below the chart table (screws went the corners where there were no vital parts) then hard wired it to the 12v system, lead leads for mouse, screen gps etc through a nice neat 1" hole in the back of the chart table and screwed 15" flat screen monitor to the area at the back of the chart table. Perfect installation with added bonus that nobody's going to nick a mangled (neatly) old laptop.
 
Can i suggest that laptops are most suitable for course pre-planning and that any device which takes you away from the cockpit for a quick recci comes with its own drawbacks - the last thing i want when sailing is to be straining to view a computer screen
 
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"any device which takes you away from the cockpit for a quick recci comes with its own drawbacks"

I better ditch the heads then. Sad, as I found it a great place for a quick recci /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

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"The measure of a human being is between desire for a thing and stretching out your hand( or climbing out of your oilies!)" /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
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