Waypoints on the net?

[Wyndsong]

Does anyone know if there is a web site which has waypoint data (for the Solent)?

I have a hand held GPS and the necessary leads to connect to my PC. I am basically looking to find an easy way of updating the GPS rather than spending hours toggle the big button!

TIA
Paul

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[StephenSails]

Very interested to hear you say that. I have just been working on a free website which will do just that for you, I am just at the data entry part and as you can imagine, there is a lot to do... You can of course enter your own waypoints in aswell.. Its experimental but you might like to take a sneak preview at what I am planning here http://www.sumner-outdoors.com/gps/index.php

I would appreciate your feedback and anyone else.

Cheers

Stephen

<hr width=100% size=1>http://www.yachtinguniverse.com

 

[graham]

Personally I would treat anyone elses way point info with extreme caution until I had confirmed the positions were correct.

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[snowleopard]

i'd be a bit wary of everyone in the world converging on the same point!

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[Oldhand]

Firstly, on what basis do you trust wayponts which you have not plotted yourself and will avoid you approaching hazards on all the likely routes you may take? I suggest it is much wiser to define your own waypoints to meet your own specific needs.

Secondly, I have found the best way to get my waypoints into a GPS is to define them in a suitable chart plotting application on the PC and then download them to the GPS via a serial/NMEA interface cable.

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[oldsalt]

Why on earth would you want to use someone elses waypoints? Would you trust them?

You hardly need a GPS for the Solent, people have sailed here for years without, and have survived. It's like needing a OS map for walking around Hyde Park.

If you really need them, enter them manually, or from a suitable software package such as Mapsource, or enter them when you sail past the point concerned.

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[tome]

Published waypoints are GPS-assisted collision traps patiently awaiting the unwary and the onset of poor visibility.

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[LadyInBed]

I think all GPS's have the facility to "enter position as WP".
It's much better to be there to chose which patch of water to plonk your WP in!
You know it makes sence.

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[l'escargot]

Convergance

I know this is a generally accepted theory, but is it not just folklore? The odds of two boats arriving at the same point at exactly the same moment must be pretty high. Can anyone give an example from personal experience?

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[l'escargot]

Despite the technophobes (I was one once, checking my new calculator against my slide rule) I don't see any problem with using someone elses waypoints - providing you check that the position claimed is true by checking against a chart. Downloading has got to be more accurate than manual inputting, you are more likely to transpose figures or press the wrong button.

Solent waypoints, though not essential, can provide interest. The TTG reading is a boon for family sailing and reduces the number of "how much longer" questions.

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[Guest]

GPS Nav group...

URL http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/

We are a group on Yahoo dedicated to improving skills and passing on all sorts of skills / info. etc.

Join us and we are sure to help you out ....



<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ...
Bilge Keelers get up further ! I only came - cos they said there was FREE Guinness !

 

[andy_wilson]

You mean crash?

A few thoughts.

When I sailed the Solent hardly a day went by when I didn't have to change course for another vessel in open water, or watch closely that the other did so. So yes I would say the odds are prety high.

Question is who needs GPS waypoints in the Solent? If ever there was an opportunity to practice Mk 1 navigation techniques, The Solent provides it.

Come the fog you need to plot a course according to the tide anyway. I'm not sure I would want to go and tick off a buoy when I could happily keep right out of the way of the deep draft stuff an hug a contour line.

Two or more boats arriving at the same Macmillans defined point may well be folklore but why risk it?

If you must visit nav. marks at least think about which side you can pass and enter the waypoint appropriately.

There are plenty of seemingly obvious routes in the Solent that you would need wheels to acomplish. Equally at certain times of the tide it is perfectly possible to see a line of boats religiously follow a channel when a shortcut could save a mile e.g. Beaulieu River to Lymington via Gull Island.

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[l'escargot]

Re: You mean crash?

If by "via Gull Island" you mean the swashway through the spit, it is some years since you sailed the Solent - it's been closed for about 4 years to my knowledge!
You may avoid the deep draft stuff by following a contour, but aren't you putting yourself at risk from all the shallow draught stuff doing the same - a bit like heading for a waypoint.
GPS needs practice just like Mk1 navigation and the Solent is a good place to do it for all the same reasons.

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[pessimist]

Only found this thread when my copy of YM arrived, so sorry for the late reply. I understand the concerns of Snow Leopard et al about the dangers of two boats converging on the same waypoint so as both a programmer and a sailor I have developed a small program to overcome the problem On each waypoint uploaded the program will introduce a random error of a few hunded metres - this will make convergence extremely unlikely. I have also included an option to drive an NMEA autopilot and can introduce a couple of degrees of deviation - a further aid to collision avoidance. You should be aware however that one error could cancel out the other, this however is unlikely.

Please note that this software does not absolve the user of the responsibility to keep a good lookout at all times.

<hr width=100% size=1>A pessimist is an optimist in full possesion of the facts

 

[Twister_Ken]

Random variation, eh?

That'll be handy, trying to get into Cowes. It'll explain how you ended up on the Squadron lawn, univited.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[vyv_cox]

And its name is.....

Selective Availability. Sorry, it'll never catch on with a name like that.

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[pessimist]

Re: Random variation, eh?

Hey thats something I hadn't thought of - now we can all get on the lawn. But wait we're reintroducing convergence.

<hr width=100% size=1>A pessimist is an optimist in full possesion of the facts

 

[pauldaviesuk]

Hi Stephen

I've just tried your Waypoint database and added a new WP near Harwich. I have had some difficulties though - the WP is at 51:55.450N 01:18.840E (Degrees:Minutes.DecimalMinutes) which seems to be the accepted format for WPs but I had to convert the Decimal Minutes to Seconds.DecimalSeconds thus arriving at: 51:55:27.00N 01:18:50.40E - which is what I entered. Is this correct ?

Are there any plans to amend the input to the more standard Degrees:Minutes.DecimalMinutes ?

Thanks for the effort that you are putting in - I'm trying to get hold of some WPs for a North Sea crossing from Harwich to Oostende. About the only way that I can think of finding the true WGS84 co-ords for the Nav Marks is to interrogate the UKHO Searchable Notices to Mariners (later than 2001, so that the co-ords are WGS84).

Regards

Paul

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I'd rather be sailing . . . . .

 

[Twister_Ken]

Waypoint datum - you can be too accurate!

Would respectfully suggest that for N Europe passage planning there is no need to worry about whether a waypoint is WGS84 or not. The physical difference between WGS84 and OS36 is hardly ever more than a 100 metres, and passage waypoints shouldn't be that close to charted dangers.

Different, maybe, if you're racing around buoys in fog, or wreck diving, but for a cruising passage, why bother? Especially as most GPS have datum conversion algorithms which do a pretty fair job of converting from WGS84 to whatever datum was used for charting.

If you want to be really pernickety, then any reasonably modern chart will have a panel somewhere telling you what corrections to apply to change a posn from chart datum to WGS84. but, IMHO, that really is over-gilding the lily on passage where pinpoint accuracy is not required.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[DeeGee]

Re: Waypoint datum - you can be too accurate!

I don't know if this is the right thread to air this in, but I input a load of waypoints from Yeoman to my GPS, using a UKHO small charts folio, and buoys as wp's.

I then checked them against Reed's, where they agreed pretty well.

I checked them against a waterproof map, dated 05/2003, and found that the latter map was out by the order of as much as quarter of a mile on a number of the waypoints, one of them a cardinal mark marking a narrow channel - using the waterproof map and a GPS in the fog would put me aground. I shall be opening the matter up with the publishers once I have got absolute confirmation of the positions of these marks.

<hr width=100% size=1>Black Sugar - the sweetest of all