Yeoman plotter...any good?

[Iain C]

My new boat came with a Yeoman plotter. Now I know this is now old kit, and I am fully GPS'd up with an Axiom on deck, an older Raymarine plotter/radar down below, as well as Navionics on my iPad/iPhone too plus a handheld GPS. I will also hold my hand up at very rarely keeping a log on short coastal trips...I'd really have to be pretty unlucky to get truly lost.

However I do try to do an hourly fix on longer trips, for example crossing the Channel or Lyme bay, or if there looks to be any hint of fog. So, I'm wondering if the Yeoman would be a really easy way of doing that. To get it back up and running it really just needs a new plastic cover (I could use sprayhood window material) and away I go, using drywipe markers to do the fixes on longer trips.

Is anyone still using their Yeoman and are they any good?

 

[prv]

If you regularly use (not just carry) paper charts, then I think it's worth having. If not, then perhaps not (but please sell it on rather than binning it, they're a non-renewable resource ).

Ariam originally had a C70 plotter at the chart table; I rarely used it, since if you have to go below anyway then a Yeoman and a paper chart is a more usable combination. When I moved the plotter on deck where it belongs, I started using the Yeoman less, though still useful for an overview versus the C70's small screen, or to quickly do distance and bearing type work which was fiddly with the plotter. Since upgrading to the Axiom which has a bigger and more responsive screen and better-designed interface, I've used it even less, though that's also partly because I happen to have not done much in the way of longer passages since fitting the new plotter. Even with the Axiom I would still use the Yeoman to plot chart fixes on a Channel crossing or similar - not so much for backup as to confirm that we were following the predicted tidal curve I sketch onto the chart.

I don't use any plastic cover with it, just draw directly on the chart with a soft pencil as is traditional.

Pete

 

[jwilson]

As long as you carry and use paper charts as well as electronic, the Yeoman is a brilliant bit of kit. It's too easy on longer distance passages to miss things when fully electronic plotters are zoomed out. One such event was the well publicised Vestas grounding https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4-b7VzHtKTk/maxresdefault.jpg - a plotter-induced event.

Don't get me wrong, I love a plotter at the helm, but zoom out and you miss details that are much more obvious on paper charts.

 

[earlybird]

I don't use my Yeoman much these days, but a neat feature of using one, IMHO, is the ability to accurately define waypoints on the paper chart and send them to the GPS, to create a route if need be. This is a very quick and easy op. with little scope for mistakes.
My only other plotter is a hand-held. I should say that I hate watching the glacially slow movement of the ship icon on that but the Yeoman shows a nicely satisfying jump of position for the hourly plot!

 

[Iain C]

Thanks guys. I probably should have added that I very rarely move the boat (unless it's literally Gosport-Cowes or somewhere I know very well indeed) without a paper chart (or sequenced charts) on the chart table for quick reference...a 7" plotter does not give a holistic view of where I am and where I'm going. And I certainly don't passage plan on a plotter. It's just that I very rarely actually mark anything on the chart. I just really like the idea of the 4 arrow lights on the Yeoman very quickly pointing you to where you need to mark the fix on the chart (or chart cover)...in theory you could do it in seconds, without needing much light. I get that tin the event of an electrical failure you've lost the Yeoman, but then you have marks on the chart to work up an EP or DR, and assuming you get to where you are going OK, wiping the cover clean is a lot less faff than rubbing out lots of pencil marks!!

 

[Topcat47]

I don't have one, but offshore, I don't use my PC plotter either. The Yeoman enables you to put a fix on very quickly, which is great if you're single handing.

 

[prv]

I just really like the idea of the 4 arrow lights on the Yeoman very quickly pointing you to where you need to mark the fix on the chart (or chart cover)...in theory you could do it in seconds, without needing much light.

Yes - you quickly pick up the knack of whizzing the puck into place with a sort of spiral wiggle at the end, probably takes less than two seconds. In case you weren’t aware, the inside of the circle is illuminated, so you don’t actually need any external light at all.

As well as plotting your own position, another main use is getting a range and bearing to other points. Press the “angle” button while in Nav mode and the display changes from lat/lon (which you probably don’t need anyway) to range and bearing from you to wherever the puck is on the chart. The arrow lights still work to plot your position, so this is the mode I leave it on most of the time. Now if I’m looking for a particular buoy for example, I can point to it on the chart, read off the bearing, and then swing my compass binos onto the same line to pick up the buoy. Likewise range to that headland I want to get around, or whatever.

Pete

 

[ex-Gladys]

I always use mine on cross North Sea/Channel trips... It's a superb quick way of recording your plot very quickly...

 

[Iain C]

OK so quite a lot of love for the Yeoman on here then, and it sounds like it's definitely worth the investment of a new cover, some double sided tape and some drywipe pens to get it up and running again.

Thanks for your input!!