Yeoman plotter

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yachtorion

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The Yeoman Sport plotter I bought on eBay has just turned up. Bit manky but serviceable and can probably be cleaned up.

After a quick play with it... well what a fantastic piece of kit. Such a shame they've gone out of production :( why didn't more people buy and use them?
 
I love mine for longer trips. See the whole picture and plot on the chart with ease. An iPad can't do that (although it has many tricks it can do). Despite the seamanship advice, I expect chart sales are dropping. Shame about Yeoman as you say.
 
yachtailsa said:
The Yeoman Sport plotter I bought on eBay has just turned up. Bit manky but serviceable and can probably be cleaned up.

After a quick play with it... well what a fantastic piece of kit. Such a shame they've gone out of production :( why didn't more people buy and use them?
Click to expand...


Have paper and record your position every hour and everything is superb. No danger of the 'blue screen of death' or the 'illegal operation' message.
Is it really out of production? - that would be a real shame.

A thing of joy and pleasure, this winter project is to get it talking to the SH plotter that sits at the helm.
Any one got any suggestions where to start?
 
I also rate the Yeoman, you can cover a large area, plot positions very quickly once set up and it's always in view, if the gps packs up you know your last position.. Used in conjunction with a tablet using navionics. I'll keep on using it until it packs up.
 
I love mine too. I tried to explain it to my sailing mate, and my dad, and neither of them could see the point when you have a video plotter. Then they actually tried using it on board, and were completely sold.

The problem the company had is that unlike most electronics, the Yeoman does not become obsolete. There are enough out there that we aficionados can keep buying second-hand ones, and nobody pays them for a new one. For a while they were pushing very hard the idea of sending them back to the factory for "servicing", to try to extract some cash from the market, but the inescapable fact was that it wasn't really necessary. I hadn't heard they'd stopped making them, but it's not really surprising.

I first used one back in 2001, on a brand new Halberg-Rassy we were delivering from Sweden. Video plotters weren't common then, I don't think I'd ever even seen one. But I thought the Yeoman was great. My first task from the owner was to install it, the second was to input all the Danish charts. I always planned to fit one when I eventually owned a boat, and in 2009 duly did.

On Kindred Spirit I was building a new chart table anyway, so I made it with two layers of ply and the Yeoman mat sandwiched in between (and a cunningly removable bit of sapele trim so that eventually it can be accessed to replace the battery). So the mat is completely hidden, you just put a chart on the table and the "mouse" works; the chart is clamped in place by a sprung wooden batten that slides in slots machined in the fiddles either side. On Ariam I've kept the existing lifting tabletop so the mat (actually the guts of a Yeoman Sport as it was the best fit size-wise) is simply glued to the underneath. The clamping is achieved by a couple of stainless clipboard-type clips just off the active area (and not affecting it magnetically, I tested) which are linked together by a stainless rod and operated by a single plunger so your other hand is free to move the chart. The whole clamp mechanism is concealed behind a sort of console (in solid cherry) that holds the mouse, the GPS that works with the Yeoman, and the pencils, rubber, dividers, etc, and has a shaded strip of LEDs that wash a glow across the chart but don't affect night vision too much.

Although I now have a plotter at the front of the cockpit and a smaller one at the helm, there are still times when I just want to drop down to the chart table and look at a proper chart.

Pete
 
Gwylan said:
A thing of joy and pleasure, this winter project is to get it talking to the SH plotter that sits at the helm.
Any one got any suggestions where to start?
Click to expand...

The hardest part will be routing a cable from one to the other. If you already have a GPS input to the Yeoman then you probably only want to connect the output to the plotter, to send waypoints from the chart to the helm. This would only need a single twisted pair (2-core cable). However, if the run is awkward then it may be best to run two pairs (4-core cable) for future proofing.

Then just connect up according to the instructions, it's pretty simple. The plotter will probably use a single common NMEA ground whereas if I remember rightly the Yeoman has one for each channel, but they can be connected together at the plotter end without any problem.

Pete
 
I like mine. Motley crew can nip down below and plot pos'n, do the log, put the kettle on or get me a cold one as required. I also like being able to see more of the planned route (if not all of it) and sanity check myself :encouragement:
 
Can you still get charts that have the symbols on them? I never understood why they didn't update the unit to include an integrated GPS, it was such a faff trying to get one to work, and when the GPS wouldn't work on batteries it meant I was no better off. One thing I coudn't fathom was why you were being less reliant on technology - why trust a moving puck with flashing lights and not a plotter?
 
Lazy Kipper said:
One thing I coudn't fathom was why you were being less reliant on technology - why trust a moving puck with flashing lights and not a plotter?
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Because lots of people mistrust those new-fangled plotter devices! In contrast, I've never ever wanted a Yeoman and I'm quite happy to trust my plotter.
 
pvb said:
Because lots of people mistrust those new-fangled plotter devices! In contrast, I've never ever wanted a Yeoman and I'm quite happy to trust my plotter.
Click to expand...

I trust plotters.... but of course I still keep a paper chart up to date, and the Yeoman provides a stunningly quick and easy way to do it... and potentially of setting up waypoints to send to the plotter - if whatever plotter I end up with accepts them :S

I see the Yeoman as an amazing compliment to the RayRadMin plotter..
 
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