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What plotting system do you use?
Can it easily upload/download tracks from/to an external computer?
I am conducting a survey in an attempt to discover which systems can, and which cannot. And even how they do it.
All/any information most welcome
John
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+xHi all, Dick you have masterfully and eloquently expressed by views. The helm can see our chartplotter which also displays radar, if actually steering the boat. This is vital in fog - when we crawled into Cape Town harbour in thick fog (the port was closed to commercial traffic but we were given permission to enter) we had waypoints all the way to the visitors' berth at Royal Cape YC and it was essential that we had put in a route so detailed. The radar of course was an added feature for security. I fully acknowledge that creating a route directly on to the chart plotter can be a pain but I try to minimise just how many devices are involved in doing a job, as I am not sure every techie advance necessarily makes things easier or simpler. At the risk of thread drift, to illustrate this, back in the mid-noughties when Minnie B was being built the latest music technology was the iPod. We bought one of those turntables for digitising the music on our LPs and CDs and loaded it all on the iPod. This has been our source of music on the boat since then. Recently we bought a shore base as we are now cruising 7-8 months rather than the 10-11 months previously. So we wanted music in the apartment. Simple eh? Buy one of those super Bose speakers with an iPod docking facility. Pop along to the Bose shop. Nope, they have stopped making them but they do have a super Bose speaker at £300 that operates with Bluetooth. Being a bit slow, we ask for an explanation of how this would work - the answer was to turn on the PC which also holds the music, connect it to the smartphone, and then connect the phone to the speaker ... we went on ebay and bought a used speaker with iPod docking facility for £50. Sorry I seem to have a written cold - 'by' should be 'my'
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+x+xHi all, Dick you have masterfully and eloquently expressed by views. The helm can see our chartplotter which also displays radar, if actually steering the boat. This is vital in fog - when we crawled into Cape Town harbour in thick fog (the port was closed to commercial traffic but we were given permission to enter) we had waypoints all the way to the visitors' berth at Royal Cape YC and it was essential that we had put in a route so detailed. The radar of course was an added feature for security. I fully acknowledge that creating a route directly on to the chart plotter can be a pain but I try to minimise just how many devices are involved in doing a job, as I am not sure every techie advance necessarily makes things easier or simpler. At the risk of thread drift, to illustrate this, back in the mid-noughties when Minnie B was being built the latest music technology was the iPod. We bought one of those turntables for digitising the music on our LPs and CDs and loaded it all on the iPod. This has been our source of music on the boat since then. Recently we bought a shore base as we are now cruising 7-8 months rather than the 10-11 months previously. So we wanted music in the apartment. Simple eh? Buy one of those super Bose speakers with an iPod docking facility. Pop along to the Bose shop. Nope, they have stopped making them but they do have a super Bose speaker at £300 that operates with Bluetooth. Being a bit slow, we ask for an explanation of how this would work - the answer was to turn on the PC which also holds the music, connect it to the smartphone, and then connect the phone to the speaker ... we went on ebay and bought a used speaker with iPod docking facility for £50. Sorry I seem to have a written cold - 'by' should be 'my' Hi Phil, I agree completely that every techie “advancement” should be met with skepticism. Many do not advance safety on a vessel and I find some of the hype more in service of lining the pockets of vendors than contributing to the operation of the boat. I remember a conversation with someone that started out saying that he decided against a few extra hundreds for the larger anchor and went on to wax eloquent about the integrated electronics just installed which had to set him back many thousands. My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
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+x+x+xHi all, Dick you have masterfully and eloquently expressed by views. The helm can see our chartplotter which also displays radar, if actually steering the boat. This is vital in fog - when we crawled into Cape Town harbour in thick fog (the port was closed to commercial traffic but we were given permission to enter) we had waypoints all the way to the visitors' berth at Royal Cape YC and it was essential that we had put in a route so detailed. The radar of course was an added feature for security. I fully acknowledge that creating a route directly on to the chart plotter can be a pain but I try to minimise just how many devices are involved in doing a job, as I am not sure every techie advance necessarily makes things easier or simpler. At the risk of thread drift, to illustrate this, back in the mid-noughties when Minnie B was being built the latest music technology was the iPod. We bought one of those turntables for digitising the music on our LPs and CDs and loaded it all on the iPod. This has been our source of music on the boat since then. Recently we bought a shore base as we are now cruising 7-8 months rather than the 10-11 months previously. So we wanted music in the apartment. Simple eh? Buy one of those super Bose speakers with an iPod docking facility. Pop along to the Bose shop. Nope, they have stopped making them but they do have a super Bose speaker at £300 that operates with Bluetooth. Being a bit slow, we ask for an explanation of how this would work - the answer was to turn on the PC which also holds the music, connect it to the smartphone, and then connect the phone to the speaker ... we went on ebay and bought a used speaker with iPod docking facility for £50. Sorry I seem to have a written cold - 'by' should be 'my' Hi Phil, I agree completely that every techie “advancement” should be met with skepticism. Many do not advance safety on a vessel and I find some of the hype more in service of lining the pockets of vendors than contributing to the operation of the boat. I remember a conversation with someone that started out saying that he decided against a few extra hundreds for the larger anchor and went on to wax eloquent about the integrated electronics just installed which had to set him back many thousands. My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy As someone who uses a chart plotter/integrated ECDIS system, commercially (as a ships Master) on a daily basis, I have to disagree completely with what you are saying. Used correctly even the cheapest standalone chart plotter with a GPS input, will give you better, live, information than transfering Lat/LON to a paper chart. In a planning mode, you can set safe and shallow depths, and many other vessel specific parameters, so when you set routes up, it will automatically show dangers. Add in AIS and/or a RADAR overlay and you have a fantastic tool giving you plenty of reliable information. Get some training, if you can afford it, get yourself on an STCW Generic ECDIS course, it's certainly money well spent and you won't regret it. The thing to remember about about ANY electrictronic navigation aid is simply 'Garbage in; garbage out.' The USCG & MCA, encourage the switch to integrated ECDIS systems, they are used safely, by 1,000s of commercial vessels from 500t to 250,000t daily and without incident. Rather than make a glib statement, saying they do not enhance safety, and only make a profit for the manufacturer; I suggest you learn how to use ENCs and plotters correctly.
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+x+x+x+xHi all, Dick you have masterfully and eloquently expressed by views. The helm can see our chartplotter which also displays radar, if actually steering the boat. This is vital in fog - when we crawled into Cape Town harbour in thick fog (the port was closed to commercial traffic but we were given permission to enter) we had waypoints all the way to the visitors' berth at Royal Cape YC and it was essential that we had put in a route so detailed. The radar of course was an added feature for security. I fully acknowledge that creating a route directly on to the chart plotter can be a pain but I try to minimise just how many devices are involved in doing a job, as I am not sure every techie advance necessarily makes things easier or simpler. At the risk of thread drift, to illustrate this, back in the mid-noughties when Minnie B was being built the latest music technology was the iPod. We bought one of those turntables for digitising the music on our LPs and CDs and loaded it all on the iPod. This has been our source of music on the boat since then. Recently we bought a shore base as we are now cruising 7-8 months rather than the 10-11 months previously. So we wanted music in the apartment. Simple eh? Buy one of those super Bose speakers with an iPod docking facility. Pop along to the Bose shop. Nope, they have stopped making them but they do have a super Bose speaker at £300 that operates with Bluetooth. Being a bit slow, we ask for an explanation of how this would work - the answer was to turn on the PC which also holds the music, connect it to the smartphone, and then connect the phone to the speaker ... we went on ebay and bought a used speaker with iPod docking facility for £50. Sorry I seem to have a written cold - 'by' should be 'my' Hi Phil, I agree completely that every techie “advancement” should be met with skepticism. Many do not advance safety on a vessel and I find some of the hype more in service of lining the pockets of vendors than contributing to the operation of the boat. I remember a conversation with someone that started out saying that he decided against a few extra hundreds for the larger anchor and went on to wax eloquent about the integrated electronics just installed which had to set him back many thousands. My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy As someone who uses a chart plotter/integrated ECDIS system, commercially (as a ships Master) on a daily basis, I have to disagree completely with what you are saying. Used correctly even the cheapest standalone chart plotter with a GPS input, will give you better, live, information than transfering Lat/LON to a paper chart. In a planning mode, you can set safe and shallow depths, and many other vessel specific parameters, so when you set routes up, it will automatically show dangers. Add in AIS and/or a RADAR overlay and you have a fantastic tool giving you plenty of reliable information. Get some training, if you can afford it, get yourself on an STCW Generic ECDIS course, it's certainly money well spent and you won't regret it. The thing to remember about about ANY electrictronic navigation aid is simply 'Garbage in; garbage out.' The USCG & MCA, encourage the switch to integrated ECDIS systems, they are used safely, by 1,000s of commercial vessels from 500t to 250,000t daily and without incident. Rather than make a glib statement, saying they do not enhance safety, and only make a profit for the manufacturer; I suggest you learn how to use ENCs and plotters correctly. Hi DSmith, There really has been crossed wires. For me, I agree with everything you say about plotters and the other devices you mention. And in reviewing previous posts, I do not read anyone espousing paper charts and the hand plotting of l/l or of doing plotting the traditional way, so I am unsure where that challenge comes from. I believe knowledge of traditional methods should be known and occasionally practiced, but in everyday cruising life, a computer plotting system with good software (or a chart plotter) connected to GPS is far quicker, more accurate and safer, and has amply established its value on a cruising boat, in my estimation That said, I do look with some skepticism at some of the newer techie “advances” and suggest waiting till these devices have thoroughly proven themselves in the field. Many of these advances have improved safety markedly for cruising boats, but some of these “advances”, such as the kind of integration where chart plotter is connected with autopilot (so turns are made automatically as a waypoint is reached), I still have reservations about. I try hard to be clear and measured in my writing, and, in review, I find I do not experience as “glib” (insincere and shallow) the writing referred to. Similarly, I am uncomfortable with the suggestion that I need to learn electronic navigation “correctly”. Please feel free to challenge my opinions, but, for me at least, glib comes closer to name calling than I wish to see in our club’s Forum. My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
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