What do people use to plot routes?

[littlebigfred]

Hello,

Over here in France, to plot routes on ships and know what direction to tell their helmsman/steerer to aim for, people use the Règle Cras ("Cras ruler", invented by Rear Admiral Jean Cras; As a new user, I can't include links, so unfortunately, you'll have to Google to see what it looks like).

The nice thing about the Cras Ruler, is that it's compact and has no moving parts, so it's pretty long-lasting.

I'm curious to know what sailors use in other countries to plot routes.

Thank you.

[Vasco]

Parallel rules.

[pedcab]

A Portland course plotter works fine for me:



Plus some added features like direct translation of most common chart scales distances into miles...

[littlebigfred]

Thanks for the tip. Over here, this type of course plotter is called "rapporteur breton", but since I've never used the latter, I have no idea what additional features it offers.

[pedcab]

Originally Posted by littlebigfred

Thanks for the tip. Over here, this type of course plotter is called "rapporteur breton", but since I've never used the latter, I have no idea what additional features it offers.

They're great, really..

And they're relatively cheap to try, have a look:

Portland Course Plotter from Blundell Harling

Cheers!

[klem]

I like the combination of parallel rules and dividers. Between the two, you can do almost anything that you want and I find it is easier to teach others to use them. When sea kayaking, I carry a Hawkins Courser which is basically a clear piece of paper with a bunch of parallel lines since it lets you plot on a chart that isn't flat.

[littlebigfred]

Portland Plotter Divider Set

Would someone know of a video or set of pictures that would show how the parallel rules + divider are used together?

[littlebigfred]

I think I got it: The parallel rules are used with a rosace to find out the course direction, and the divider is used to check distances between two points.