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How much do you use your Chartplotter?

8K views 63 replies 29 participants last post by  ccriders 
#1 ·
While cruising for extended periods how often is your chartplotter powered up? Do you leave it on all of the time or do you turn it on to check your position and then turn it back off?
 
#2 ·
If it's wired to the house system it's on any time we're underway.. Back when we had a handheld, we'd sometimes spot-check it to preserve batteries.

Truth is, most of our navigation here is piloting visually amongst islands and channels and really the plotter is rarely 'necessary'.. but it's nice to have, and I find the record of progress made/distance remaining useful and more informative than 'I think that island looks closer now'.

With their recent advances like tidal predictions and current info they are more helpful still.


But in the end, as many say, ultimately rely on the 'mark I eyeball'. Goes without saying, too, that proper paper charts are on board as well.
 
#3 ·
Mine is a portable Garmin GPSMAP 478. It is on whenever I am under way - provided that I remember to bring it with me to the boat:eek:. Like Faster, I use it to show my SOG, review where I went, and where I found that uncharted rock...
 
#4 ·
I leave it on all the time. Mine is integrated to AIS and Sirius weather with weather alerts so there's a constant stream of chatter and warnings popping up. Extended periods for our cruising in the Great Lakes mean segments of 12 to 48 hours, not more than a couple days. Might be different if the rhumb line was 6 days.

As a Raymarine product, it has the curious feature of sometimes rebooting itself at arbitrary times, on average about once every 36 hours. After returning to Raymarine several times and being replaced once, I've resigned myself to acknowledging this as an inescapable attribute of the product.

GTJ
 
#6 ·
Ours goes on before the anchor is pulled and off about an hour after the anchor is set, to check for any dragging. If the wind is above 25 or 30 knots, or we are unsure of the anchor, it goes on, with the anchor drag alarm set. We have a second one in the aft cabin which also doubles to monitor the boat and the helmsman, and an anchor alarm (or proximity alarm with the networked radar under way) while sleeping.
It not only supplies a very accurate chart (at least for everywhere we've been), it supplies speed, X-track error, course made good and several other things I like to know while sailing and especially in areas where the currents are irregular. Why in the world would anyone turn such a handy piece of expensive equipment off, while underway?
 
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#8 ·
Ours goes on before the anchor is pulled and off about an hour after the anchor is set, to check for any dragging. If the wind is above 25 or 30 knots, or we are unsure of the anchor, it goes on, with the anchor drag alarm set. We have a second one in the aft cabin which also doubles to monitor the boat and the helmsman, and an anchor alarm (or proximity alarm with the networked radar under way) while sleeping.
It not only supplies a very accurate chart (at least for everywhere we've been), it supplies speed, X-track error, course made good and several other things I like to know while sailing and especially in areas where the currents are irregular. Why in the world would anyone turn such a handy piece of expensive equipment off, while underway?
Well, to conserve power, perhaps? :)

As usual, the answer for me is "It depends"... Primarily upon where I happen to be sailing at the moment, and of course whether I'm under sail, or under power...

I have 2 plotters on board, a smaller Simrad below, and a larger plotter/radar in the cockpit. The latter consumes a fair bit of power when running, so I'll usually only run it if I feel I really need it, when under sail...

The smaller one stays on most of the time underway. It is an older model, and is pretty slow to start up and acquire a fix, so whenever I'm anchored in a tricky spot, if there's any possibility I might have to bug out in a jiffy or in the middle of the night, it will stay on...

But on any passage of any real length, unless I need to be running radar, I'll try to use this stuff as little as possible... One advantage for me of having AIS integrated to the VHF, I don't have to be running a more power-hungry plotter to enjoy the benefits of AIS...
 
#7 ·
In the past 2 years I've gone from "never on" to "on occasionally to double check my position", to "on all the time". They are very tempting devices aren't they?

I prefer to not rely on them but ease and accuracy is remarkable. I intend to be back in the "on occasionally" camp this season.
 
#9 ·
We have two. One at nav station one in cockpit. Cockpit only ever gets turned on when outside harbour. If I cannot sail around Sydney Harbour without a bloody plotter then its time for me to give it away.

On passage we'll have both running at night, cockpit only during the day.

If anchored in an uncomfortable spot then we'll leave one running overnight for anchor alarm.
 
#10 ·
My AIS is on all the time.

The plotter, one of three, will be on in congested waters with the AIS integrated.
Off shore on passage the plotter is off unless I am asleep (to allow the AIS alarm). Before AIS the plotter was on a couple of times per day, or when my ex was onboard at the end of each watch to not position.

I dont use paper charts as I think they are obsolete, unsafe and will be outlawed within some period of years.

Yes, my eyesight still works, I dont need irrelevant junk to see.



Mark
 
#13 ·
I used mine just yesterday. As I left the last green mark exiting Dinner Key on Biscayne Bay to starboard, my chart plotter said I was leaving it to port. Go figure.

My reservation with plotters is that one can believe that one is really where the plotter says you are relative to the hard things that will break your boat, and you too and maybe you aren't there.

The relative inaccuracy of the process of using my GPS and looking at where I think I am on a paper chart, has me more vigilant and therefore, in my judgement, safer.
 
#38 · (Edited)
I used mine just yesterday. As I left the last green mark exiting Dinner Key on Biscayne Bay to starboard, my chart plotter said I was leaving it to port. Go figure.

My reservation with plotters is that one can believe that one is really where the plotter says you are relative to the hard things that will break your boat, and you too and maybe you aren't there.

The relative inaccuracy of the process of using my GPS and looking at where I think I am on a paper chart, has me more vigilant and therefore, in my judgement, safer.
You'd better learn to love your plotter, Ron...

Your Explorer Chartbooks of the Bahamas seem destined to be "outlawed", sooner or later...

But, hopefully not before Navionics fixes all of the gross inaccuracies that have long plagued their E-cartography of the Bahamas... :)

Or Belize, for that matter:



"Red squiggle: where we ran aground. Black/red dots: deep water channel.
The channel is actually 300 yards east of what the Navnet Chart showed."


Greenland and Labrador is another region of the world, where paper charts are likely to be banned eventually, after all the purveyors of E-charts correct their current products to match the superior accuracy of the Danish and CHS paper charts already in existence... :)
 
#15 ·
I fire it up when I leave the dock, and turn it off when I return to the dock. I have the Lowrance HDS7, which draws very little power, it's also my depth finder, and in a few months, it will also be my radar screen as well. It's my anchor alarm, speedometer, plotter, and soon will also be connected to the engine instrumentation. I've had GPS/ploters since they first became available, always used Lowrance, and never had a failure. I think the technology has advanced so much in the past decade that if it works right out of the box, the only way you'll be able to kill the machine is with a shotgun.

I still have a chart table filled with paper charts and book shelf with loads of chart books. They have not been used in more than a decade. Maybe one day they'll become valuable antiques and I can sell them for big bucks. ;)

Gary :cool:
 
#16 ·
Ours is on all the time. I have a small Lawrence HDS5. Very very little power draw. I think it's "fun" to track the speed and see any differences as I adjust sail trim, course, "rail meat" position, etc. I think it helps me learn my boat better.

Even at anchor it's on too. 1) to keep an eye out for dragging, and 2) the sonar display to watch for big fish hanging out in the shade below . . . that just "might" become dinner for us that very night!!!!

~markb
 
#18 ·
Mine come on prior to castoff and stay on, with the rarest of exception. It's a pre-launch checklist thing to know your stuff works before you need it.

For coastal cruising, power consumption is virtually a non-issue for us. For longer passages, one really should have sufficient capability to keep one running.

Of course, one should also be able to live without it. Electronics are not bulletproof, so redundancy and low tech backups are mandatory.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Both my handheld and my PC-based chartplotter stay on all the time when underway. The handheld is a backup always at the ready, and more importantly it logs my position at all times. I tack back and forth in a river, so I use it to determine how close I go to shore before I come about (it's more proactive than a depth finder, which I also use). Both are powered by internal batteries with 6-10 hours, and I have 12V right at the helm for longer trips.

Occasionally I look up. :laugher
 
#20 ·
Unless I am tied up in a slip, my chartplotters are on 24/7. At anchor, just being able to look at the bread crumb trail to see how the boat is swing at anchor is nice. At night, I use it as my anchor alarm (along with a hand held GPS in my bunk).

Mine (I have two mounted side by side), don't use enough juice, especially with my solar panels, to make it work cutting them off.
 
#22 ·
Me too, first thing I turn on when I get onboard, last thing I turn off when I leave for home.

The icon and course is my 'minder' in case I get distracted underway as well as my primary navigation tool. It's an important anchoring tool, helping place the actual drop and then it paints a picture of the boats swing alerting me to dragging, tide change, wind change. It's an amazing anchoring tool.

It gives me instant updates during the night to confer with visual bearings, turned to low screen light, it's a good night light in the cabin.

Now we have two onboard(tablet), it's even better to always have a CP screen nearby, like in your berth.

And it's the only ship clock we have, logs miles during the day or over a season. I don't consider the power usage, it's a small draw CP and the tablet, even less.
 
#31 ·
Sounds like a terrific idea. But help me out a bit, because we don't have a phone at all. How much for one of those phones or tabs? How much for a plan that will get me going on a British Island, a French Island and a Dutch Island?
I'm not being at all argumentative here; I would absolutely LOVE to be able to check the boat while ashore on one of those blustery 35 knot days!
But I;m betting I couldn't afford it if I was cruising beyond the cell limits of the USA.
 
#23 ·
Similar to most others; ours comes on when we get underway, and stays on until we're safely on the hook. We have four now: one backup that rarely gets used, one GPS-only located at the chart table, one iPad, and one Garmin handheld. Our routine is to lay out the relevant charts, then turn on the ship's electronics which activates the GPS at the chart table. It is used for fixes which get translated to the chart, unless we're feeling frisky and take fixes via LOPs.

Our main plotter is the handheld which sits in the cockpit most of the time while underway when we're coastal cruising (which is most of the time). It operates off two rechargeable AA batteries, which run for ~8 hrs per set. Easy to keep up to this usage.

I've been experimenting with the iPad. The big screen is nice, but the battery draw is significant when running bright screen (to accommodate for sunlight viewing) and active GPS. Currently we activate it periodically. I'm still not sure if it's useful enough ... perhaps if I tie it to the ship's batteries.
 
#24 ·
Best way to manage the iPad battery is to install a DC plug in the cockpit, or better yet, a USB power port. Both are very inexpensive.

Compared to any reasonable house bank, the iPad burns nothing and it will barely know its attached.

Otherwise, I cycle the screen on and off to conserve.
 
#25 ·
Best way to manage the iPad battery is to install a DC plug in the cockpit, or better yet, a USB power port. Both are very inexpensive.
Thanks Minn. Do you mean something like this?


That's my plan if it looks like the iPad is worth it. I've only used it for one season so far. To be honest, near the end of our summer sailing last year I had reverted to using the iPad very little, in favour of our little handheld.
 
#26 ·
I must be a Luddite.

I do use a handheld GPS, but mostly for speed.

As for position, well, I've been sailing off and on for 35 years and, like many sailors, most of my cruising is done within 150 miles of home. That means I know where I'm going, and there's little need to watch a little dot on a screen to tell me where I am.

If I get confused, there are plenty of channel markers and landmarks to help me out. It's all part of the traditional sport called sailing. You need to be able to navigate with your eyes, if for no other reason than for the time when your chartplotter quits.

I have used the map part of the GPS to bail me out for safety reasons in a white-out squall while I was in a narrow channel in the Keys, but that's an exception rather than everyday use.

Many years ago, my daughter did a school science project on GPS and nautical charts. We picked a bunch of spots in Biscayne Bay and the Upper Keys. A significant number of locations and channel markers were off, some by many hundreds of feet.

I wouldn't feel safe watching the dot instead of watching the water.
 
#29 · (Edited)
I must be a Luddite.

I do use a handheld GPS, but mostly for speed.

As for position, well, I've been sailing off and on for 35 years and, like many sailors, most of my cruising is done within 150 miles of home. That means I know where I'm going, and there's little need to watch a little dot on a screen to tell me where I am.

If I get confused, there are plenty of channel markers and landmarks to help me out. It's all part of the traditional sport called sailing. You need to be able to navigate with your eyes, if for no other reason than for the time when your chartplotter quits.

I have used the map part of the GPS to bail me out for safety reasons in a white-out squall while I was in a narrow channel in the Keys, but that's an exception rather than everyday use.

Many years ago, my daughter did a school science project on GPS and nautical charts. We picked a bunch of spots in Biscayne Bay and the Upper Keys. A significant number of locations and channel markers were off, some by many hundreds of feet.

I wouldn't feel safe watching the dot instead of watching the water.
GPS didn't even exist when I started sailing. You had SatNav, but it was thousands of dollars. You also had Loran, which while cheaper than SatNav, was a lot more expensive than GPS is today and not nearly as accurate the less of a right angle the TD lines crossed at.

When cheap GPS's came out, back in the 90's, I did what you are doing now, with a Magellen 310. GPS had signal degradation, built in by the military back then, that made them a lot less accurate than they are today. I can't recall exactly when they stopped doing that.

But, I got my first GPS chartplotter about eight years ago and I think they are one of the greatest advances in marine navigation I have ever seen.

No tool is perfect, but I love my Garmin GPS chartplotters (I have three now, two on my sailboat and one on my center console). :D
 
#27 ·
It's on while ever we are on the move, and off when anchored after confirming we're not dragging. It will go on if the weather picks up just to keep an eye on things, night time is not so good if you drag.
 
#32 ·
I'm not familiar with cell plans in other countries, but I know you can get them for the iPhone at least. No idea about the iPad. One version of the iPhone also allows updated Sim cards, if I'm not mistaken.

I pay $20 per month for the 3G cell data on my iPad and I've never used half of the allowance. I avoid streaming video, otherwise, I use it alot.
 
#37 ·
Off-shore it is used continually for radar and AIS information, close to shore it is used as an aid to navigation we just do not believe it is accurate and never use it for close navigation especially at night.

We see between 1 and 3 boats per year on Caribbean reefs and there is a boat in the yard in Panama, where we are presently, that spent 14 hours on a reef because the skipper believed a plotter rather than his eyes.
 
#40 ·
Oh yeah, - I totally forgot about hardware that is not designed to only be a Chartplotter...

* I use my Garmin GPSMAP 478 anytime while underway, and frequently while at anchor as an anchor drag alarm, assuming that I have not left it in the car.
* I also have a laptop onboard that runs PolarView NS, that is on 90% of the time when under way.
* I also have my Android smartphone on which I run SailDroid for speed/compass, and DragQueen as another anchor drag alarm.
 
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