Are You A Video Game Navigator?

[zboss]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Would you mind posting the details of this? I would like to check it on my Garmin to see if I get the same results.



Thanks

Skip

Hi skip... I don't... didn't make a note of the location but in hindsight I probably should have. I'm on the other side of the country but when I get back to the boat I'll see if I can replicate. I think it was south of hens and chickens.

[wayne.b]

Originally Posted by zboss

It's $40 for all North America (us/Canada) and the Bahamas. That is not a number I am concerned about. OpenCPN doesn't show on our chartplotters.

We prefer integrated solutions on our boat.

I really don't understand the appeal of OpenCPN and I'm a geek.

===

The appeal of OpenCPN for me is twofold: 1) It serves as a backup to our integrated Furuno system; and 2) It is much more convenient for doing route planning and course layout.

An added benefit is the use of raster charts which are exact images of paper charts.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by StuM

What are they like in direct tropical sunlight? I haven't come across a tablet yet that can in any way compare to a plotter screen in sunlight.

POOR.

With the USD 75 apiece tablets I have converted. Easily readable under the bimini on a bright sunny day. NOT recommended in direct sun.

(Most waterproof tablets also get bloody hot in direct sun - waterproofing worsens their cooling ability).

This is entirely up to the quality of the screen. Can be directly compared at notebookcheck website that quotes measured brightness, colour and angle visibility values (of hundreds of mobile devices). Plotter values can be read in situ with a similar tool.

Alas, a tablet with a higher quality screen easily beats any 'daylight readable' marine product ban perhaps the top shelf units. Marine equipment manufacturers are using I do not know what in their mid and low shelf products. Maybe some oversuplies from China from 1995? In the top models they are likely using just what one finds in a same era tablet.

You clearly have a quality plotter out there, no wonder it delivers better visibility than a USD 75 tablet.

I have used our 7 inch Acer Iconia last time in the Caribbean for fun/tests on the water (with NV charts on it as a plotter) and on land - for trekking. It was easier to use on the boat because of our 'bimini' blocking all direct sunlight from our cockpit. On land, I had to stand under a tree, or else use my own back to shade the screen. But that was 2012. New tablets are way above and beyond those levels (as are boat plotters). I got virtually blown off my feet a couple of days ago when setting up my friends Nokia phone for wireless use of onboard nmea data. I did it in plain daylight in his huge fully glassed out doghouse. The phone's screen read like a newspaper. The phone is like USD $$$ though.

I see people walking the streets here texting as they walk thru town - Las Palmas, as you can imagine, has hell of direct, extremely bright sunlight.

That was the long of it.

The short of it is get the brightest screen you can, tablet, stationary plotter or digital camera, or anything else that you expect to use in direct sun.

Cheers,
b.

[DaveWaltersAus]

I sailed past the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England and apparently the 40T boat we were in was sailing clear over the land! The GPS was MILES out for about 10 minutes!

I've never forgotten that lesson so continually verify info when close to obstacles.

Paper vs electronic?

I admit though that I prefer to take a bearing with a hand bearing compass and put an EBL on my electronic chart (iPad) while standing on deck as opposed to going below and getting the pencil and ruler out.

My 5c, if you embrace the best of both worlds and dive into learning all the cool stuff you can do with your Nav apps I think you're a better sailor for it. You can reduce the Nav workload by doing the it quicker and more efficiently and so dedicate more brain space to what's going on around you in the real world. Navigating while on deck is preferable when things are getting busy. Paper charts chain you to the Nav station on a damp and windy night approach to a seaway. I'd much rather be shooting bearings and plotting them on deck with my phone or iPad (in a waterproof case of course).

Don't leave the paper behind though - what the heck would you do if a lightning strike damaged all your gear at once? That might not be likely but I could imagine it!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by wayne.b

===

The appeal of OpenCPN for me is twofold: 1) It serves as a backup to our integrated Furuno system; and 2) It is much more convenient for doing route planning and course layout.

An added benefit is the use of raster charts which are exact images of paper charts.

Exactly! AIS is so good for passage planning, especially on a big high rez screen with raster charts (I have official "for navigation" up to date raster charts for all of the Atlantic regions I sail in -- from VisitmyHarbour) that I am gradually getting away from paper charts for this purpose.


And you can add one more to that -- OpenCPN has the best AIS display I've ever seen, which shows the positions of targets at CPA and the paths to get there -- it's on a totally different level from what you get from any plotter display.

For really hairy situations (and I transit the English Channel, Dover Strait, North Sea, and German Bight -- the busiest seaways in the world! -- at least twice a year -- I put crew on the helm and visual watch and do radar and AIS at the nav table. AIS on the big screen at the nav table REALLY gives you the total overview of even extremely busy traffic situations.

[NevisDog]

Originally Posted by DaveWaltersAus

...Paper vs electronic?

I admit though that I prefer to take a bearing with a hand bearing compass and put an EBL on my electronic chart (iPad) while standing on deck as opposed to going below and getting the pencil and ruler out. ...

Maybe not so much paper v electronic; how about retaining traditional skillsets (hb compass, sextant, DR, etc). What else does one do on long ocean passages if we can't take sun and star sights and work them up by hand? For me, that's what sailing is all about. Okay I don't want to return to gaff rig and wouldn't want to do away with GPS as back-up but why do we go sailing? To test our skills against the elements - or to watch video games?

We carry two sextants mounted for immediate use. It's my #1 favourite pastime on board - see who gets a LOP first!

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by NevisDog

Maybe not so much paper v electronic; how about retaining traditional skillsets (hb compass, sextant, DR, etc). What else does one do on long ocean passages if we can't take sun and star sights and work them up by hand? For me, that's what sailing is all about. Okay I don't want to return to gaff rig and wouldn't want to do away with GPS as back-up but why do we go sailing? To test our skills against the elements - or to watch video games?

We carry two sextants mounted for immediate use. It's my #1 favourite pastime on board - see who gets a LOP first!

+1 Why suffer from the tyranny of OR when you can have the genius of AND?! This gives you the best of both worlds; situational awareness, self sufficiency, and true redundancy along with GPS accuracy.

[NevisDog]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

Why suffer from the tyranny of OR when you can have the genius of AND?!...

Na. I only really learned to sail when my ancient engine (Watermota Copperpot!!! - true!) became totally unreliable and eventually seized altogether - until then I was a sailer away from the dock and a motorboat close in. To become self-sufficient, toss the instruments (or switch them off at least).

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by NevisDog

To become self-sufficient, toss the instruments (or switch them off at least).

Whenever I take a boat somewhere, whether it is mine or it belongs to someone else, I make sure all is working, then turn off the instruments. This includes at night, since I have never seen anything that can get dim enough to avoid affecting my night vision.

[danielamartindm]

There is no one correct way of navigating. It all comes down to pucker factor, I think, as each of us decides what combination of paper, electronic, and celestial modalities will best keep us off the bottom or other hard things. I like to plan all coastal voyages with waypoints on full-sized paper charts that are then downloaded into the chart plotter that I'll actually us for en route navigation. Yeah, those charts are expensive; so was my boat. The paper charts add a "big picture" that I'm not certain I can reliably glean by zooming in and out on electronic media, and I often find myself reaching for a magnifying glass when I use "chart books." I think too many skippers accept GPS as gospel, when it is only one of many tools at our disposal to keep our vessels and passengers safe.

[barnakiel]

I never switch off anything I could use. I may switch off depth offshore but not all boats have selective power on instruments, most boats have it wired all on / all off.

Many times the instruments gave me early warning of other ships, shallows, wind gusts, etc.

So in our own boats as well as in the boats that I work on, the toys are on nearly all of the time.

One thing I am learning now is we no longer need multiple displays at various points of the boat, I rather pull out my mobile device and check the details wirelessly.

Cheers,
b.

[NevisDog]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

...Many times the instruments gave me early warning of other ships, shallows, wind gusts, etc...

Oceans around here are deep and empty, horizon is far - different places allow different tactics. I wouldn't want to navigate the English Channel with a sextant.

[barnakiel]

Yes. Definitely.

It all depends on where we are sailing, what we are sailing and how many onboard.

As I kid I raced Optis. Back then I did not even have wool on the shrouds (no shrouds on Optis, anyway). Even today I still race boats with either just plain windex or, at best, a plain wind instrument.

And in deep water and good visibility video games are just disrupting the joy of sailing.

So, yes, there is time for video games and time for just sailing.

Cheers,
b.

[CaptDAJ]

Let's stop kicking SFs in the groin, I am one, I am a licensed captain and this boat works for me at this time. It is not me that designed a boat that throws a 3' wake when I need to pass you at 5 kts, please slow so I don't wake. I grew up on sail and it will always be my first love

[NevisDog]

I don't understand that last post. Can someone explain the context - I must have missed somethin'.