Does anybody actually use their nav station?

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

For pilot's (going anywhere from 200kts to mach 2) here is our chart table...

Don't really need much navigation at +200 kts, when yer' lost, just fly around for a couple of minutes (heck, even 30 minutes) - yer' sure to find something you recognise within 100 nm, not that easy at 4 kts, that 2 nm of water looks much the same as the last 2 nm of water.
Oh and if yer' IFR, yer' sure to come up on someones radar in 100 nm.

[Boracay]

Aerial reefs? We were told never to go near cumulo-granite.

[Wotname]

Surely these cumulo-granite reefs are marked on the modern aeronautical charts!!

[knottybuoyz]

It's been awhile since I was aboard a ship but I think the navigators were required to mark their pos'n on the charts every 10 minutes. If that was a regulatory requirement (Canada Shipping Act) or just a C/O's standing order to keep the Mates busy during a watch I don't know. I was a Logistics Officer not a navigator but during long passages I'd hang out on the bridge and learn some chartwork. I once had us 20 miles off course in the middle of Lake Superior and when the old man showed up on the bridge he wasn't amused!!

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Wotname

Surely these cumulo-granite reefs are marked on the modern aeronautical charts!!

Yeah but most pilot's don't get to heave to or lie ahull, take a celestial shot, duck downstairs, brew up a cuppa, sharpen the pencil, perform 3 hours of intricate calculations and then precisely mark on the chart every ten minutes the exact point where their airplane isn't...

[MidLandOne]

I suspect that many sail boat skippers would learn much about navigating by means of maintaining a high degree of spatial awareness in real time as to where they are against the real world features about them rather than against lines and periodic pencil marks made on charts if they were to spend time with pilots of small aircraft that undertake long oceanic or transcontinental flights or with skippers of very fast (35-45 knot) commercial vessels.

Generally, I find that skippers of faster powered pleasure vessels are more alert than sail boat skippers are to navigation practices oriented to an awareness of the real world about them rather than to periodic pencil marks on a chart.

In response to the original question, for me the notebook running the ECS sits on the "chart" table. I haven't used or referred to a paper chart for navigation for many years.

[imagine2frolic]

There are some places you need to navigate by the second on a boat. Switch backs, cross winds, cross currents, channel is only 40ft wide and drops straight down, boat 23ft. wide, and all of this in one place.

[Little Otter]

I normaly use the cockpit or table because i like to have the space of the table to plan and then read it in the cockpit, i do use the nav station sometimes and for storage.

[Starboat]

I would not own a boat without a nav station; it is my personal space with my toys (e.g., chartplotter, GPS, radar, radios, computer, etc). I use it to monitor our progress on paper charts as backups, update ship's log, and use it to plan future courses/times.

[Southern Star]

I have a nav station that permits the use of full size charts, has a proper seat, a repeater for speed/depth/water temperature and the chartplotter as well as a digitial barometer, my SSB and fixed vhf - inotherwords, a proper nav station. Only in close quarters do I really navigate (with use of the instrumentation, chartplotter, radar, paper charts in a plastic sleeve and binoculars)from on deck. But routing/course alterations, waypoint entries, manual plotting and log entries are all made from the nav station. Ultimately, use is contingent upon convenience - and that means space, comfort and access to the necessary information.

Brad

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by MidLandOne

I suspect that many sail boat skippers would learn much about navigating by means of maintaining a high degree of spatial awareness in real time as to where they are against the real world features about them rather than against lines and periodic pencil marks made on charts if they were to spend time with pilots of small aircraft that undertake long oceanic or transcontinental flights or with skippers of very fast (35-45 knot) commercial vessels.

Generally, I find that skippers of faster powered pleasure vessels are more alert than sail boat skippers are to navigation practices oriented to an awareness of the real world about them rather than to periodic pencil marks on a chart.

In response to the original question, for me the notebook running the ECS sits on the "chart" table. I haven't used or referred to a paper chart for navigation for many years.

Not sure I understand that one Midland…I have worked as a navigator on a high speed passenger hovercraft and I can tell you it is all about vectors.

No time for spatial awareness,(or even looking out the window) you are plotting relative courses at high relative speeds of all the targets while trying to stay on optimum course.

The pilot gets to look out the window but the navigator tells him what to steer.

[MidLandOne]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

No time for spatial awareness,(or even looking out the window) you are plotting relative courses at high relative speeds of all the targets while trying to stay on optimum course.

I take it from the comment about relative courses and speeds of targets that you are talking about specific situations with many other vessels around - in which case I agree mostly, although in my experience there has to be a lot of other fast traffic for the situation not to be able to be managed by radar and eyeball alone.

My comment was with respect to navigation in normal coastal/large harbour/among fixed dangers type conditions not in high traffic density constrained waters.

I don't know how fast hovercraft go (I have only ever been on one as a passenger at night) maybe they cruise faster than the 30-40 knots I am referring to?

[MidLandOne]

Originally Posted by MidLandOne

I don't know how fast hovercraft go (I have only ever been on one as a passenger at night) maybe they cruise faster than the 30-40 knots I am referring to?

Whoops, that was meant to read "...maybe they cruise faster than the 30-40 knots I am referring to and maybe not as maneuverable as fast surface craft (and waterjet powered surface craft that I am most used to can stop within a few boat lengths - so anyone standing falls over )?"

[CSY Man]

On the average 30 – 40 footer, imagine how much extra space you could make into seating, storage, TV cabinet, etc., if you ousted the chart table?

My chart table has both seating and storage, but no TV allowed onboard.

Trying to get away from B.S. and TV is full of it....

[GordMay]

Counting (4) microphones at that (wonderful) Nav’ Station, reminds me that CSY Man is a pilot - they do like redundancy.