Most ECONOMICAL ways to equip cruising sailboat w/ nav equipment + backups?

[magentawave]

What are your suggestions for the most economical way to equip a sailboat with navigation equipment and AIS for long distance off-the-grid cruising + backups?

Please list in order of use with your primary method first. For example, if your primary equipment is an X brand GPS chartplotter in the cockpit + laptop running X software second + iPad or Android tablet running X app third + iPhone fourth + handheld GPS fifth + sextant sixth, then please list everything like this...

1) X brand GPS chartplotter mounted on bulkhead in cockpit.
2) Laptop with X software.
3) iPad or Android tablet with X app.
4) iPhone with X app.
5) X brand handheld GPS.
6) X brand sextant.

Again, I'm not a rich guy so cost matters. What is the CHEAPEST but still effective way to do this?

Thanks

[GILow]

OpenCpn for navigation on a refurbished laptop.

A line with a lead weight as a sounder.

A wet finger as a wind gauge.

[JPA Cate]

If you're in the US, there are some very cheap "hockey puck" gps's at chain computer stores, under $50 US, that you can plug into a laptop, if you really want to go electronic, rather than paper. You can probably still get enough paper charts for a circumnavigation via e-bay, or SSCA's buy sell & trade.

What we use is a Lenovo laptop (large screen and it runs CMaps, and we use Open CPN. I would not say this is a cheap option. It receives GPS from the Vesper class B AIS via an on boat wi fi hotspot. For GPS backup, we have one of the above-mentioned "hockey puck style" GPS, from Fry's. In back of that, when out of mobile phone signal range, we carry a sextant, tables, and have used it in the past. So far, we have not experienced any computer crashes that Jim could not recover from. Our AIS is in the cockpit, the computers stay below decks, and we use various types of non-skid to keep them in place. Being laptops, when closed they don't try to leap off the table.

I have a strong prejudice against using mobile phones for navigation, the screen is so small you can never see the big picture. Plus there's a history of groundings and collisions with nav aids, for people who didn't zoom in far enough, or didn't really understand how much offing they should give themselves.

For backup, we have a Dell hybrid tablet running the same programs.

And, backup for all that are paper charts, they're old, nav aids will have changed, but the geology doesn't change much in terms of human lives, barring volcanic eruptions, island making, and subterranean uplifting. And, we actually have 2 sextants aboard. Packrats.

Ann

[conachair]

Raspberry pi (and spare) running openplotter. Android tablet running opencpn. Cm93 charts and oesenc where available augmented with navionics/cmap/satilitte mbtiles from sasplanet. set up the pi to monitor battery voltage/current/air pressure while you're at it. Gold dust!

Some paper plus cruising guides/. Ais engine into the Pi. Or rtl dongle if really going cheap.

Personally never quite understood chart plotters on long distance cruising boats - folios must cost a bomb and getting anything delive4ed can be a nightmare. Weeks in a dirty port waiting for a delivery.

And this! >
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...m_bibl_vppi_i0

Get storm proofing as well.

[Nicholson58]

We sailed the Lake Michigan and the North Channel for several years with a hand held GPS DAKOTA and a simple depth sounder.

[0_bob_0]

Originally Posted by GILow

OpenCpn for navigation on a refurbished laptop.

A line with a lead weight as a sounder.

A wet finger as a wind gauge.

so old school

[GILow]

Originally Posted by 0_bob_0

so old school

Yeah, OpenCPN is up to version FIVE now. It’s nearly as old as Windows.

[0_bob_0]

I read an article years ago (cruising skipper mag or cruising helmsman) - the guy and his son (USA east coast) - sailed around the world with a global map from a school book - an hour glass, and knowledge of the stars and oceans - for me - from then on everything else seems like coastal navigation and lack of knowledge.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by 0_bob_0

I read an article years ago (cruising skipper mag or cruising helmsman) - the guy and his son (USA east coast) - sailed around the world with a global map from a school book - an hour glass, and knowledge of the stars and oceans - for me - from then on everything else seems like coastal navigation and lack of knowledge.

That is a very cool concept.. at least until you bump into the reef that wasn’t marked on the school atlas.

Then it’s not so cool.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

If you're in the US, there are some very cheap "hockey puck" gps's at chain computer stores, under $50 US, that you can plug into a laptop, if you really want to go electronic, rather than paper.

Ann, I just bought a BS-708 USB gps puck on Fleabay for AU$13. With the current state of the Aussie dollar that probably equates to 28 cents in the US. I have not received it yet but according some posts on CF it works with OpenCPN.

[0_bob_0]

I think they used the change in water colour as a hint to change course - not really coastal navigation - ocean navigation - they made it round the world without mishap - maybe never saw land though

[Yellow bird]

Originally Posted by magentawave

What are your suggestions for the most economical way to equip a sailboat with navigation equipment and AIS for long distance off-the-grid cruising + backups?

Please list in order of use with your primary method first. For example, if your primary equipment is an X brand GPS chartplotter in the cockpit + laptop running X software second + iPad or Android tablet running X app third + iPhone fourth + handheld GPS fifth + sextant sixth, then please list everything like this...

1) X brand GPS chartplotter mounted on bulkhead in cockpit.
2) Laptop with X software.
3) iPad or Android tablet with X app.
4) iPhone with X app.
5) X brand handheld GPS.
6) X brand sextant.

Again, I'm not a rich guy so cost matters. What is the CHEAPEST but still effective way to do this?

Thanks

First step towards a cheap solution

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by magentawave

What are your suggestions for the most economical way to equip a sailboat with navigation equipment and AIS for long distance off-the-grid cruising + backups?

Please list in order of use with your primary method first. For example, if your primary equipment is an X brand GPS chartplotter in the cockpit + laptop running X software second + iPad or Android tablet running X app third + iPhone fourth + handheld GPS fifth + sextant sixth, then please list everything like this...

1) X brand GPS chartplotter mounted on bulkhead in cockpit.
2) Laptop with X software.
3) iPad or Android tablet with X app.
4) iPhone with X app.
5) X brand handheld GPS.
6) X brand sextant.

Again, I'm not a rich guy so cost matters. What is the CHEAPEST but still effective way to do this?

I don't do cheap; several criteria top cost, in my world. Ease of use, customer support, critical features, robustness, etc. for example.

With that in mind...

1) Ours is Furuno NavNET 3D (with NOAA raster and vector charts; C-Map and Navionics charts are optionally available). Our AIS is a seperate unit, with output displayed on the plotter.
2) TimeZero, same "engine" as NN3D plotter (ditto charts)
3) (multiple) Samsung Androids with several apps, see below.
4) N/A (but we do have Android phones with several apps each)
5) See tablets, plus two smartphones, all with built-in GPS. (Note we also have fitted an additional fixed Furuno GPS)
6) N/A

Apps have included Plan2Nav with C-Map vector charts (being superceded with Embark, which I haven't used), iSailor with Transas (now Wartsila) vector charts, MX Mariner with NOAA raster charts, and I'm just now experimenting withAquaMap.

In our world, ActiveCaptain markers can be useful; MX Mariner and AquaMap both include those. Plan2Nav did, but they stopped. Embark doesn't. iSailor doesn't. In our world, Waterway Guide markers can be useful. AquaMapa includes those, the others don't. Can't say whether useful in other parts of the world.

-Chris

[sy_gilana]

1 Matsutec AIS transponder and gps ($400) connected to->
2 Old 2012 laptop running linux mint with OpenCPN ($200)
3 Android Phablet running OpenCPN (like Huawei mediapad 7 or 10") ($120)
4 Backup puck GPS ($20)
5 Backup android phone ($200) running OpenCPN
6 Knowledge of celestial and dr navigation.




Not what we use, but what we would do constrained by your requirements.

[neophytecruiser]

Perhaps I missed it, but you may want to include a reliable timepiece, a compass and a log book. A set of paper charts to keep track of your position, rarely let you down in during an instrument failure. Proper watch keeping, while not as sexy as a digital data display, can fill in for most of the security insurance provided by radar and AIS.

Not to dismiss or minimize the usefulness of modern electronic nav aids, they don't replace common sense, accepted practices of sound boat handling and a good grounding in navigational theory and practices. If you're financially limited to what you can afford, perhaps you might find you may not need all the latest bells and whistles to accomplish a safe offshore passage. Good luck, I'm sure you'll receive good information from many of the post in reply to your query.