What's Your Actual Nav. Setup?

[wayne.b]

Originally Posted by charliehows

The arguments about traditional navigation techniques pop up fairly often. My question is; what do you actually do? I suspect a good proportion use dedicated onboard electronic equipment with maybe a handheld gps as backup, probably a few charts, maybe a sextant in a drawer somewhere that hasnt been played with in a while.

I use a handheld gps with another one as backup, charts, and i have a sextant but i rely on a laptop for my almanac data, so its more of a hobby than anything practical - keeping my hand in...navigation between Australia and NZ is pretty much go east for nz, choose your lat to follow, go west for oz, if it gets cold and windy you're too far south...

===

Furuno MFDs at upper and lower helms with C-Map chips, backed up by several laptops running OpenCPN with raster charts. Navionics on cell phones for dinghy nav and backup. Over 46,000 nautical miles and 15 countries in last 11 years, from Grenada to the Canadian Maritimes, and have only looked at paper charts a couple of times. They're expensive, easily damaged and take up way too much space if you're covering a lot of ground.

[Olddave]

Originally Posted by charliehows

The arguments about traditional navigation techniques pop up fairly often. My question is; what do you actually do? I suspect a good proportion use dedicated onboard electronic equipment with maybe a handheld gps as backup, probably a few charts, maybe a sextant in a drawer somewhere that hasnt been played with in a while.

I use a handheld gps with another one as backup, charts, and i have a sextant but i rely on a laptop for my almanac data, so its more of a hobby than anything practical - keeping my hand in...navigation between Australia and NZ is pretty much go east for nz, choose your lat to follow, go west for oz, if it gets cold and windy you're too far south...

It's a good question , where is it all going?
I try not to get too lazy. Electronics make it easy to navigate freestyle and not bother to do proper passage planning when you are away from home waters.
Also there is the trap that you can start to believe that the electronic charts do not contain errors. Zone of confidence is kept fresh in your mind when using paper charts, but tends to be skimmed over when using a plotter.
I use Maxsea software with up to date Navionics charts on a 17" laptop with lots of ram to make the programme fast and easy to use. Maxsea is expensive but very intuitive and simple, by far the best system I have seen.
I do my rough planning on the laptop/Maxsea and then do the routes carefully on paper charts. I put the finished route back into the Maxsea. My sailing is coastal, up and down the Oz west coast. I have commercial coastal Nav qualifications to 600nm.
Dave

[sailorchic34]

I have a old garmin 176 5" chartplotter, Laptop with opencpn, Antroid tablet with navaonic's, and a really really old garmin 75 GPS that just keeps on ticking.

I also have charts on another tablet. I've a few old paper charts for when SHTF, a hp51 calculator with navman on it, a sextant and plans on how to build a Astrolabe. I'm sort of a belts and suspenders kind of girl.

Though I do tend to use the mark one eyeball most of the time.

I also have a bearing compass and a leadline for when my heathkit depthsounder lets the smoke out of the nixie tubes. It's still going strong too. Plus windex for wind direction and noise of the rigging for wind speed. No radar, AIS, etc.

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Though I do tend to use the mark one eyeball most of the time.

Lucky you. I really hate using mark two but need the spectacles..

[michaelratinter]

"I also have a bearing compass and a leadline for when my heathkit depthsounder lets the smoke out of the nixie tubes."

I haven't seen an instrument with nixie tubes in 40 years. How very cool, sailorchic34!

[El Pinguino]

From the OP 'My question is; what do you actually do? '....

A lot of people here just seem to telling us what they 'have'

Different beast in most cases.

I have lots of stuff... I use very little of it......

[Olddave]

[QUOTE=sailorchic34;2220085] I'm sort of a belts and suspenders kind of girl.QUOTE]

I love that kind of navigation.
Dave

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by charliehows

curious about all the iphone/ipad android etc users - Do they rely on inbuilt gps or microwave tower triangulation? I'm a wee bit antideluvian in the smart phone dept. so bear with me...

Ours have an Internal gps, but not all devices have one.

[Kenomac]

What do we actually do?

1. Look at paper charts to get the BIG picture.

2. Nobeltec Odyssey on the PC for planning, weather routing and aerial photography images.

3. Ipads and iphone for monitoring route while underway.

4. Radar and AIS for collision avoidance.

5. Sometimes we skip step #1

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Ours have an Internal gps, but not all devices have one.

Just about every Android smartphone/tablet on the market these days has an internal GPS. Can't recall the last time I saw one without it.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by StuM

Just about every Android smartphone/tablet on the market these days has an internal GPS. Can't recall the last time I saw one without it.

Many of the ipads don't have internal gps, only the "cellular models" have one.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Many of the ipads don't have internal gps, only the "cellular models" have one.

That's why I said Android.

And why I don't buy iDevices

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

. . . for when my heathkit depthsounder lets the smoke out of the nixie tubes. . . .

Can you use the Lucas Replacement Smoke in your Nixies? If so, then you might want to keep this in spares:

[barnakiel]

We use two Android units.

One is a 4' Smarthone and I do not use this one to navigate. It has Beidou, Glonass and Gps. USD 60 two years ago. Nice backup.

The other is a 7' tablet. This one has just Gps and I feed it Ais via a router.

I found the smartphone screen to small for charting use. I think 7' is fine.

Our future devices will be 8' Androids with Glonass/Beidou/Gps sensor. I would also like a baro but it is not common.

b.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by charliehows

curious about all the iphone/ipad android etc users - Do they rely on inbuilt gps or microwave tower triangulation? I'm a wee bit antideluvian in the smart phone dept. so bear with me...

Seem to remember an Oyster 60 (Wolfhound.?) being abandoned N of Bermuda because they could not charge their I-Pad..