Separate Nav Station Necessary ?

[virginia boy]

I'm looking at a 32 foot boat with dinette and separate nav station next to companionway. Why not convert the nav station into a dual purpose dinette/nav station and create some space?

I'd be interested in how many people feel that on a boat that size a separate nav station is a waste.

[daddle]

You can. Nothing more useless than a dinette underway or a nav station at anchor (aside from naval officers and rocking chairs).

[Anzo]

I converted my sit down nav station to a stand-up and gained lots of drawer space underneath, and counter/whatever space on top of the new fore and aft chart table/box

[Dockhead]

Depends on how you use your nav table. Some boats that size are now being made without any nav table whatsover, the idea being that most navigation is being done electronically.

For me, however, the nav table is the most important space in the boat. It's where I do all my passage planning, log-writing, studying of weather and tides, radio communication, etc., etc., etc. It can also be used for other kinds of reading or writing, doing your office e-mails, etc. It is especially well used in my case at anchor or in port.

I wouldn't want to be without a dedicated nav table on any size of boat, but that's a function of how I work.

It's also a function of where you sail, I think. If you're sailing only in familiar waters without much tide, then you don't need to do as much planning, as you do sailing in new places and difficult conditions, so nav table will be used less.

[SaltyMonkey]

I'm with Dockhead on this one. One of the top priorities for my next boat is a dedicated sit down nav station - a big one...not some afterthought of the designer. Not only is it great underway for large charts (i do charts as well as electronics), but I need a personal space when I am in port. Fact is, I would use it more in port than I would @ sea - writing and reading and horsing around.

I have no idea why designers stuff in a bunch of lousy setees and seating, when an ample nav station. tankage and storage are so much more important.

[Dockhead]

Indeed.

To continue the thought, for the kind of sailing we do, I spend up to a couple of hours a day poring over pilot books, nautical almanacs, charts, tide tables, tidal stream charts, weatherfax prints, etc., etc. It would be a huge space use conflict if I were trying to do that at the dining table just when my guests/crew are deprived of my company. My nav table is a step down from the main saloon, which is just right, because I have a certain amount of isolation, but I'm still close enough to grunt politely if someone drinking at the table addresses some comment to me while I'm at work.

Like Salty, I couldn't sail without paper charts, and I don't understand how anyone does so responsibly. You cannot see obstacles on a chart plotter over a passage without zooming in at frequent intervals along the route, which is impossibly awkward. But that's a somewhat different conversation well explored in other threads.