What is your primary means of navigation (poll)

[Simi 60]

Everything

[mjscottinnc]

1. Dual iPads with GPS receiver each, each tab with 3 or 4 navigation apps and Wi-Fi radar app. Each nav app is better in different situations.
2. Galaxy tab as a backup for navigation only
3. Surface 3 laptop running openCPN, independent GPS and AIS receiver along with water depth and boat speed transmitting over Wi-Fi to all electronic nav devices.
4. Paper charts, sextant, plotting table and a chronometer watch

Favorite nav apps. Aqua Map for ICW due to Active Captain details, Navtronics as #2 for ICW and coastal, iSailor for offshore and Bahamas, timezero for radar overlay, iNavX least favorite, garmin BlueChart for sentimental reasons.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Duxa

.... So I am looking into various portable solutions for navigation.

The key to finding the best electronic charting system for different areas is to confirm with local cruisers in that area, which system has the best portfolio of electronic charts and proven alignment with reality.

OpenCPN is free and can be built upon with original chart and Google Earth overlays for many remote locations.

As far as portable hardware, probably a laptop for planning and a tablet for convenience .

.....Now back to real navigation....

It is all about giving yourself room for error when plotting a course.
Charted Soundings are dependable for popular areas, because they were the cornerstone of pre-electronic piloting and navigation.

So unless there was a major earthquake that disrupted the bottom, as happened in Prince William Sound Alaska, you can use soundings to confirm your position and safety.

Cruisers with bigger boats use their Radar to confirm safe distance off of a land target to clear dangers.

That is the primary verification tool of GPS positions on Charts, so learn about "Radar Parallel Indexing" to make the best use of that if ever in thick fog.

Again with every electronic Nav-aid, you need to know about how to test for Fixed and Variable Errors and the same for your magnetic compass.

As already said, your eyeballs are your best tool, so keep that lookout for something that does not align with your tools and just stop until you can figure it out.

Don't forget to load a good Tide and Current table program into your laptop for the areas you will visit.

[Joh.Ghurt]

Duxa,

your prices don't tell the whole story. Chart for the USA are basically free, so the vendors only charge a little. Once you want to cruise outside the USA, the differences in price start to vary wildly. You should also look at the charts for the Mediterranean and Caribbean. (No need to check the UK charts or the Baltic sea, there the prices become eye-watering)

[Group9]

I loved my Garmin Blue Chart app for my iPad until Garmin just up and decided to stop all support of it (including allowing you to download your purchase again).

[Van Der Beek]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

The key to finding the best electronic charting system for different areas is to confirm with local cruisers in that area, which system has the best portfolio of electronic charts and proven alignment with reality.

OpenCPN is free and can be built upon with original chart and Google Earth overlays for many remote locations.

As far as portable hardware, probably a laptop for planning and a tablet for convenience .

.....Now back to real navigation....

It is all about giving yourself room for error when plotting a course.
Charted Soundings are dependable for popular areas, because they were the cornerstone of pre-electronic piloting and navigation.

So unless there was a major earthquake that disrupted the bottom, as happened in Prince William Sound Alaska, you can use soundings to confirm your position and safety.

Cruisers with bigger boats use their Radar to confirm safe distance off of a land target to clear dangers.

That is the primary verification tool of GPS positions on Charts, so learn about "Radar Parallel Indexing" to make the best use of that if ever in thick fog.

Again with every electronic Nav-aid, you need to know about how to test for Fixed and Variable Errors and the same for your magnetic compass.

As already said, your eyeballs are your best tool, so keep that lookout for something that does not align with your tools and just stop until you can figure it out.

Don't forget to load a good Tide and Current table program into your laptop for the areas you will visit.

I've notices "a lot" of people have an issue with this, they rely to heavily on their expensive 'screens' instead of looking up, looking around them and using binoculars.

I prefer a more analog approach.
I have all that 'stuff' at the nav station down below (to keep it as simple and clean as possible) with as little distractions as possible up at the helm station.

It also obliges me to be more involved in the sailing itself.

Then there's the benefit of having the nav station close to the helm station with three steps coming in, I can get too it quickly, I don't have to climb a steep ladder.

[Ded reckoner]

I voted for Other because we use different systems for different purposes. There's not one overall favorite for all uses, but each has it's use.

We use Garmin 1022xsv chartplotters at both helms and use this when underway (and for an anchor watch). Timezero Navigator running on a Microsoft Surface Pro is used for planning purposes for determining waypoints and routing; this is a backup navigation system, too (coupled with a Bad Elf Pro GPS). Weather and currents can be downloaded into this for planning purposes. Navionics on a Google Android phone is used when in our dinghy (and it's useful for an anchor watch).

[JBP]

Paper charts for planning.

OpenCpn for longer range navigation (because it integrates better with my NMEA network)

Navionics for close range piloting because of their sonar charts and integration with ActiveCaptain and the old Navionics destination reviews.

[Lowcountry]

I voted Navionics, but that is what my chartplotter (a Raymarine unit from 2017) uses. I then have Navionics on my mobile phone and on my laptop, which I use both on and off the boat.

[siamese]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Too bad you didn't set up the poll so multiple answers can be given. I think you'll find that most cruisers have at least two different nav tools. In my case, I have three on board (four or five if you include iPhone plotter software).

My current big three are:
• A Garmin handheld with their standard chartset (forget the name). This we use for most active navigation while underway. It stays in the cockpit at the helm.

• A fixed-mounted Garmin plotter at the nav station down below running a slightly different Garmin chartset. This we use for routing and detailed planning. This can be mirrored via iPad to the cockpit (or wherever).

• iNavX on an ipad running Navionics charts.

All these terrific choices. The fruits of capitalism!

[Scorpius]

OpenCPN. It's free and, as far as I'm concerned, it works great. I have four laptops aboard with it preloaded. Two are active at any one time: one mounted in the binnacle and one at the nav station.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by siamese

All these terrific choices. The fruits of capitalism!

Sure... you could just as easily say it's the fruits of public sanitation, but sure.

[surazo]

Raymarine plotter with Navionics charts master and cockpit
Handheld garmin with the same charts.
PC with OpenCPN and Maxsea with different types of charts.
Ipad with Navionics
paper charts

[banjo105]

Navionics

[sv_pelagia]

NOT Navionics! (is that an answer?)

Your question is confounded as it asks two questions: which platform and which charts.

ANSWER: Primary: always official charts (in our case, CHS Raster charts), on OpenCPN

(we do use OCharts vector for our waters, which are essentially CHS vector, but still prefer CHS Raster)

We do use CMAP ("up-to-date") on our chartplotter, but always defer to CHS charts on android OpenCPN when channels narrow or tricky or new-to-us.

Navionics on Android also, but almost as a toy and always NEVER (!) for actual/real-time navigation.


On a related note:
QUOTE: "Last trip I used Navionics’ smart routing feature to create a route, then exported it to iNavX to run the Autohelm."

Hmmm. I finally checked out th "auto route" feature on Navionics. Very interesting and useful for quick checks into routing. BUT often odd, occasionally dangerous. ODD: auto route had us swerving in narrow (but safely deep) channels between rocks, when an extra 5 minutes outsjde of rocks would be so much simpler and safer (and our normal route). Dangerous: autoroute routed us over shallow areas.

So, perhaps useful for initial planning, but definitely NOT something to depend on.