North Up or Heading Up?

[Frankly]

Most chart plotters are not able to determine vessel heading, they simply calculate COG and for a lot of situations that is close enough. However with recent everything networked together system, vessel heading might be available /used by the chart plotter. Depends on equipment.

Laying out a course from A to B then the imaginary line is a static COG, same word slightly different meaning.

This discussion has convinced me to try chocolate ice cream for a while. Maybe I will be a convert.

One point I think most would agree "trying to enter lat/ long of a way point" with a heading up chart plotter can cause one to consume extra headache remedy/ rum (unless the vessel is heading directly at the North Pole at the time).


Frankly

[Harry Tate]

I always do North up on ECDIS/ chart plotter as well as Radars.
Additionally I use True course on radar vectors, never relative.
I'm a professional seafarer with 26 years spent on ships around the world, so its just what I'm used to.
It is a throwback to paper charts - the argument was that its quicker to at a glance be able to see where you are as a paper chart was always North up.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Frankly

One point I think most would agree "trying to enter lat/ long of a way point" with a heading up chart plotter can cause one to consume extra headache remedy/ rum (unless the vessel is heading directly at the North Pole at the time).

Or determining the distance/bearing to a vessel in distress!

[ChrisJHC]

I do like to have my AIS set to “heading up” so I can tell the crew the direction of a vessel relative to the bow. They may not know where north is but can usually identify the front of the boat.

[goboatingnow]

Heading was always typically available from flux gate compasses , north up requires a more stable reference which historically wasn’t available. Hence the preponderance of heading up on all boats.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Brian.D

Let the map or display move around you and not you around the map or display.You ARE the center of your universe. Keep heading up and you will have your point of reference locked in. No need to look around to try and find the target or landmass.

JMHO

So if I change course 10 degrees the world spins? Funny, I've never seen that actually happen. I guess I'm not the center of the universe, not even my personal one. Besides, I consider the mark I eyeball to be my primary navigation tool, secondary is wind direction, and only then comes the plotter. In poorly plotted or changeable areas (shifting bars), focusing on the plotter will lead you aground.

Heading up works in the car, when all I need to know is the next exit and it is coming at 65 mph (and even then, watching the road and the signs is better), but I'd rather remain oriented to the world on the boat. I don't think the two applications are really that similar.


Which way is up if the boat stops (no heading)? Or if the plotter looses fix?


I wonder which way they set it on the Ever Forward ...

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Frankly

Did your father ever tell you "Look where you are going "....

I don't think he meant you should be staring at the chart plotter. In a car that is an excellent way to cause an accident.


Do people really stare at the plotter while sailing? I think they have a warning about that.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by jordanbigel

I only read about half the replies in this thread, but it seems to me that the dividing line between the two points of view here come down to whether or not you "came up" using paper charts or not.

Not entirely true. Lots of people in cars or out hiking rotated their paper map to the equivalent of head up way back in the Dark Ages...

-Chris

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by ranger58sb

Not entirely true. Lots of people in cars or out hiking rotated their paper map to the equivalent of head up way back in the Dark Ages...

-Chris

The people who are firmly N-Up are definitely old-school paper chart people, but not all old-school paper chart people failed to convert. My experience dates to Loran and Paper Charts. There are times in crowded areas where N-Up simply induces human error to translate the screens, especially with radar on H-UP. Why would anyone do that, especially since NAV mode keeps the screen from swinging?

North-up is useful for marcro planning. Other than that, it's outdated. Back in the day of paper charts there was no choice. Now there is. How many of y'all always run Google Maps in your car on N-UP?

Peter

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

The people who are firmly N-Up are definitely old-school paper chart people, but not all old-school paper chart people failed to convert. My experience dates to Loran and Paper Charts. There are times in crowded areas where N-Up simply induces human error to translate the screens, especially with radar on H-UP. Why would anyone do that, especially since NAV mode keeps the screen from swinging?

North-up is useful for marcro planning. Other than that, it's outdated. Back in the day of paper charts there was no choice. Now there is. How many of y'all always run Google Maps in your car on N-UP?

Peter

Interestingly, while I did use paper charts before a chartplotter, I'm fairly young and grew up in the beginning of the digital and chartplotter era. Oddly, I've got older family members that have trouble with north-up when they're on the boat and would prefer the plotter in heading up.

For a road map, I'll generally use north up for planning, but heading up for actual navigation. But at the same time, I rarely look at an actual map in the car. When I do, I'm rarely looking all that far ahead, so the heading up layout is natural.

On the boat, unless in a very confined space, I generally am looking at more than "what's the next buoy". And I also know which direction I'm going, as there's a compass in front of me plus the CoG arrow on the plotter. So it's easy to orient which direction I'm moving across the north-up chart and it's easy to see where we are in the big picture when I zoom out to look. I haven't found a situation where heading-up offers a real advantage in my mind.

The one caveat is that I've never run with a setup with radar overlayed on charts, only with them as separate screens next to each other.

Some of my north-up habit may also come from my typical behavior in unfamiliar waters. I tend to run with 2 sets of charts up. 1 is kept zoomed in closer for detailed piloting, the other is zoomed out more for big picture and quick checks of what's coming further ahead. I'd be crazy to orient the 2 differently, and I think heading up is just illogical for the big picture view.

[Rumrace]

My big clue was when I wanted to read a chart and turned it to read North was at the top.
You can call that anything you like of course

[Rumrace]

I want a Radar which talks.
“ Idiot zigzagging Sea Doo 60 meters off @90. , LAKER, LAKER BOW WAVE!”
Like that.

[GordMay]

[Rumrace]

I have 2 9” chart plotters on the boat and an iPad. 2 handlheld GPS. One is ancient.
I plan every trip on a paper chart.
I take a paper chart with me in the Dingy.
I love paper charts.
I’m a member of the Upper Canada Law Society. It use to be in Niagara on the Lake before Canada was a country but the US attacked us for England’s Taxes. So the Upper Canada Law Society moves “up north” to the town of York ( now Toronto) Big head scratch there.
Anyway it’s called Upper and Lower Canada cause Toronto is Up the River and Quebec City is on the Lower River. So heading south on the St. Lawrence is up the river.
It seems the “ ME ALSO MOVEMENT” are people having more and more fun to argue colloquialisms for days to appose history and claim their experiences as the foundation of others. I’m happy I’m too old to fix.

[skipmac]

Probably said this before but I do both. In open water, big bays, coastal, etc I always use north up. But when navigating in narrow, twisty channels with side channels, multiple markers and buoys all around it's much easier to zoom in and use course up.