Captain James
Member
We just have two iPads and two iPhones and a Mac plus a Raymarine MFD so we are okay.
I can not believe how many still confuse electronic charts with chartplotting.
How the heck do you think the government stores charts till they print them on paper?
Displaying it on an electronic screen is NOT a chartplotter.... just a paper chart in digital format.
I can not believe how many still confuse electronic charts with chartplotting.
How the heck do you think the government stores charts till they print them on paper?
Displaying it on an electronic screen is NOT a chartplotter.... just a paper chart in digital format.
Those would be scanned and digitized charts, not "electronic charts". Are we on an "electronic forum"? A "forum plotter"? A chart plotter is a digital chart display with overlays (radar, AIS, little pointed boat icon). Folks refer to electronic charts meaning, I assume, chart plotting.
Twice last year off the Washington/Oregon coast I heard folks calling on channel 16 for assistance because they had lost electronic navigation and were lost.
Using paper charts and plotting is just fun. Traveling any distance at trawler speeds is boring, there is nothing to do. Plotting keeps you engaged, looking around at landmarks for confirmation, the whole awareness of where you are, feeling like you're actually doing and learning something rather than just looking at a screen.
Have you ever noticed that the guys that know the most trust the least. The owner that only knows that when he pushes the on button and his screen lights up thinks it's all wonderful. The guy that installs and works on all of it is bring along a paper chart because he knows how fragile the whole thing is.
Very true in a large steel ship with redundancy. Not so much in a small recreational vessel.
Very true in a large steel ship with redundancy. Not so much in a small recreational vessel.
AlanT
Perhaps us old farts actually used paper charts for many years before the advent of electronic means. Ever use Loran? Imagine our excitement when that became available for pleasure craft. The rest is history. My smartphone with Navionics can plot a course. Oh, the days of the flip phone, where has the time gone.
Someone just watched Independence day part two where they took out all the satellites again.Think there’s more agreement than disagreement here. Believe most here use MFDs to pilot and navigate (except those who have gone to laptop or iPad alone). The backup to the MFDs is some form of battery powered electronics. Paper is the supplement. Folks find this supplement of more or less value depending upon circumstance and personal preference. Few here would be placed in danger by the failure of their MFD(s).
Have lived through RDF and loran and have no desire to return. Would note I think Rotterdam has returned to a new version of loran.
I just completed a trip back from a haul out. It was from Coal Harbour, in Vancouver to Reed Point Marina in Port Moody, a distance or about 9 or so miles and transiting through second narrows, a tidal challenged strait.
On my way back to Vancouver I lost my GPS coordinates.
My boat disappeared from my plot charter, I had no lat/long position, no course heading , no speed. I was on auto pilot at the time so I ensured I had control of the helm and then rebooted my chart plotters a couple times and regained my GPS coordinates.
It was no big deal. BUT, if I had been on an extended cruise and was not able to resolve the issue. AND if I was many days away from my home berth. Then paper charts would have been crucial to safely getting back to home. As long as my depth sounder works, and my hand bearing compass works it would have been no big deal. With paper charts it is just an exercise in 1980's navigation.
Paper charts are irrelevant until...
The electrons stop flowing.