Adding a chartplotter
- Thread starter toddco
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Bill I agree that one tends to steer where they are looking. This happens even in a car. I think where the depth/chartplotter is located depends a lot on how the boat is laid out. For a boat like yours the lifeline would be a very bad solution for the reasons you mentioned.
With a wheel if you are behind it then having the depth/chartplotter on the pedestal is a great place to have them. With the Endeavour that is where we will have them. When we bought the boat and had to move it the depth finder wasn't working and I rigged our ....
...portable depth finder up for that one trip. It was a pain over on....
..... the side of the cockpit, but still better than nothing and I was kind of stuck with it over there.
With the Mac where we have a tiller and are sitting on the side cockpit seat the depth finder on the life line is just a little off to the side of our forward sight. Also it can be moved ahead like above so that I can keep an eye on it if Ruth is busy with steering. If we mounted it in the companionway or forward in the the cabin bulkhead like where it was it is just getting too far away for us to see easily and that wasn't good. The main thing is to mount these items where they work best for you and your boat and be careful like you mentioned.
Say I'm curious about your trip north as we might like to do something similar after we have more experience. Are you going up the ICW or off shore or a combination? We hope you guys document it as you have in the past as that would be a big help to us,
Sumner and Ruth
I'm not so sure, Sum. I have long been an advocate of the "avoid the tyranny of being behind the wheel all the time" approach.
I have had two tiller steered boats for over 14 years, and now a wheel for 13+ years.
If you don't move the tiller or the wheel (currents notwithstanding, and even sometimes when they apply), if you don't move the wheel or the tiller and you keep the throttle in the same position, the boat generally continues to go where it was heading. In all cases there has always been a slight delay in boat heading changes even when you do move the wheel, but in all cases it is a LOT less than a car.
So, in all these years that I have been taking my eyes away from "the road" to peek at my trusty handheld GPSs, both the only-numerical earlier ones and then the smaller chartplotter types, I haven't gone off track much, if at all.
I simply find "needing" to have all instrumentation behind the wheel is very limiting to the enjoyment of the boat.
I believe there was an earlier post on this type of topic, and I recall you may have been in on that one, where someone showed a nice chartplotter arrangement that swiveled to allow use both behind the wheel as well as from the cockpit side. It was one of the very few I've seen of a good sized chartplotter installation that made any sense to me.
Mary has started a blog at http://dixonfantasy.blogspot.com . My plan is to sail outside as we can. We do not sleep well the first day, so offshore legs will be real short or several days long if the weather looks fab.
Claiborne Young was here at an SSCA gam and gave a great talk on the Carolinas, so at least on the way north there are lots of spots we want to see inside.
Thanks, I did start reading that and will continue to. Your boat....
...looks great. I love that little sailboat back at the stern. Here is a quote from Mary's blog...
We need to get a name made up for the Endeavour. Do you have an address for the Flea Market that I could Google? Is it every week? Is that guy usually there? Do you have any contact info for him that you could PM me? Thanks!!
I think I missed that one, but wouldn't mind looking at what they had if you know where that thread is. I agree that you don't want to be right behind the wheel all of the time. Even on our short 70 mile trip moving the Endeavour we spend a lot of time sitting off to the side of the wheel on the side cockpit seat,
Sum
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Endeavour 37[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our MacGregor S Pages[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mac-Venture Links[/FONT]
We stuck our Humminbird transducer inside the hull just behind the keel with a full tube of clear silicone. Works great. I may have to redo it every couple of years but it only cost about $7 for a tube. And it's not near as permanent as epoxy invade you ever sold the boat and wanted to keep your transducer.
BTW I had done this on two other boats I have had with good results both times.
Our chart plotter is too small to see so I got that $12 Navionics app for my iPhone. Works great for checking position, depth contours, and tide stations.
BTW I had done this on two other boats I have had with good results both times.
Our chart plotter is too small to see so I got that $12 Navionics app for my iPhone. Works great for checking position, depth contours, and tide stations.
At Helmen
I love having my C-80 at the helmen and added a nice seat with a extension to raise the seat high to see over the chartplotter while day sailiing or longer trips cruising,with the chartplotter at the helman on my comfy seat I can stay at the wheel for hours of those cruising trips with all the info needed.
Nick
Photo's on my other notebook so with another post
I love having my C-80 at the helmen and added a nice seat with a extension to raise the seat high to see over the chartplotter while day sailiing or longer trips cruising,with the chartplotter at the helman on my comfy seat I can stay at the wheel for hours of those cruising trips with all the info needed.
Nick
Photo's on my other notebook so with another post
Chartplotter
Here is my setup at the wheel and maybe you can do something similiar with what ever unit you want to use,just some other idea's I have seen here on this forum and my old back and legs love my seat.
Nick
Here is my setup at the wheel and maybe you can do something similiar with what ever unit you want to use,just some other idea's I have seen here on this forum and my old back and legs love my seat.
Nick
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Todd,
Look at the 4 and 5 inch garmin and lowance units. they are reasonably priced. Find a way, maybe with RAM mounts, to mount them in the companionway so that can be viewed from both the helm and nav area by turning them one way or the other. The big-boat solutions some have presented will be hard to adopt to a tiller driven craft. Been there, done that.
Look at the 4 and 5 inch garmin and lowance units. they are reasonably priced. Find a way, maybe with RAM mounts, to mount them in the companionway so that can be viewed from both the helm and nav area by turning them one way or the other. The big-boat solutions some have presented will be hard to adopt to a tiller driven craft. Been there, done that.
Here is my current attempt at a bracket. If I did this right it should fold inside the bulkhead wall and fold out and into the companionway. I added a knob to lock it in or out. My first attempt was in walnut, but drilling the hinge pin proved a little ugly. I have more red oak than walnut, so red oak it is.
Attachments
Ok,
The humminbird is installed. I decided my bracket looked a little "klunky" so I cut it down a bit. I mounted the transducer to the inside of the hull with a lexan sealant. No bubble from what I could see. It will be a while before we float, but we seem to sail nicely in the driveway.
The humminbird is installed. I decided my bracket looked a little "klunky" so I cut it down a bit. I mounted the transducer to the inside of the hull with a lexan sealant. No bubble from what I could see. It will be a while before we float, but we seem to sail nicely in the driveway.
Attachments
I like the bracket. That is nice looking,
Sum
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Endeavour 37[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Our MacGregor S Pages[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mac-Venture Links[/FONT]
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