Nav Table or Junk Drawer?

AlastairLC

AlastairLC

.
Jan 2, 2017
765
O'Day & Islander 322 & 37 Scottsdale, AZ & Owls Head, ME
In this age of GPS chart plotters on our iPhones, the days of nav tables full of paper charts seems to be over. Have they become junk drawers instead?
Here’s mine:
33246D98-1F51-4637-82C0-A7225A086F2D.jpeg
Post a photo of yours if you dare and we’ll see who’s the neatest and who’s the messiest. No fair tidying up beforehand.
 
The Shadow Knows

The Shadow Knows

.
Jun 10, 2017
174
Catalina 1980 Catalina 30 Mk II John's Pass / Tampa Bay
AL,

You always need a backup ya know, like charts, bearing compass & maybe a sextant for if power is lost, "So, What's Your Plan B?"

I've taken my section 8 chart book & had most of the charts sealed in plastic. I keep these under a cushion in the cabin. Did I have to use these when power was lost, in a single word, YES, several times.

I also keep the bearing compass handy to take shots based on the charts when needed & these helped me to get back to safe harbor in both daytime & nighttime & sometimes in bad conditions.

ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN B PAL."
 
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D

dlochner

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Jan 11, 2014
11,399
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
Somewhere in between. In mine, there is a chart book for Lake Ontario and a guide book, a small binder with documentation, registration, and some boat specific instructions, spare batteries, pens and such, a couple of specialized tools (like the Balmar magnetic screwdriver), some paper nav tools and a hand bearing compass. And some assorted junk.

The top of the Nav station is a different story. :( The parts and pieces of any project reside there as well the tools I am using or might (un)reasonably use in the near future, a collection of flashlights and a knife, and all the stuff that has yet to find a home.
 
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M

markwbird

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Nov 26, 2012
1,653
Hunter 34 Berkeley
Definitely a junk drawer. The design of the nav table has always been confusing to me. It's really too small to begin with and having to lift it up to get to what is inside means you have to move everything off first. Very impractical.
 
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JRT

JRT

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Feb 14, 2017
2,046
Catalina 310 211 Lake Guntersville, AL
The Nav station on the C310 isn't much. The table folds in half so no below stowage, Above the AC/DC electrical is a small shelf that might be used for charts, mine is filled with gloves, flashlights, pens and other junk! I do have a chart for Lake Guntersville and have broke it out a few times before I got Navtronics on my phone. But the lake isn't hard to get around and I lie the phone at the helm which just keeps me honest on my depth monitoring so I'm less concerned since it changes a lot in some pretty weird spots. Funny I never cared on my O'day 25 with the swing centerboard, life was simple then:)
 
Bob S

Bob S

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Sep 27, 2007
1,771
Beneteau 393 New Bedford, MA
I have paper charts for everywhere we cruise along with all the tools needed to plot a course but I'm sure there are cobwebs in there ;)
My CG doc a checkbook and assorted receipts from mooring and diesel purchases for the season. It doesn't get opened too frequent.
I have three other draws to collect junk!
1568823317514.jpeg
 
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jssailem

jssailem

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Oct 22, 2014
21,085
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Alastair, good question.. Not on the boat so I'll have to ask you to trust me.

6 weeks ago it was more junk drawer then Nav storage. I have 2 drawers. So I cleaned the junk out or the top drawer. Restocked with my Regional chart books and Nav equipment (Parallel Ruler, dividers etc.)

Also I have pencils and head lamps. So I claim it is primarily a Nav Station drawer. Well at least 80%.

Drawer #2 is a cleaned up junk drawer. At least now it has some organization. Prior to the cleaning... Oh man it was ugly.
 
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TomY

TomY

Alden Forum Moderator
Jun 22, 2004
2,759
Alden 38' Challenger yawl Rockport Harbor
AlastairLC said:
In this age of GPS chart plotters on our iPhones, the days of nav tables full of paper charts seems to be over. Have they become junk drawers instead?
Here’s mine:
View attachment 169819
Post a photo of yours if you dare and we’ll see who’s the neatest and who’s the messiest. No fair tidying up beforehand.
Click to expand
I wondered what would be become of mine several years ago. It started out with just a few things mostly to support nav devices. Today, it's almost full of 'stuff' that I think I use a lot.

It's still evolving but here it was about 4 years ago. Today, you can't see much of the bottom.
Chart drawer.jpg
 
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thinwater

thinwater

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Mar 26, 2011
3,410
Corsair F-24 MK I Deale, MD
Tool box. On my cat. Yes, I kept some charts as well. But small spares and tools became more relevant.
 
Captain Larry-DH

Captain Larry-DH

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Jun 14, 2010
2,096
Robertson & Caine 2017 Leopard 40 CT
The Shadow Knows said:
Did I have to use these when power was lost, in a single word, YES, several times.
Click to expand
I've been a boat owner since the late 70's and never lost power (but I used paper charts back then). Still carry out of date paper charts. My point is; how did you lose power several times? And what about battery devices like phones, tablets etc.?
 
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Stu Jackson

Stu Jackson

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Feb 26, 2004
22,770
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
markwbird said:
It's really too small to begin with and having to lift it up to get to what is inside means you have to move everything off first. Very impractical.
Click to expand
What a great reason to keep it uncluttered. :)
 
FastOlson

FastOlson

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Apr 8, 2010
1,950
Ericson Yachts Olson 34 28400 Portland OR
The Olson has a large nav desk with two hinged lids. Writing instruments & nav tools in the smaller front section, and half or quarter-fold charts in the main part. Our charts are certainly not all current, but we do have everything for the lower Columbia River, Washington coast, Puget Sound (or whatever the Chamber of Commerce calls it nowadays), and the Gulf Islands.
Love our plotter, but non-electtonic back-up navigation is good to have.
 
DArcy

DArcy

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Feb 11, 2017
1,702
Islander Freeport 36 Ottawa
The Shadow Knows said:
You always need a backup ya know, like charts, bearing compass & maybe a sextant for if power is lost, "So, What's Your Plan B?"
Click to expand
Plan B is handheld electronics. Plan C is paper charts. I've only lost power once, it was crossing Lake Ontario. The boat had only been day sailed for a few months, plugging into the dock every night. When we started the engine to charge the batteries the alternator didn't have any output.

We took stock and found 7 battery powered navigation devices on board. A hand held GPS, a small GPS which provided lat, long, speed and distance to (pre-programmed) way points, a couple of tablets (1 iPad, 1 Android) and 3 phones with Navionics. We also had chart books for the area but we didn't touch them. I personally have 3 handheld devices with charting although I often only take 2 on the boat with me.

I don't have a chart table on the C&C27 but I do have an organized cupboard with charts and manuals. We won't talk about the cupboard next to it with tools and some spare parts.
 
All U Get

All U Get

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Oct 2, 2008
3,807
Pearson/ 530 Strafford, NH
I need a good dock sale to get rid of all that stuff. The only thing I use is a magic marker. This doesn’t take into account the spillover at home.
 
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