Navigation Setup

Sep 23, 2019
44
Beneteau 311 Toronto
Curious as to number of cruisers using dedicated chartplotters vs tablets. Not thinking of a pro vs con discussion but more of what's actually being used. For those who've opted to go the tablet route, is there one navigation app that is predominantly used? If you were starting from zero, which would you opt for?
 
Feb 21, 2013
4,638
Hunter 46 Point Richmond, CA
Dedicated navigation display at the helm and a repeater at the navigation station that is interfaced with radar, autopilot, sonar and AIS receiver.
 
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Mar 20, 2015
3,094
C&C 30 Mk1 Winnipeg
Our current boat is on Lake Winnipeg which is a very large lake with lots of shallow areas, seasonally variable.depth and old survey data.

We sail on weekends but do a week cruise a couple times a season.

We also bareboat charter on the BC coast and Caribbean.

We use the same gear for both and love the portability of tablets.

Currently using navionics on a waterproof tablet..

Always open to new software and hardware so I try pick hardware set up that doesn't limit software options.

Dedicated plotters are too limited for our needs and expensive imo. I would much rather have multiple redundant portable units (tablets and rugged phones)

I can take a tablet when chartering which is great because i can carry it to the bar or patio or restaurant for planning, and i dont need to fully learn a new unit that is on the charter boat.

We have a $69 Nmea wifi bridge installed for sending depth and gps data, (soon speed and wind) to navionics or where needed.

When we get a different boat in the next couple years, the tablet goes with us.

Tide apps, sat images of marinas, wind and weather via apps like windy, windfinder, sailflow etc. Are all on our tablets.

Edit: opencpn and using hardware like the raspberry pi along with real marine electronics is likely in our future. We are nerds.
 
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Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
I only cruise about one week out of the year and the rest is simple overnight weekends so I might not be a suitable data point for your study. I have a hand-held GPS that I did not take out of its box all of last season. I use Navonics on my phone and have a holder I keep in the cockpit for easy viewing. I also have the NOAA weather radar app on my phone to watch for storms etc. and an app called "Tides" for.... tides. Deep in the bowels of my boat are some printed charts but I have not seem them in a couple of seasons.
 
Jan 11, 2014
11,323
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
Curious as to number of cruisers using dedicated chartplotters vs tablets. Not thinking of a pro vs con discussion but more of what's actually being used. For those who've opted to go the tablet route, is there one navigation app that is predominantly used? If you were starting from zero, which would you opt for?
This really depends on where and under what conditions one plans to sail. On Lake Ontario a GPS and copy of Richardson's is fine. We sailed with much less for years, a paper chart, a compass, and a boom box and thought nothing of it.

We outfitted Second Star with a full suite of B&G electronics. At the helm we have a 9" Zeus2, 4g Radar, Triton2 instruments, and a below decks AP. At the Nav station we are adding a Simrad GO7 XSR. We also use iPads that can display and control the Zeus or GO 7. There are several more GPS's onboard in phones, old handheld GPSs, and VHFs.

We installed all these in preparation for an extended cruise from Lake Ontario to the Bahamas via the St Lawrence River. The Simrad is new addition. We wanted to tank level sensors and to have instrument data available below decks, turned out the cheapest way to do that was to purchase a small CP.
 

BobH57

.
Oct 23, 2019
91
Hunter 410 Solomons, MD
I've cruised from the Chesapeake to the Bahamas and back using OpenCPN on a small touch screen laptop for navigation. It receives GPS and AIS from a Standard Horizon GX2200 vhf, and works great. Recently I've switched to running Aqua Map on an iPad Air due to AM's incorporation of Active Captain/Waterway Guide nav alerts and points of interest as well as US Army Corps of Engineers soundings for the ICW. Their chart bundles are very reasonable as well, offering Explorer digital charts for the Bahamas. I've ordered a wifi bridge to collect NMEA data (GPS, AIS, wind speed/direction) from various instruments and allow my tablets/pc's to share the data. Still have OpenCPN as an alternative/backup system, as well as Navionics on an android tablet.
 
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Sep 23, 2019
44
Beneteau 311 Toronto
This really depends on where and under what conditions one plans to sail. On Lake Ontario a GPS and copy of Richardson's is fine. We sailed with much less for years, a paper chart, a compass, and a boom box and thought nothing of it.

We outfitted Second Star with a full suite of B&G electronics. At the helm we have a 9" Zeus2, 4g Radar, Triton2 instruments, and a below decks AP. At the Nav station we are adding a Simrad GO7 XSR. We also use iPads that can display and control the Zeus or GO 7. There are several more GPS's onboard in phones, old handheld GPSs, and VHFs.

We installed all these in preparation for an extended cruise from Lake Ontario to the Bahamas via the St Lawrence River. The Simrad is new addition. We wanted to tank level sensors and to have instrument data available below decks, turned out the cheapest way to do that was to purchase a small CP.
I'm thinking of making the same trek but from Lake Ontario through the NY Canal system to the Bahamas. When you say "small CP" are you talking something like a Raspberry Pi? I have to replace the tank sensors on my boat as well - would be interested to hear a little more about your setup.
 
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Jan 11, 2014
11,323
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
I'm thinking of making the same trek but from Lake Ontario through the NY Canal system to the Bahamas. When you say "small CP" are you talking something like a Raspberry Pi? I have to replace the tank sensors on my boat as well - would be interested to hear a little more about your setup.
The canal trip is Plan B or C or some later letter. We were planning to go last year, but....

CP = Chart Plotter, in my case the Simrad GO7 XSR.

Here's a link to the description: #21
 
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Sep 23, 2019
44
Beneteau 311 Toronto
Spend thouands on boats and worry about saving a few thousand on an MFD. If you sail on the ocean get a good MFD tied to all other instruments on the boat, especially the autopilot. Use an IPad as a back up.
Maybe I missed the responses where folks were worrying about saving a few thousand on an MFD after spending "thouands" on a boat. Enjoy your sundowner, friend.
 
Mar 20, 2015
3,094
C&C 30 Mk1 Winnipeg
Spend thouands on boats and worry about saving a few thousand on an MFD
I personally dont see it from a cost standpoint. I suspect most others dont either. A true multifunction device is a "computer" that serves multiple functions, hopefully with the ability to be portable.. not a device edicated only to sailing navigation and that is locked to a single vendor. Redundancy is also a factor to consider. And simplicity..

And of course.. flexibility... I can sit at the beach bar and access a boat on my phone/tablet, plan routes, check weather, check alarms...

Or on the plane to the BVIs..

Dont know of an dedicated plotter that does that

Truthfully why bother with any of it when a simple gps and paper charts are more resistant to technical failure.;)

People dont use dedicated tomtom/garmin nav units in cars anymore for a reason. Android auto and apple car play have made vehicle systems simply a video interface for your phone. A $1000 multifunction iphone via carplay beats a dedicated car Nav like a $100 Garmin hands down.
 
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Apr 22, 2011
865
Hunter 27 Pecan Grove, Oriental, NC
I have used Open CPN and MS Mariner on my phone for years. Open CPN has better clarity on the noaa charts, but MS Mariner has Active Captain input, so I tend to use them both. I recently added a Ray Marine chart plotter mounted at the wheel. Mainly because it isn't affected by sun glare as much as the phone and it is always there and doesn't need charging.
 
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Aug 17, 2013
816
Pearson P30 202 Ottawa/Gatineau
building a chart plotter from a raspberry pi4 at the moment with open cpn, almost done, have to download the charts and get the boat on the water to test it out
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,704
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Fam got me a Garmin 178C Sounder for my birthday in 2005. It has everything I need for our PNW waters. We've done several extended two month long cruises into British Columbia over the years and have found the Garmin charting system dead on. It has hundreds of navigation charts covering the Puget sound north to Alaska including the west side of Vancouver Island. It is also connected to our autopilot, which comes in handy for plotting and routing purposes. Suits our fancy just fine.
 
Feb 11, 2017
108
Gulfstar 47 NC
I've cruised from the Chesapeake to the Bahamas and back using OpenCPN on a small touch screen laptop for navigation. It receives GPS and AIS from a Standard Horizon GX2200 vhf, and works great. Recently I've switched to running Aqua Map on an iPad Air due to AM's incorporation of Active Captain/Waterway Guide nav alerts and points of interest as well as US Army Corps of Engineers soundings for the ICW. Their chart bundles are very reasonable as well, offering Explorer digital charts for the Bahamas. I've ordered a wifi bridge to collect NMEA data (GPS, AIS, wind speed/direction) from various instruments and allow my tablets/pc's to share the data. Still have OpenCPN as an alternative/backup system, as well as Navionics on an android tablet.
What WiFi bridge do you use?
 
Feb 11, 2017
108
Gulfstar 47 NC
Our current boat is on Lake Winnipeg which is a very large lake with lots of shallow areas, seasonally variable.depth and old survey data.

We sail on weekends but do a week cruise a couple times a season.

We also bareboat charter on the BC coast and Caribbean.

We use the same gear for both and love the portability of tablets.

Currently using navionics on a waterproof tablet..

Always open to new software and hardware so I try pick hardware set up that doesn't limit software options.

Dedicated plotters are too limited for our needs and expensive imo. I would much rather have multiple redundant portable units (tablets and rugged phones)

I can take a tablet when chartering which is great because i can carry it to the bar or patio or restaurant for planning, and i dont need to fully learn a new unit that is on the charter boat.

We have a $69 Nmea wifi bridge installed for sending depth and gps data, (soon speed and wind) to navionics or where needed.

When we get a different boat in the next couple years, the tablet goes with us.

Tide apps, sat images of marinas, wind and weather via apps like windy, windfinder, sailflow etc. Are all on our tablets.

Edit: opencpn and using hardware like the raspberry pi along with real marine electronics is likely in our future. We are nerds.
What WiFi bridge?
 
May 17, 2004
5,032
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
We have a B&G chartplotter at the helm that I use for pretty much all navigation while underway. I use Navionics on an iPhone for planning or just looking around while at home. Every once in a while I use the phone while at the helm for the auto routing features, or to pan around a little more intuitively than the plotter. For me the chartplotter’s integration with all the other instruments and autopilot, and the sailing features like lay lines make it the right tool for that job. For pure charting I think a tablet’s responsiveness and portability are hard to beat.
 
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DArcy

.
Feb 11, 2017
1,691
Islander Freeport 36 Ottawa
I have a Raymarine MFD chart plotter at the helm but I also use Navionics on my phone and tablet. Navionics is great for planning, you can use the web app on a computer to plot a route, save it and it shows up on all your other devices logged in with the same account.
@Leeward Rail which waterproof tablet do you use?
 
Mar 20, 2015
3,094
C&C 30 Mk1 Winnipeg
@Leeward Rail which waterproof tablet do you use?
The Pantech Element. No longer available.

I like that it is 8 inch and I hate that it is 8 inch. A bigger display would be nice but the size makes is nicely portable. I also have an asus tablet as backup but it is far from waterproof and i keep it in a plastic "bag" style case.

I am currently looking into newer options.

Thr biggest drawback of the Pantech Element is that it is no longer supported, even with a custom version of android. As apps are updated they likely won't be supporting the version of android it is running.
 
Mar 20, 2015
3,094
C&C 30 Mk1 Winnipeg
What WiFi bridge?
The yakbak bi-directional wifi to nmea unit by yakbitz... Link is in my previous post.

Yakbitz is a one man company in Australia that make a few different devices for NMEA and seatalk data interfacing. Fantastic pricing. Great support. Small form factor.

Edit i looked into making my own, but went with the yakbitz gear.
 
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