Thoughts on chart tables?

[dLj]

Here's a photo of my chart table which I very much use and enjoy. I prefer to call it my Navigation Station. Both Gabriel and myself have spent many hours right here running night shifts, watching the AIS, Radar etc. as we have been traveling.it has been indispensable. I have a raised deck house so it is almost a pilot house. The only thing I can't do at this nav station is run the engine. That would be a nice addition. So that means I can stand up while at the nav station and watch all around through my deck house windows.

dj

 

[jssailem]

What are your thoughts about the windvane?

 

[dLj]

What are your thoughts about the windvane?

The hydrovane is AWESOME!

 

[Scott NIelsen]

I like my chart table. I also like the idea of making more storage underneath it after looking at what others have done with that space. I admit I can only recall sitting with my legs under the table a few times in the 11 years I've owned OLD CROW, however, I do use the space as storage for drinks while still in their packaging and that is where I put my portable freezer when I do my annual cruise around the Chesapeake Bay. However again, I might revisit the space for storage as am impressed with what others have done with the space from the photos. I still am a believer in Paper Chartbooks as batteries are not required. I do have the Chartbooks for the areas I sail and use them. They are great for a big picture view at a glance when sailing rather than having to push buttons to scale up or down on the chartplotter. I do have two chartplotters, a Garmin and a Raymarine Axiom and enjoy them both for the information they provide. As for me, I have always enjoyed the mechanics of navigation, Using the dividers, parallel rules, triangles, and roller rules always gives me great personal satisfaction knowing I can always know where I am with in reason when out of the sight of land as long as I kept a plot going. Guess I am just an old fashion kinda guy. I Can do celestial navigation with a sextant and have done it in the past. However, I realized I no longer really need it as handheld GPS's are so inexpensive these days one can have a plethora of them on board as backups. As long as you carry plenty of batteries for them you should really never not have the ability to know where you are if out of the sight of land, so I sold all three of my sextants and their associated publications required for navigation using a sextant a few years ago.

P.S. - Don't ya just love this forum for all the ideas and stuff people share on it. I do (smiley face)

 

[kappykaplan]

Don't ya just love this forum for all the ideas and stuff people share on it. I do (smiley face)

 

[shemandr]

... I still am a believer in Paper Chartbooks as batteries are not required. I do have the Chartbooks for the areas I sail and use them. They are great for a big picture view at a glance when sailing rather than having to push buttons to scale up or down on the chartplotter...

 

[Barnacle Bill]

You can do what you want with your boat, but I think a chart table is a good place to have your laptop. Also, you don't have to roll out the entire large chart on to a smaller chart table. I usually fold the chart with the area needed for navigation visible and when you move further out on the chart, you just refold it to accommodate it. It is always good to have charts aboard in case your electronics go out (dead battery, poor connections, failed unit or lightening strike, for example).

 

[FastOlson]

It is always good to have charts aboard in case your electronics go out (dead battery, poor connections, failed unit or lightening strike, for example).

Good Info! Those glossy ads and effortless perfection online videos never talk much about the real-world problems with electronics on boats, immersed in a salty atmosphere.

 

[MikeHoncho]

My chart table serves as a shop table during projects. When sailing, which I pray will come soon, out comes the chart and my laptop. Tracking progress and notes on sightings or issues.
During down times, I work to summarize the notes in my ship’s log.

The last 18 months have been work project notes. I’m expecting in October to have the next 18 months be cruising notes.

My navigation table is an important structure on my boat. I can see this is not the way everyone utilizes a Nav table. I surmise if I was a day sailing owner, the Nav table would carry less significance.

Maybe recently a “prayer table” ? Sorry, couldn’t resist.

 

[Tally Ho]

You can do what you want with your boat, but I think a chart table is a good place to have your laptop. Also, you don't have to roll out the entire large chart on to a smaller chart table. I usually fold the chart with the area needed for navigation visible and when you move further out on the chart, you just refold it to accommodate it. It is always good to have charts aboard in case your electronics go out (dead battery, poor connections, failed unit or lightening strike, for example).

I wouldn’t get rid of the table, just the seat to sit at…which doesn’t fit me. I would keep the table top, but use the space underneath for more storage,.


Greg

 

[Dalliance]

Mine still has charts and the tools to use them inside…. Along with boat registration, insurance card and other papers, assorted owners manuals, misc receipts, spare impellor blade, spare batteries, pens, pencils, stray coins, etc, etc. It’s effectively my junk drawer.
The tool box lives on the shelf underneath and the desktop is usually where I open it. The seat is the end of the quarter berth and the battery selector is below along with a second pair of boat shoes on the floor.
I do still occasionally sit there with my laptop and don’t see any need to change it, though it’s probably due for a little sorting and purging.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Everybody needs a place to put their junk. Might as well be there and it's an easy access too.

 

[shemandr]

If it's a catchall, then it should be flat.

 

[Tally Ho]

If it's a catchall, then it should be flat.

With a fiddle!

 

[jviss]

I've only had two big boats, a Catalina 36, "Mk.I," 1984, and my current boat, a Tartan 3800, 1996.

Having the new boat makes me appreciate how well the C36 was designed! Even though 2' shorter it was roomier belowdecks.

One feature I really like on the C36 is the chart table and seat. Mine had a swiveling, bar stool-like, upholstered chair, and a nice, big, flat chart table. The top tilted up and was held open by one of those spring things, when the top was open 90º. It was great.

The new boat has a fancier chart table, all solid teak, of course. But the table slopes towards you, and the hinge to open the top is at an angle. It just doesn't work well. Stiff is constantly sliding off the top. When I'm charging batteries in the morning and drinking my coffee as I check the news online, the engine vibrations cause my coffee cup to migrate towards the edge. I've even tried coasters to no avail. The angled hinge is awkward.

Someone clearly tried to do something cool and fancy, but the design just doesn't work.

 

[Kings Gambit]

When at sea underway the chart table has a chart booklet on it in addition to an I-Pad or Tablet with iNavX loaded, a small paper notepad & pencil, my tidebook, and sometimes my log book. A small Ritchie compass is mounted inboard near the cabin sole (out of the way) so I can read my compass course sitting at the table. When anchored it might temporarily accumulate other items when I’m working on something. In the slip, just about anything can get on it until the next departure. I see in some of the pictures chart tables & areas that double as full on nav stations with lots of instrumentation packed in.

I actually do not like much to cruise aboard a yacht lacking a functional chart table and paper charts or booklets. I like to sit at the chart table while anchored and inspect the chart of our area, especially inbound approaches. So much information contained therein. All part of the experience of learning about the sea and its environs. IMO not a waste of space or time.

 

[Skipper J]

Good ideas. I wonder if anyone has thought of putting a small table on a gimble, and, if so, how that turned out. It could make a steady work surface.

 

[jon hansen]

i surmise that none of you have a 'chart table'. some of you have a 'navigation station', with your electronic gizmos all clustered and a desk surface for books and tablets. a dinning table will work to spread out a chart. paper nav geeks like me are getting rare. the upside of old school sailboat navigating is i have little to power up or repair. i do have bigger costs in feeding a proper sized crew and replacing charts as needed.

. jon