Harvey,

Thanks for such a lucid explanation of the laptop/chartplotter
conundrum. I have been following this thread with avid interest
since my boat electronics are at that point of being back to square
one. Is it wise to get an integrated chartplotter/AIS/radar/
depthsounder system? And if so, which manufacturers do you like? On
the computer side, I have used Windows for many years and so I am now
firmly in Mr. Jobs' camp. I was very interested in the Mac Mini
solution discussed in this thread.

I should say that Cantata is a Panda 40 Pilothouse, so the ideal
solution would be a principal display at the inside steering station
and a satellite display in the cockpit. At present I have a 14 year
old Panasonic radar that functions just fine, two handheld GPS units
(one a chartplotter) and a desk full of paper charts. I've been
waiting for marine electronics to become more fully integrated, low
power, and bulletproof, and it seems that moment has arrived.

Thanks,
John Gordon Hill
Cantata
'82 Panda 40 PH

On Mar 1, 2007, at 9:58 AM, Harvey J. Karten wrote:

> I just received a copy of Beth Leonard's new edition of Voyager's
> Handbook in yesterday's mail. Her chapter on electronics,
> navigation, etc., useful and succinct.
> When is comes to fancy toys, she tends to sit somewhere in the
> middle between the Pardeys and the Dashews. She and her mate have
> been sailing the high latitudes (including the infamous Southern
> Ocean). She is tending to more and more enthusiasm for AIS when
> combined with a good chartplotter. She even feels that for much
> long term cruising, it is higher on the scale of importance than
> Radar. Radar is obviously of great help when close in to shore,
> helpful in weather spotting, small vessels, etc. But the small boat
> radar (e.g. 6" screen LCD) uses a lot more power, so many cruisers
> tend to either turn it off or keep it in standby mode.
>
> The drawback to AIS on the chartplotter is that the symbol
> representing an AIS "hit" is not easy to spot on a small 5" or 6"
> chartplotter, especially against the clutter of depths, buoys, etc.
> But the nice feature is that you can set an alarm for vessels at
> distance that you define ("CPA" - closest point of approach), and
> then it will inform you of Time to CPA (TCPA) based on reading your
> Lat/Long and that of the other vessel, your SOG and that of the
> other vessel, current course, etc, even when you are not paying
> attention to the chartplotter. Of course, if you have the money
> (and don't mind the increased demands on your batteries) you can
> now buy a 10" or 12" chartplotter with the same features for about
> $1,400, excellent daylight visibility, but more current draw, and
> more space in the cockpit.
>
> Obviously it would be best if radar, AIS, GPS, etc., were all
> integrated into a single unit, such as the laptop software. But a
> laptop still has the terrible vulnerability of having a device that
> is not really meant for a small boat.
> 1) It is not waterproof or even corrosion protected,
> 2) hard drives with very poor MTBF (mean time between failures,
> meaning that the probability of failure is very high in the marine
> situation), and
> 3) you are relying on a pissing contest for Operating System
> reliability between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. (Yes, you can now
> run Windows O/S in native format on any new Mac - as well as the
> latest version of the Mac OS-X Leopard).
> 4) Laptops consume a lot more power than I like - something in
> excess of 60 to 80 watts, rely on use of an inverter or DC to DC
> converter, since none of them can run at 12 Volts. Figure that they
> use about 6 Amps per hour at 12 Volts. That is equal to 144 AMPS
> out of your batteries every 24 hours. That's even more than your
> refrigerator.
> 5) Access: Then there is the bigger issue that since the laptop is
> usually down at the nav station, and you need info from the
> computer, you leave the cockpit "for just a second". But the second
> turns into many minutes, with nobody on lookout.
> 6) If you set your computer to go to sleep if unused for 10 minutes
> in order to save power, there is always the delay before it comes
> back on - and the all too common experience that it decided to shut
> down, not just sleep, requiring a reboot - if you don't set all the
> options correctly. In addition, it now has to remind itself to
> query the GPS to get the Lat/Long, which kills another frustrating
> minute or two.
> 7) And one of the things that annoys me more than almost anything
> else, is that the damned *&@# software is often copy protected. If
> your computer has a crash, reinstalling all that stuff can takes
> hours, and the copy protection scheme often makes it difficult to
> carry a complete backup on a second laptop (a very expensive, labor
> intensive solution).
>
> In comparison,
> 1) your chartplotter is nearly completely waterproof and intended
> for use in the cockpit.
> 2) It uses memory cards, which are generally far more reliable than
> any hard drive.
> 3) The unit is designed for limited numbers of operations, thus
> reducing the complexity of the device and increasing the
> reliability of the unit. Chartplotters are also subject to failure,
> but much less so than laptops.
> 4) It uses something under 0.6 amps or 14.4 amps per 24 hours. The
> AIS uses even less. The next big consumer of electricity for
> navigation is the Radar (not sure of the numbers, but I think it
> uses about 1-3 amps in standby mode, and much higher in transmit mode.
> 5) Access is immediate and right at the steering station.
> Contemporary units even allow you to have a second unit down below
> linked to the main unit. Either one can be designated as Master vs.
> Slave. Because it is designed to operate in the cockpit, the modern
> color screens have excellent visibility even in bright sunlight.
> 6) It does not go to "sleep", with all those associated problems.
>
> When we are in cruising mode, and the motor is running, then I run
> the laptop down below, and leave and set the Power Meter to be
> constantly on. The reality of laptops for navigation is that it's
> a great idea if your laptop is in the pilothouse of your trawler,
> secured at the inside steering station, and constantly running with
> power from your twin 350 HP Cummins diesels. It sits in the shade,
> so the fact that it isn't truly daylight visible in sunshine isn't
> a problem.
>
> The computer solution is excellent for viewing your overall course,
> planning major changes in course that benefits from seeing a
> larger screen, etc. It is superb when planning the next major
> course change or the day's cruise. But it is ergonomically a bad
> choice for moment to moment piloting. It is very difficult to
> multitask when staring at a laptop in the isolation at the nav
> station. A chartplotter does a much better job, and even that
> carries the risk of "instrument hypnosis" - staring at the screen
> as your boat is heading for a clearly visible hazard. Recently when
> suddenly enshrouded in fog in a white-out, I could view our
> position on the cockpit chartplotter (though I also immediately
> turned on the radar, which is also rigged to be easily visible from
> the helm.).
>
> I have cruised with friends who are so computer focussed, that when
> he (the skipper) goes below to check something on the computer,
> like a magnetic robot, he decides to also check on his latest
> EMail, forgetting that he was originally worried about some
> navigation hazard. His wife often has to remind him that she still
> doesn't know the course and next waypoint distance.
>
> Solution: go with both a laptop and modern chartplotter.
> regards,
> Harvey
>
>
>
>
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Received on Thu Mar 1 10:25:25 2007