skipperdude wrote:What about a lap top with a plotter *program.*I have heard there are some fairly good ones out there
Any one use this method for a plotter?
There are some good plotter apps out there for laptops.* I know people who have them and use them and are very satisfied with them.* I also just heard this story this weekend when we were out.*
Fellow has a laptop with whatever navigation app installed.* Uses it as his primary nav system.* Not long ago he was entering a very tricky channel up here somewhere with several accompanying boats following him since he had the best--- or most recent--- nav system.* Right in the middle of negotiating this difficult channel in bad currents his laptop starts asking him if he wants to upgrade some Microsoft feature.* It persistently asks him this which over-rode his nav system display.* He'd hit "No" and within seconds it would be asking him again.
They got into the bay without incident but he said it was exremely un-nerving having one's nav system become effectively inopperative at a time when it was needed most.
While I have always felt this way, this story very neatly sums up why we have no interest in having a laptop-based nav system on the boat, at least not as the primary system.* I, like probably most people on this forum, use Microsoft operating systems on the computers I use at work (I use Mac at home).* Based on the experience over many years of using Microsoft systems, there is no way in hell I'm going to layer a navigation app, which may be extremely good, on top of anything the Microsoft Kids come up with.
We have two stand-alone navigation systems on our boat.* Three if you coun't the C-Map handheld Magellen we bought years ago.* When we bought the boat it only had a Furuno Loran-C unit for navigation.* But the boat had spent its whole life in San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River so how much electronic nav aid to you need?
We immediately added an Echotec 310MP* GPS plotter (C-Map), which in 1998 was state-of-the art in plotter technology.* It was the system favored by the majority of the PNW fishing fleet (Echotec was a local company).* It has served us well and still works as advertised although it's not nearly as user-friendly as the current systems.
As mentioned in another post, when the radar that came with the boat began to fail, we replaced it with a Furuno NavNet VX2.* We only drive the boat from the lower helm so we had no need of any nav information at the upper helm (alhtough we can mount the portable Magellen up there if we want to).
In twelve years of running this boat we have never had a nav system problem.* Yes, our old Echotec and our newer Furuno are computers---- that's what makes them work.* But they are computers that only do one thing--- provide nav information.* I'm not interested in getting e-mail and surfing the web on* my nav system.* But my biggest objection to laptop (or full-size PC) based nav systems is that I don't want the Microsoft Kids anywhere near what we're using to navigate our boat.* I've read posts on T&T from people who spent an HOUR trying figure out how to increase the brightness of a laptop nav display.* The commands for this were buried in the most illogical place imaginable (typical for MS).* Meanwhile they're bobbing around in the fairway unable to go anywhere.* I've read posts about lockups, crashes, re-boots, etc.* They don't happen a lot, I guess, but when they do it always seems to be at the most inopportune time.* Same law that applies to having an engine problem.
So my philosophy is why open the door to the problem at all?
There are a lot of people who swear by their laptop-based nav systems and I don't argue with their success.* And computers are more reliable than they used to be.* But I don't believe the problems have anything much to do with the computers themselves.* It's the operating system designers (Micrsoft software engineers have been called the sloppiest code writers on the planet and for good reason) that are at fault in my opinion.* So we simply refuse to let them on the boat.
-- Edited by Marin on Thursday 26th of August 2010 12:46:10 PM