I’ll expand on my earlier post a bit, since I have one of each: 1. The phone. This is CHEAP and good. I like the Navionics charts and their nav program is very easy to use. I can see no reason NOT to have it unless you don’t have a phone. That said, there is no way I would ever trust a phone as a primary nav instrument. The battery gets eaten fast using this app, it is hard to read in sunlight, it is not waterproof, it is not designed to be wet and banged around, and you can always get a phone call right in the middle of navigating the narrow rocks passage or maybe some IOS update will kick off. You are of course limited by screen size and feeding AIS or instrument data into a phone takes some doing.
2. OpenCPN. My favorite by far. It is an excellent program, charts are free, and nothing beats a nice 15 inch color display. I feed AIS info into this program and it is very useful with changeable CPA alerts. Radar overlay is possible. What I don’t like is all about the PC: It is not marine gear and cannot get wet. It sits below out of the sun, wind, and rain where I can’t see it from the helm. The current draw is 2x-4x higher than a dedicated plotter. Depending on your IT skills, you have some exposure to PC malfunctions at the worst possible time. I have mine working pretty well, but any PC can have issues. One reason my PC works well is it does NOTHING ELSE. It is never ever connected to the internet. No games, no browsing, nothing but nav EVER. 3. Marine GPS plotter. I have a CP180 at the helm. The CMAP charts are mostly excellent, but some areas are less detail than NOAA and some are more. It has a nice daylight readable color display, it is waterproof, and it right in front of me at the helm. The power draw is low and reliability is high. There are multiple NMEA inputs and outputs, so linking to the VHF and AIS is easy. The bad points are paying for CMAPs and the screen size. With a 5 inch screen, you can see detail or see a long way around you, but not both. For one example, to get good enough resolution to see the narrow channel into Kent Narrows well, you are basically zoomed in to about 200-300 feet around the boat. I bought it to save power and to have a dead reliable screen at the *helm*. I am on autopilot about 80% of the time, but the 20% I am not tends to be the trickiest navigation where I need to see around me and see the plotter with my hand on the wheel. The CP180 has a fishfinder option I may get off FleaBay one of these days. Joe Coquina C&C 35 MK I From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Rick Brass via CnC-List Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 10:37 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Rick Brass <rickbr...@earthlink.net> Subject: Re: Stus-List GPS, Chart Plodders and Technology when there is none I see you used to be on Sailing Anarchy, too. Rick Brass Imzadi C&C 38 mk2 #47 la Belle Aurore C&C 25 mk1 #225 Washington, NC From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of jackbrennan via CnC-List Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 7:11 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com<mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Cc: jackbrennan <jackbren...@bellsouth.net<mailto:jackbren...@bellsouth.net>> Subject: Re: Stus-List GPS, Chart Plodders and Technology when there is none Other email sailing lists tend to be plagued by a scarcity of real experts, flamers, know nothings who believe they know it all, big personalities who argue at the drop of a hat and more. Jack Brennan Former C&C 25 Shanachie, 1974 Bristol 30 Tierra Verde, Fl. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab®|PRO -------- Original message -------- From: Marek Dziedzic via CnC-List Date:09/18/2017 5:51 PM (GMT-05:00) To: Frederick G Street via CnC-List Cc: Marek Dziedzic Subject: Re: Stus-List GPS, Chart Plodders and Technology when there is none Fred, Why are you suddenly so friendly? In the past non-C&C lurkers where threatened with keelhauling… Marek 1994 C270 legato Ottawa, ON Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10 From: Frederick G Street via CnC-List<mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 16:09 To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com<mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Cc: Frederick G Street<mailto:f...@postaudio.net> Subject: Re: Stus-List GPS, Chart Plodders and Technology when there is none On Sep 18, 2017, at 2:00 PM, David Castor via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com<mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote: Mostly lurk on this list since I bought a Sabre instead of C&C. We forgive you… :^) Actually, my slip neighbor has a Sabre 36, and it’s a beautiful boat. I may go that way someday, too.
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