Moreover, PCs are well-served by software products that display raster charts and GPS data (and AIS, and GRIBs, and a host of other inputs if you want them). On the other hand, if you already own a PC, and especially a laptop or notebook computer, you already have access to a decent-sized screen and a load of processing power.
In order to get a screen even remotely large enough to just glance at now and then, from the helm say, the sterling cost runs easily into high three figures. I would happily go for a basic model if it was just a matter of accepting that it had limited functionality, but unfortunately in the chartplotter world, "entry-level" is a euphemism for "tiny screen". These charts are available in digital form, as rasters, via ARCS.Īside from the fact that few dedicated chartplotters currently display raster charts, the cost of the hardware, at the time of writing, is high even for an entry-level model. Personally, when it comes to paper charts, I am a traditionalist and choose the Admiralty Charts produced by UKHO. However, I much prefer raster charts - scanned copies of real paper charts. If nothing else, the ability to declutter means that the chart remains legible even on a very small screen. I can accept vector charts as a fact of life on handheld plotters.
MACENC GPS CONNECT PC
On last year's RTI race, for example, we called the tide all wrong on the final leg because it simply wasn't that easy to extract the streams from the tidal 'diamonds' provided in either set of charts, and the obvious step of displaying streams onscreen or at least factoring them into a given course to steer didn't appear to have occurred to the designers of either the Garmin or the RC400.Ībove: screen shots of vector charts displayed on a PC screen (right) and a common or garden chartplottter (left). My only complaints about them were, firstly, that they had tiny little displays which occasionally required the user to squint myopically to make out exactly what was happening onscreen and, second, that trying to use them for fairly basic functions like figuring out a distance and bearing to a given point, or extracting a compass course to steer, was more difficult than it should be simply because of the fiddly little buttons and endless menus. Both worked perfectly well and usually spent their lives clipped to holders on the pulpit rail or stuffed in a jacket pocket, while being referred to occasionally. In any case, Arabella already proudly possessed not one, but two handheld chartplotters - a Garmin 60Csx running Bluecharts and a Raymarine RC400 running Navionics Gold charts.
But no way did I need one, and still less could I justify the expense. In short, I wanted a chartplotter like I'd want, say, a Ferrari.
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