List: trawlers@lists.trawlering.com
From: A Jensen
Navigation with a laptop or a desk top
Tue, Aug 10, 2004 6:43 AM
throwing away so many of the advantages on the PC
side.
REPLY
For a power user like yourself that argument is valid.
But what about the countless others who never go beyond having the little
boat icon crawl across the raster display?
I have seen several market surveys that indicate many if not the majority of
consumer seldom use more than about 10% of the total feature set of the
major navigation software packages.
Even the argument about updating the charts themselves has holes in it.
Not every chart on a CD or chip set changes from year to year.
And of those changes which might affect your particular area, how many are
significant to your particular boating?
When the commercial ship channel markers are realigned to ensure safe
passage for a vessel drawing 35 or 40 feet, does it necessarily affect your
safety?
The majority of NTM concern artificial nav aids in commercial shipping
channels and in commercial harbors.
Recreational boaters tend to stay away from such places if they can help it.
Most secluded anchorages do not have a buoyed channel defining the entrance
way.
Shorelines and bottom contours seldom change that rapidly, except perhaps in
hurricane prone Florida and Gulf area.
But when they do, how long does it take for NOAA to resurvey and issue
corrected charts?
regards
Arild
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