iPAD

[Alma]

Anyone using iPad for NAV purpose on board?

[Sea Haven]

Same idea, different machine.

Lenovo ThinkPad II Windows 8

Using PolarNavy latest Version. ~$49.00USD
I can download ALL the free NOAA ENC/RNC's I want when I want!!
BOO!! paying for charts the Government offers freely, and updated on a WEEKLY basis to LNM's long BEFORE Proprietary Cartography vendors do so.
Polar Navy Couples with Active Captain, so I have all that data at my fingertips as well.

Because Polar Comm requires a Comm Port, I use Centrafuse Localizer ~$12USD to port the GPS/GNSS sensor driver NMEA 0183 to a virtual Comm Port. I also have a USB GPS Hockey puck as a back up.

Love it....

Most of all FREE CARTOGRAPHY!!

Granted I keep it down at the Nav Station since it's not waterproof, nor sunlight readable. But 90% of my cruising time consists of day sailing. Most of my navigation therefore is by seaman's eye in home waters.

I had three different Garmin Chart plotters on the helm of 3 different sailboats. Found I was more concerned about following the line than I was about sailing. Trying to go more "old school" here and use it when it's  actually required and lose the tunnel vision.

A lot more than your original question Alma, but I'm developing a love with t this new methodology. I can also read a good book after the sail, bring up Nav Rules, Keep all of SE HAVEN's Maintenance records, and watch an episode of Gilligan's Island all on a device that happily plugs into my 12V Socket.

Yeah...go tablet. Regardless of preference.

What I also like about the Polar Navy, unlike Garmin's proprietary format, the Waypoint, Route, AND Track information exports/imports in GPX format easily read into my handheld I can have by the helm. Also save it to Google Earth, work on Waypoints and routes at home. No File Conversion.

That is only a component of my on board Nav System, when installed I plan to do a write up for my shipmates here.

Sorry for the lengthy response, just kinda got into it.

For the rest, it's not a bash at proprietary chart plotters, just an alternative by one who has owned a bunch.

"Sub" Ed

[Alma]

Thank you!

Yes old school...  I just delivered a Pacific Seacraft 37 from Charleston SC to Ft. Lauderdale last week. Brutal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiq7jgPZczU

The quite pricy navigation suite was out! Raytheon.

We used a new set of paper charts and an old hand held Garmin GPS.

We also had an iPod and it worked well but did NOT show lat/long!!!!

I have a little Garmin at my nav station and I prefer NO screens at the helm. I sit in front of a screen all day working on my photos at work.
I don't need to watch sailing on TV. Like YOU I want to feel, smell, and taste the sailing!

[rkfitz]

I use a navionics app on my iphone for backup.

[selene]

Alma - 7.4 knots?!  You must have been riding one heck of a current :-)

[Alma]

No current- good sail trim and no unused items weighing us down. We also don't have the bow sprit, chain rode, AC, dinghy on davits, bow water tank, plywood sole... ALMA sits high on her lines and reaches like a scalded dog. When you can stroll up on a Ericson 35 with a deep keel and Max Prop you're doing pretty well!

I'm not one to cut my tooth brush in half to save weight but if we haven't used something in a few months it goes in the dock box or back home.

Of course there are plenty of times we ghost along at 4.5 knots, I wouldn't make a photo of that GPS reading.

[rkfitz]

Sounds like a very nice daysailer. : )

[Dave]

I use a navionics app on my iphone for backup.

I do also. I also like to use it to put in a pretty accurate route when motoring through the ICW and know how long it will take me to get to the next place. Of course with the sails up, that type of calculating does very little.

[Alma]

We're using two apps for navigating with our iPod. iSailor and Navionics.

When I was at Best Buy picking up the iPod, the salesman told me it would work without the more expensive cellular option for marine apps and I believed him. I have a limited plan and I do not want to go over my data plan with a marine app. Truthfully, the internal GPS of the Wi-Fi iPad does not work for marine apps unless one is receiving Wi-Fi.

I needed to buy additional hardware to receive GPS with the Wi-Fi only iPad.
I chose the DUAL Brand (remember their turntables?) Bluetooth GPS so I could lay it inside the cabin and use the iPad throughout the boat connected with Bluetooth to the GPS. It is popular with aircraft pilots.

It turns out this is an excellent system. The cell enabled iPad relies on cell towers for its navigation and it's positioning is not workable offshore.
With the DUALBluetooth GPS we have super strong satellite reception and there is a free app to show GPS performance from the DUAL Bluetooth GPS.

This system will operate anywhere a normal GPS will work and is not dependent on Cell Towers for triangulation.

Navionics now has the Gov. Charts for free along the free Navionics App. I had bought charts for the iSailor a few days before I learned Navionics was offering the free charts.

iSailor seems to be the go-to app for me so far. We moved ALMA from the Nacote Creek off Great Bay to Cape May June 6th. Our plan was to navigate the ICW from Nacote to Absecon Inlet Friday and shoot down the ocean to Cape May Saturday.

We made such good time Friday morning we shot offshore for Cape May.

What a great sail.
We had a fair current and wanted to get to Atlantic City before the tide dropped and made the ICW impassable. Motorsailing in the ICW we consistently showed seven knots over the ground and touched eight knots several times. They must have dredged these sections of ICW since Sandy because we were at mid tide and never touched bottom.
Years past we would have to wait until we had a Spring Tide and plan to bump over the shallow spots at the peak of a Spring Tide.

Now we're at Utch's Marina in Cape May.

Cape May is the jewel of the New Jersey coast and is as far from the "Jersey Shore" mentality as one can get in the Mid-Atlantic states.
We can walk to any of the places we want to go. The marina is a little noisy compared to the silence of the Nacote Creek after dark, but not nearly as boisterous as TRUMP (NUGGET) Marina was.

Saturday there was another 323 in the transient slips at Utch's but we never saw the owners.

Over the weekend we sailed and sailed.
We cruised across the Delaware Bay to Lewes DE and then back just along the Cape May beaches.

We saw many porpoise and a power boat radioed they saw a humpback whale!