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| BUYERS GUIDES |
20 / 10 / 05 |
A Yeoman Navigator and its place on my boatBy Fred Barter |  | | |
Call me old fashioned. But I still have a Yeoman Navigator on my boat. I had it fitted when the boat was built ten years ago. At that time it was interfaced with a Shipmate Decca system, now replaced by GPS. What a surprise when as the supplier said many years after I bought it, 'Yes you can change to GPS and it will work,' and it did! How often does that happen with electronic gear?
Being a weird sort I had designed a forward facing chart table for my Vertue. Given the small interior space available I had no right to even think about it. But as the first thing I'd bought for the boat was a navigator's seat. (Spotted in a canopy makers workshop) before the hull had even been moulded. I felt I had to go on with this impractical mission. In the end it worked out, thanks to the fact that as someone once said I'm Vertue sized.
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The interior of a Vertue is what might be called cosy. But I still found space for a forward facing chart table - on the starboard side
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The builders made a marvellous job of the table as they did with the rest of the boat. So now I had a perfect place to install the Yeoman. I liked it so much that the thought of covering the table surface with the thin Yeoman sensing palette was unpalatable, so I asked the manufacturers if it would still work if I installed it under the table top and out of sight. The answer was that if there was no more than 15mm to separate the palette from the chart then it would work. And sure enough it did. The only problem was that the 'mouse', more the size of a 'rat' actually, has to be moved right to left rather than left to right as intended by the designers. It is I have to admit slightly awkward but we've got used to it.
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The chart table seen from above. You can see my first purchase, the seat that started it all.
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So do I like using it? You bet I do. All our charts have their alignment points ready to use. I like the fact that we can base our navigation on paper, where recording progress and plotting tracks is a familiar exercise aided by the magic of GPS. This is a comfortable combination of electronics and traditional navigation. We can confirm our position in the conventional way on paper which can't be done in quite the same way on a screen. And I've yet to see a screen as large as our nav table. If the dreaded power failure happens we still have our vital navigation data on the paper chart and we can continue on our way using the more traditional navigation skills.
There are other advantages. Renewing paper charts (especially folios) is much cheaper than ordering a new electronic cartridge. Manual corrections to paper, that electronic charts do not allow fully. I sincerely hope that the Yeoman will be around for a long time yet. It deserves to be and if I need some replacement parts I hope the after sales service will still be available.
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| | Discuss this article, 1 of 33 messages, read more: |  I am a Pirate | |
| Posted: 20/10/05 11:03:04 04 | | That article is so wrong!!!!! Electronic navigation is sooooooooooo much better that the old fashion paper way – I think that the dear editor Fred is starting to show his age. |
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