On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 21:55:47 +0000, Ian Malcolm wrote:

I can recommend the Yeoman plotter. It is a specialised digitising
tablet with
a NMEA0183 interface designed for marine charts that lets you quickly
and
easily read off the current position directly on any normal paper chart
using
your GPS, (you just move the puck in the direction of the illuminated
arrow or
arrowson it, and your position is under the hole in the crosshair for
the tip of
a pencil when all the arrows have gone out. It also reads off range and
bearing
to any feature on the chart, and SENDS WAYPOINTS DIRECT FROM IT TO YOUR
GPS with
only a few button clicks.


"Lloyd Sumpter" wrote

Oh, good grief: Technology Gone Mad. You mean you can't read lat/long off
a
chart? And if you can err reading the chart, you can err even worse
setting it
up.

Having nearly put the boat up on a beach somewhere in Costa Rica because I
mistakenly entered 77 deg instead of 76 deg or something equally foolish as
a waypoint on the GPS, I can really appreciate the value of eliminating the
human element where possible.

The only thing that saved us was that we had drawn a course line joining
waypoints. A quick eyeball check of our course being steered v.s. the
chartered one tipped me off.


--
Evan Gatehouse

you'll have to rewrite my email address to get to me
ceilydh AT 3web dot net
(fools the spammers)