On Fri, 15 Dec 2006 13:32:51 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

You ought to open up those chart books though. It's a lot more enjoyable
anticipating and planning the next day's cruising with those nice paper
graphics in your hand than looking at a LCD display.

Actually I've gotten very used to doing my "next day" plan on the PC
using raster charts. They look exactly like the paper charts, and the
utility/convenience of electronic course plotting is not to be
believed unless you've tried it. Plotting across chart boundries is a
non-issue and you end up with a complete list of waypoints, courses
and distances which can be saved for backup purposes. Everything gets
copied to a backup PC at the lower helm, and the previous night's work
gets taken up to the flybridge. Underway the PC, a "Toughbook", sits
side by side with the Furuno course plotter and provides different but
redundant information.

Like you say, the problem with sailboats is where to put all the
"stuff". Down below at the nav station is not too handy unless you've
got a full time navigator in the crew, and the space top side is never
enough even with a wheel pedestel.