jeff wrote:
Geoff Schultz wrote:
...

How do others have their displays configured? How does the CG have
their's configured? What's the purpose of N-up vs heading-up?


My wife and I have this same discussion over the chartplotter, and the
car GPS. She favors "Track Up" while I favor "Course Up" for
situation where we're following a constrained course, and "North Up"
when we're in open situations.

I have always used a chart as my primary tool, and a small screen GPS
chartplotter for location. Last year I upgraded to a nicer Garmin
545, so I'm finding I have to rethink the way I navigate.

This reminds me of a situation many years ago delivering a Folkboat
from New York to Boston. The owner and I had a "navigational
disagreement" and in the aftermath we realize that we visualized the
situation completely differently. He "placed himself" at water
level, and oriented using various range lines, whereas I "raised
myself up" to a birds-eye view where I could create a map in my mind.
Each method has its own limitations and is prone to different types
of errors.

Course-up is OK for navating in the proximity of land, or in narrow
channels, but in the open sea, it's a total bore. You have a line always
heading in the N-S axis, dissecting the display.

North-up is the best for open-sea navigating since it resembles the charts
we were brought up to use before electronic displays became available.



Dennis