Gordon Wedman wrote:
Well I don't know if I would go as far as Dennis.
I have a Garmin 182C at my steering pedestal for instant reference.
Kind of hard to do with a laptop. I also have a connection down
below so that I can use it to plan while anchored/tied.
Screen resolution is excellent, just as good as a laptop. Colour is
very good but I wouldn't say it was essential. I would say the 182
has the minimum useable screen size. I don't know how anyone
navigates on a PDA. Bigger is always better. Screen refresh is not
instantaneous but I don't find it a problem, maybe 1 second.
If you don't have a good laptop, and I don't, by the time you buy one
and purchase the navigation software I think you are up into the
chartplotter price range (not for the same size screen I have to
admit).

Maybe the chartplotters I have seen are not the latest technology, and I am
therefore biased in my views, but it seems to me that with a huge range of
available software, with a laptop you can choose the best, or what is best
for you personally, and discard the rest.

Ideally, the screen should be the same size as the paper chart, but even
with plasma screens this is impossible, if not prohibitively expensive, but
with modern laptop screens available in wide-angle, now up to 17" diagonal,
and the fantastic resolutions now available, it is possible to view a
full-size reproduction digital chart without a vast amount of panning, and
the zoom facility allows more of the chart to be displayed and seen at one
viewing.

Dedicated chartplotters will always have their enthusiasts, but to me the
technology tends to follow, rather than lead the laptop/tft/plasma
technology, and with laptops prices now falling to unprecedented levels,
this seems the way to go.

I need hardly mention the ability to take the laptop off the boat at the end
of each trip, which does decrease the risk of having one's navigation system
stolen!

Dennis.