NavList:

Hi,

Aboard a large commercial ship, relying solely on electronic charts and electronic devices in general, might be fine; given all the redundant systems from electrical sources to output devices. Plus a professional crew.

In a small vessel:

- with small screens there is always the need to zoom in and out; and hasards may just not show up at all at a given scale: see the reports on the Team Vestas crash in the last VOR; with paper charts the scale is quiet evident;

- gps devices work fine most of the time but not always; once I even got coordinates with an error of 1/4 mi near shore;

Therefore my rules of thumb when playing the role of skipper/navigator in a charter or friend's sailing boat are:

- keep the chartplotter of the boat off;

- hide those fancy paper charts from private editors;

- use a tablet in the cockpit as the main navigation device, in a waterproof case, well secured in place, running only a tested navigation software after a clean restart, with the last updated electronic charts and, waypoints previously marked and double checked against official paper charts and reputable pilots (ports and anchorages for emergency landing, hasards, etc); in my case - iPad/Lifeproof case/RAM mounts/iNavx/Xtransverse charts;

- use a fanless/solid hard drive computer at the chart table for general navigation work;

- 1 spare tablet ready to replace the cockpit one, 1 hand compass, 1 sextant in a waterproof grab bag;

- and yes, the official and updated paper charts, at the suitable scale(s) for the area of navigation on the saloon table.

Best,

Jorge