Leopard 46 lost in French Polynesia - stunning rescue pictures

[wingssail]

In addition to a poor strategy (late arrival, close to the reef, no second person on watch at the time, two engines running so breakers could not have been heard, and we could go on) poor navigation was the cause of this wreck.

We feel that there is a disturbing trend: navigating by tablet with tablet based apps and Navionics charts, or similar. Almost everyone is doing it and virtually every crash we hear about happened with these kind of charts and a tablet being used, sometimes mounted in a bracket, often on some bodies' lap or in their hand. We get two or three crashes a year here in Mexico. Routes, if used at all, were planned on the tablet. Navionics route planning is primitive at best. iNav-x is better, still not great.


These crashes, particularly Tanda Malaika, were onto a reef or land which is clearly present on the CM93 charts which most people have on their OpenCPN systems, and presumably, present on the Navionics charts. None of the crashes we read about would have occurred had the proper route planning been performed and the yacht been following the planned route.

We need to get the word out:

Proper navigation includes prior route planning on a proper system with a keyboard, preferably at the nav station, and using the best charts available. (part of a navigator's responsibility is to obtain and use the best chart for any given location). After developing the planned route then close inspection, at high zoom levels, is required and corrections made before setting out. Then during the passage the ship's progress along the route must be monitored, preferably by a second person, not the helm's man, and not by referencing a tablet computer in the cockpit.

Navigation is made easy with these tools that everyone uses but it is not sound navigation and it is dangerous and anyone who navigates this way will eventually hit stuff.

Fred & Judy SV Wings, La Cruz Huancaxtle

[buzzstar]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Keep your eye on AirBNB for it

More like a duplex. With a shared kitchen arrangement.

[Eder]

Using a tablet has nothing to do with the incident. Cavalier seamanship seems the cause.

[Fluenta]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Maybe like me, they didn't know you can do this. Did Magellan know?

I consider myself to be very up to date on technology and preparedness.... I didn't know about offshore satellite imagery for open waters.

Kenomac,

I wrote a short blog entry on using satellite imagery offline here: SV FLUENTA: Using Satellite Imagery to Assist Navigation - SAS Planet

It is not a proper "user guide" but at least shows one way the information can be used as an another risk mitigation tool.

Safe passages,

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by Fluenta

Kenomac,

I wrote a short blog entry on using satellite imagery offline here: SV FLUENTA: Using Satellite Imagery to Assist Navigation - SAS Planet

It is not a proper "user guide" but at least shows one way the information can be used as an another risk mitigation tool.

Safe passages,

I've been using SAS planet for several years and in places like West Papua etc it's been a a godsent.

I'm now starting to use ovitalmap as I can run it on my tablets. It's worth checking out.

[Fluenta]

Originally Posted by daletournier

I've been using SAS planet for several years and in places like West Papua etc it's been a a godsent.

I'm now starting to use ovitalmap as I can run it on my tablets. It's worth checking out.

Yes, I like Ovital as well but I find it challenging to find enough internet bandwidth to load one application's data as it is. Also, I prefer SAS Planet as it works well with the charting programs on my laptop and has more sources. Ovital is nice though as easy to have in the cockpit.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by matt w

Wow, what a lucky family! And I admire their resolve. With 200k miles experience, you'd think he would know to zoom the chart and use other sources. But, we all make mistakes. I know I make them all the time!

We have two chartplotters side by side. One stays zoomed in close and the other is zoomed farther out for the big picture. We haven't hit a reef or obstruction, yet!

That always seemed like the simplest approach as well as giving one hundred per cent redundancy and a method to easily constantly cross check our position.

[Hobie_ind]

Originally Posted by Group9

We have two chartplotters side by side. One stays zoomed in close and the other is zoomed farther out for the big picture. We haven't hit a reef or obstruction, yet!

That always seemed like the simplest approach as well as giving one hundred per cent redundancy and a method to easily constantly cross check our position.

I'd caution though that if both chartplotters are using the same base maps, you've haven't mitigated your risk as much as you may think.

It's one of the reasons that I often had Navionics, OpenCPN (various chart sources depending on which had the most detail) AND GoogleEarth overlays in areas (ie. Eastern Fiji, Tuamotus, Beveridge Reef, Vanuatu, Columbia, Panama, etc) where charting was often inconsistent or plain wrong.

Max on Fluenta (link noted above) summarizes it very well in the link he posted above.