Marine Chartplotter : A General Overview
A chartplotter is a system which allows ships to know about their exact location and position in the waters. When it comes to navigating through the waters, in today’s times, a chartplotter is one of the many important and indispensable marine products and marine supplies, which are needed as a part of the ship’s electronic equipment catalogue.
A chartplotter combines the usage of technologies like Global Positioning System (GPS), radar and AIS (Automatic Identification System) to plot and pinpoint the exact location and position of a ship in the high seas and oceans to aid a ship’s captain in easy seafaring.
A chartplotter incorporates the computer technology as a displaying device for showing the actually positioned points of a ship when it is in motion. Therefore it can be said that when compared to other marine products and marine supplies, a chartplotter is far more reliable and feasible as a locating and navigating indicator.
Additionally, another important and noteworthy factor about the chartplotter is that unlike other equipment that are important in a ship’s routine course through the waters, the chartplotter has the potential to work even in spite of possibility of events and occurrences like satellite disruption, hurricanes and flash storms because it is integrated in the ship’s electrical system rather than linked by other means of connectivity.
Therefore even if there is any occurrence of satellite disruption, there is no chance that the ship might be stranded in the middle of the ocean because of the absence of any correct and absolute positioning about its location in the waters. This is perhaps the most important USP of the chartplotter because it so happens that other marine supplies, even if they provide excellent utility, fall prey to satellite disruptions and other disturbances. Thus, it is very important that in today’s times that one trusts a chartplotter extensively as it gives absolute and complete utility at all times, irrespective of the situation.
For consumers marine, a chartplotter is one of the most conducive marine supplies from those which are available in contemporary times. And since the chartplotter technology is catching up as more and more shipping companies and ship builders look forward to set this technology in their respective vessels, it promises to be a very big hit in the days to come. And since it has got so much potential, it is quite evident that there might be further developments to refine this technology for the consumers marine. If this happens, the chartplotter could reach heights that would be even higher than where it has managed to reach so far.
Thus it becomes very important and relevant to keep on observing the facilities provided by the chartplotter because if one continuously observes, then it would enable the researchers to refine and up grade the technology to be even more helpful for the consumers marine than what it is now. Only through proper observation, monitoring, research and refining will the technology of a chartplotter reach far and wide than what it has managed to reach and enhance the life of shipmen, seafarers, shipping companies and ship builders to provide better service – not just for themselves, their employers and employees respectively, but also to their clients as well.
You may also like to read What is a sextant?.
References: sailing.about, ybw
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About Author
An ardent sailor and a techie, Anish Wankhede has voyaged on a number of ships as a marine engineer officer. He loves multitasking, networking, and troubleshooting. He is the one behind the unique creativity and aesthetics at Marine Insight.
what is the difference between chartplotter and ECDIS?
Hi Sathish,
Your answer is already present in our Marine Forum- https://forums.marineinsight.com