charplotter question .

[pgnyc]

i am a new boater going in my 2nd year.
i have a charplotter (lowrance 4 hdi) and i used other one in rentals.

The question:
When i ask the charplotter to make a route to a waypoint behind land , it does one straight going trough the land !

Why is not be able to trace a route around using map info ?

Pascal

 

[UncleWillie]

There would be too many variables to consider.
For example....
How big is the boat? How much water does it require? Are any restricted areas in effect. Have any sandbars moved? How close to shore is too close?

The liabilities of determining an indirect route are just way too great.

 

[H20Rat]

The newer humminbird gps units will do indirect route charting if you have the navionics addons.

 

[gm280]

I can see the ability to route folks via water routes to most any place these days. We have everything available these days to plot such routes. As for sand bars and such, no there is no capability to route around constantly moving issues. But that is also true with most any water plotting. But surely a plotter should be able to route you around land to your destination. It isn't rocket surgery... If you have ever programmed you know the capability depends on the input...

 

[dingbat]

Garmin introduced auto-routing on their Vision software almost 10 years ago.

You enter your keel depth and overall height and the software routes the course. Pretty neat, but the novelty wears off quickly unless you have an auto-pilot.

Local knowledge overrides the map routing 75% of the time