Swivelling bracket for inside/outside plotter

[Nick]

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Hoping to be shortly acquiring a plotter and would like to mount it on a swivelling bracket so it can be either in the cockpit or down below.

Anyone know of any particularly suitable proprietary bracket systems I should be looking at?

[Rowana]

I haven't got a plotter, but when I bought Rowana, she has a home-made arrangement where the GPS, Depth, Log and the VHF speaker can be swung out from above the chart table so that they can be seen from the cockpit.

When it is fully swung out, it blocks the companionway, but there is a half way position whereby you can still go below, and the instruments can be read provided you are on the port side of the cockpit.

It works reasonably well, and I don't see me changing it, at least in the short term.

I could take some photos next time I'm up if you would like, and either send them to you direct or post them on here.

[Olivepage]

Just a thought

If you used plotting software on a laptop you could run a remote screen in the cockpit and have both at once.

I would equate swivelly brackets with bumps on the head

[sahona]

Have you considered fitting a small porthole to one side of the companionway? Most plotters come with an articulated mount which you can swivel to suit (inside) and it will feel cosier there.
I don't think many of us could afford the amps for Olivepage's setup unless the iron tops'l was hoisted.

[Olivepage]

Just looked at Garmin site

The 10in screen model uses 25W

I would have thought a laptop would be in that ball park - maybe up to 30W - and you get an even bigger screen

And if you take it that many people include a laptop anyway the total load may even be less. Mine is plotter, tidal info, weather info and log.

Although I suggest 2 screens you only look at one at a time.

[Telo]

Somebody you know, DaveS(?), has a plottery thing on a hand-knitted wooden bracket. Bit of wid, coupla brass hinges, about 98p the lot.

[Nick]

Well, thanks everyone but all I want is a bracket . . .

There is no room to have a laptop permanently set up with plotter, neither is there any room for a repeater screen for a plotter in the cockpit.

I realise that some of you have acres of bulkhead and gigawatts of power, but Fairwinds doesn't.

I have seen these swivelley inside/outside brackets on other boats, just wondered if there was some sort of ready-made one which anyone knew about.

[Rowana]

Sounds as if you're looking for some hingineered solution.

What's wrong with Shard's idea?

If it disnae work, you haven't spent a fortune on some fancy bit of kit.

(Must be the Aiberdonian in me)

[Silkie]

How about a Ram mount?

[Arghiro]

I leave my lappy (running Tsunamis99) on the saloon table facing the helm. I can generally see near enough where I am from the helm. For rough weather I have a roll of soft rubbery anti-slip matting from Poundstretcher (2 lengths for £1.99).


If I need details it only takes a few seconds to go down & check it out. Don't usually even need the autohelm on.

[Nick]

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Looks good but costs £80, so maybe DIY is the way to go . . .

[DaveS]

Somebody you know, DaveS(?), has a plottery thing on a hand-knitted wooden bracket. Bit of wid, coupla brass hinges, about 98p the lot.

Sadly, my arrangement remains something of a half way house, with the plotter and FLS fitted in a wooden box currently fitted with a "tongue" that slots through the top section of the companionway handrail, where it is held in place by another bit of wood and a tapered peg. This gives a convenient site for viewing from the cockpit, but getting past it is awkward for me and downright tricky for those more diametrically challenged.

The ultimate idea is to organise some sort of double-hinged arrangement with the box held in place by bungy so that (at least going below) it could just be brushed aside, and it could also be left in a convenient position for viewing below, rather than cluttering up the chart table. I have the hinges (somewhere), but (a) working out the geometry, and (b) finding the time to do it (or anything else, currently) is proving more difficult...

Like others, I felt that £80 for an off the shelf solution was a bit steep!

[Silkie]

OK then - how about £9.99?



Guess where you get these from.

[Telo]

with the plotter and FLS fitted in a wooden box currently fitted with a "tongue" that slots through the top section of the companionway handrail, where it is held in place by another bit of wood and a tapered peg ......... The ultimate idea is to organise some sort of double-hinged arrangement with the box held in place by bungy so that (at least going below) it could just be brushed aside, and it could also be left in a convenient position for viewing below, rather than cluttering up the chart tab

I'm starting to glaze over..... it's a bit like being back at school and trying, and failing, to understand and explain how Ichabod Crane protected his schoolroom from evildoers;

• His school-house was a low building of one large room, rudely
  constructed of logs, the windows partly glazed and partly patched
  with leaves of old copybooks. It was most ingeniously secured at
  vacant hours by a withe twisted in the handle of the door and
  stakes set against the window-shutters, so that, though a thief
  might get in with perfect ease, he would find some embarrassment
  in getting out - -an idea most probably borrowed by the architect,
  Yost Van Houten, from the mystery of an eel-pot.

Hey! Just a minute, there's a connection here ... Ichabod Crane ..... Washington Irving ..... Sleepy Hollow .... Rip Van Winkle .... DaveS ....

[bilbo]

So you get your kicks in a Swedish meatball store....?

'Observator' - but you'd need to go to Glasgow to get one!

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s ... ry=bracket