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Strolling down an aisle smack in the center of the electronics hall at
the Miami International Boat Show in February, I caught sight of a paper
chart flat on the counter of a notably uncluttered booth. How odd it seemed,
there in the sea of parti-colored LCD monitors and logo-festooned dome
antennas. As I left the main current of show-goers and neared the booth,
I noticed a gentleman skating an oblong disk this way and that across
the chart’s surface. He looked like a virtuoso psychic soloing on
a Ouija board. Closer by, I saw an LED readout framed at the center of
the device and noticed that every time it came to a halt anywhere on the
chart, it indicated a precise latitude and longitude. I wanted to know
more.
The man behind the counter was Robin Myerscough, UK-based Yeoman Group’s
export sales executive, and his magic gadget, which he called a “mouse
for maps,” was part of the Yeoman Navigator Pro paper chartplotter.
Although Yeoman plotters have been available in the States for about four
years, they have not been aggressively marketed. In fact, this was the
first time one had been taken to the Miami show. As he stood opposite
me manipulating the mouse like, it now seemed, someone running a shell
game, Myerscough—rather than take me for a 20—kindly spilled
the beans about the Nav Pro. The device’s other main component, out
of sight under the chart, was a 281/2"x 21" x 2" chart board with an embedded
circuit system. At the end of the mouse was a circle of transparent plastic
about 1 1/2 inches in diameter with a small hole at its center for marking
positions, waypoints, and such. This plotting circle is framed by a coil
of copper wire that’s alive with a low-level alternating current.
As the mouse moves over the chart board, its current is discerned by the
board’s embedded grid.
Of course, for this interplay to be of any use, the mouse’s position
must be relative in two-dimensional space. That is, its orientation on
the flat surface must be established. You can do this on any chart in
just a couple of minutes by entering any three positions into the mouse
so long as the first two share the same latitudinal line and the third
position is on the same longitudinal line as the second. In other words,
you input a right triangle.
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