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I've had the nautical navigation work fine when canoeing on rivers and streams where you're following linear features on the map. What it lacks is the ability to plot a sensible course across a polygon of open water.

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Rumor has it that routers have the same issue with highway areas so best practice is to add a "spine" to them

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:area:highway#Routers

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposal:Area_highway/ma...

The presence of such spines in open bodies of water just makes nautical routes come out particularly stupid, where the route presented calls for you to immediately go to that spine and travel along it, unnecessarily lengthening the route.

Same problem for pedestrian plaza structures btw. Though there it's arguably worse as it has a good chance of affecting routing choice not just user presentation.

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