Accidents like the Farnes Islands incident are not caused by chart plotters or GPS, they are caused by inattentive skippers. I see the problem being that some people put too much faith in electronic navigation because it seems so easy. Considering the advances in navigation aids over the last 10 or 20 years we should be seeing very few (almost zero?) groundings due to navigation mistakes. The ease of use causes people to approach navigation with less trepidation and therefore more people are doing it and some are not taking it as seriously as they should.

My 11 year old daughter asked me the other day while I was bringing the boat into a dock if driving a boat or driving a car was harder. I was quick to answer that the boat was harder. She has never driven a car but has driven the boat (although not in a harbor). Like Jon mentioned, there are people out there that use a chart plotter with the same approach as a GPS in a car. The only shortcoming with electronic navigation that I can see is that it is too easy and too accurate most of the time. With a bit of training it is much better than paper charts.