The New and Improved Celestial Navigation Poll

[deckofficer]

My question,
your response,

I'd say we are slowly educating the masses. You don't need a race bred mono to sail fast.

Your best friends, was he the guy in the blue shorts and shirt in the picture standing behind Laura's boat?

[Geoduck]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Hey man. Was dodging this thread as to not get into an argument more than I already have.

I heard that celestial navigation was going to get pulled entirely, but that could just be a rumor. Probably is. Right now I think it's just for the Oceans endorsement which makes sense. If you stay near coastal (~200nm, I think) then coastal nav and electronics coupled with close proximity to shore will be good.

I can't imagine they'll ever let true sea captains off the hook from knowing celestial navigation. The first time the GPS system blinks for a second and "captains" don't know where to point the ship heads will roll like never before.

Personally I don't see why anyone would hold themselves to a lower standard as a mariner. A cruise ship captain has thousands of lives on his hands, and while the skipper of a yacht may only have a few, I'm sure they value their own lives and safety just as much as the thousands of folks on the cruise ship do. So why someone would expect and demand an upper tonnage captain to be competent and qualified in various aspects of navigation, but would excuse a lower tonnage from the same is beyond me.

I just saw a plastic Davis sextant for $30 used at a swap meet in my marina. Was in fine shape. So $30, a free PDF, and a couple weeks worth of independent study is too much bother for some folks? Shameful.

Once upon a time, I was the 1st Mate on a delivery from the south of France to Trinidad. The captain showed us all his 500 ton all oceans, all seas ticket to let us know he was in charge. A couple of days out from Gibraltar, I broke out my sextant to take a noon sight. I asked the skippy if he wanted to check my work - to make a long story short, he didn't know which end was up with a sextant!
This guy was a retired Navy/yacht delivery captain, very well known who has sailed all over the world for years without knowing a thing about celestial nav. "DR and a compass course is all I use."

[rebel heart]

I just showed my wife the sextant and explained to her (briefly) how celestial navigation works. Her response:

"Sounds exhausting. No wonder everyone uses GPS."

[familycruisers]

Originally Posted by Geoduck

Once upon a time, I was the 1st Mate on a delivery from the south of France to Trinidad. The captain showed us all his 500 ton all oceans, all seas ticket to let us know he was in charge. A couple of days out from Gibraltar, I broke out my sextant to take a noon sight. I asked the skippy if he wanted to check my work - to make a long story short, he didn't know which end was up with a sextant!
This guy was a retired Navy/yacht delivery captain, very well known who has sailed all over the world for years without knowing a thing about celestial nav. "DR and a compass course is all I use."

Originally Posted by rebel heart

I just showed my wife the sextant and explained to her (briefly) how celestial navigation works. Her response:

"Sounds exhausting. No wonder everyone uses GPS."

That's some funny stuff right there!, I don't care who you are!

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

(...) Aiming for the center of an island group and hoping to sight them is gonna be the method for both sextant and compass/DR navigation. (...)

Yep. Given my sailing style (coward) nad astro skills (basic), if left without GPS I would aim for a tall island and sail the latitude with help from the sextant. Latitude - because if the GPS gets fried then who knows if our Casio watches were to be of any use. (We do not carry a mechanical chrono).

b.

[Astrid]

You really wouldn't even need the sextant if you had a floating disk of wood in a tub of water. You drew a series of concentric circles on the upper face of the disk and an upright pointer which would cast a shadow across the plate. As long as the shadow stayed within the pair of circles representing your latitude you were neither too far north nor south. By adding more circles or having a pointer that could be adjusted for height, you could use the instrument with several latitudes or seasons.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by Astrid

You really wouldn't even need the sextant if you had a floating disk of wood in a tub of water. You drew a series of concentric circles on the upper face of the disk and an upright pointer which would cast a shadow across the plate. As long as the shadow stayed within the pair of circles representing your latitude you were neither too far north nor south. By adding more circles or having a pointer that could be adjusted for height, you could use the instrument with several latitudes or seasons.

Getting a good sight on a moving boat is hard enough. Shadows going across a floating disc in a tub just sounds like a benny hill skit.

[Astrid]

Worked well for Faeroe Islander fishermen in the 18th century and was possibly inherited from their viking ancestors; one just needs to have an occasional spell of sunlight and not too much rolling or pitching. It doesn't really help you to know how far east or west you are, but if you are not in a hurry.....

[familycruisers]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Getting a good sight on a moving boat is hard enough. Shadows going across a floating disc in a tub just sounds like a benny hill skit.

So if I use this method I'll have a bunch of chicks running around in their underwear? sweet!

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by familycruisers

So if I use this method I'll have a bunch of chicks running around in their underwear? sweet!

Try this method instead......

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by IslandHopper

Try this method instead......

Or turn it around and let them do the work too:


ciao!
Nick.

[s/v Jedi]

p.s. For all of those that buy old Russian or Iranian sextants made from brass in wooden boxes etc. : for $0.99 you can just buy the iPhone app and be done with it



ciao!
Nick.

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by Astrid

Worked well for Faeroe Islander fishermen in the 18th century and was possibly inherited from their viking ancestors; one just needs to have an occasional spell of sunlight and not too much rolling or pitching. It doesn't really help you to know how far east or west you are, but if you are not in a hurry.....

Before the sextant it was astrolab, back-staff and cross-staff. Blindness was a hazard of use of the cross-staff so some enterprising fellow invented the back-staff. Keep going back in time and you find other devices used.

I think that people did get lost more often in those days.

[Astrid]

Aren't the modern brass replica jobs (marketed through Stanely of London made in India and not Iran? Contemporary Russian ones, actually made for their Navy are knock offs of the Freiberger and are fairly decent if I understand correctly assuming they haven't been abused, dropped, etc.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Astrid

Aren't the modern brass replica jobs (marketed through Stanely of London made in India and not Iran? Contemporary Russian ones, actually made for their Navy are knock offs of the Freiberger and are fairly decent if I understand correctly assuming they haven't been abused, dropped, etc.

I think you are right. I was just trying to say that the iPhone can be a sextant too for just 99 cents, using it's electronic sensors in combination with software. But I guess the iPhone and the sensors it has, is too unfamiliar for the sextant crowd in this thread...

ciao!
Nick.