Captainslarty
regular
Reged: 12/08/2007
Posts: 2012
Loc: Currently La Coruna Spain
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The old methods are well, just old, nowadays, and a lot of hype is used sometimes re reliability.
These days there is absulutely no reason NOT to use all electronic navigation if you have redundancy AND the skills to fix the issues that may arise - and of course, alternative charging systems.
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PM me for info re SSB's etc. Bought, sold, repaired, fitted and optimised.
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john_morris_uk
regular
Reged: 03/07/2002
Posts: 3610
Loc: Plymouth UK
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I don't have a problem with using electronic systems for navigation. In fact I use them all the time. I don't happen to use a plotter, but I do use a GPS. That's not the point.
I get worried when people are so reliant on them that they have layers of redundancy built in to make sure that they think that they can never be challenged by a paper chart, a log compass and tide tables. Why the paranoia with some people? Modern electronics are very reliable, but should you really be at sea if you are frightened by the thought of the electronics giving up the ghost?
Surely having another means of navigation is just good seamanship even if you use the electronics 99.9% of the time.
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“When you discover that you are riding a dead horse,
the best strategy is to dismount.”
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Marsupial
regular
Reged: 05/07/2004
Posts: 546
Loc: South and East UK
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Yes you're right, but I find it very difficult to steer a reliable course towing the space shuttle.
and try as a we might towing with the engine on full chat and all the sails up, Dungeoness B is still firmly attached to the land so I need a lighter alternative charging device or an even longer shore power cable, not to mention the half a yard of sand I carry to manufacture new chips as and when they fail.
SWIMBO reckons a chart case is lighter than the multihead mill we have in the galley to make the moulds for the plotter cases but naaa I'll get rid of the plastic extruding machine before I part with THAT!
Had some difficulty creating a dust free environment to repair hard disks till we realised that we could launch the space shuttle and the astronaughts could carry out the repair while on a space walk in between repairing GPS satalites.
we know how to sail!!!!!!!
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CBT
regular
Reged: 16/02/2005
Posts: 238
Loc: UK
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Oh dear!! Your poll and some of the responses ( and lots of other threads on these forums ) does confirm what I fear. That is that we are gradually becoming enslaved by our technology. I speak as someone who uses all of it - ashore as well as afloat - but I reserve the right to regret the trend just a bit! Are we being enslaved by this forum and the technology that runs it? - I am off to have a lie down. 
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Morgana
regular
Reged: 28/08/2003
Posts: 12220
Loc: East Coast
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Urm.....
OK..... interesting responses....
It strikes me that most of the respondees are 'old salts' who have sailed for long enough to have terrorised the seven seas long before the advent of the dear old GPS, let alone the plotter..... I count myself amongst that group...
My concern is still for a while in the future, and that is when the 'average owner' (whatever that is) has never experienced sailing without electronics, and for whom DR and EP's are just something that was experienced in a classroom 20years ago, and have never been used in anger.....
But it is still interesting that a substantial percentage of people on here are sufficiently attached to electronic navigation that they have extensive redundancy..... hard to argue as a bad thing, but perhaps worrying for a future sailing generation.....
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Bored?.... why not read my blog .... its the developing story of the trials and tribulations of boat ownership!
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WindFinder
regular
Reged: 03/03/2008
Posts: 291
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Quote:
I do carry a sextant and tables as well, which is a bit over the top for the channel...)
Over the top? Are you kidding? It's totally inadequate. It's far more vulnerable to breakage than a £60 waterproof GPS from Millets and half the time it's cloudy and there's nothing to get a fix on at all.
The biggest joke is that you seem to be claiming your sextant is not electronic yet since quartz watches you will almost certainly be relying on an electronic watch to tell the time. Unless you are going to claim that a clockwork watch is more reliable?
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WindFinder
regular
Reged: 03/03/2008
Posts: 291
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Quote:
It strikes me that most of the respondees are 'old salts' who have sailed for long enough to have terrorised the seven seas long before the advent of the dear old GPS, let alone the plotter..... I count myself amongst that group...
I'm not that old but I sailed in the Decca days and found it far worse than GPS in every way. And so expensive loads of people didn't even bother.
GPS is so good that a good Landfall is considered almost inevitable and no longer even remarked upon!
GPS rocks. If you'd told yachtsmen before WW2 that they could buy on the high street a device giving a (usually) cast Iron accurate position updated in real time for the price of a pub dinner for 2 they'd have snapped it up.
The chart issues is slightly different to GPS. You could argue about your preferred chart format forever. I like paper charts purely because of the large 'screen size', but then if I had to buy worldwide charts I doubt I could even afford all paper.
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Morgana
regular
Reged: 28/08/2003
Posts: 12220
Loc: East Coast
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I don't disagree.... give me the choice of having or not having GPS and I know which i'd choose!.... I was merely making the point that in a few years time, there will be a generation of sailors who have never approached a coast desperately watching for something to get a fix from....... and when their electronics fail, it will be such an alien experience that i'm not sure they'll know how to deal with it!
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Bored?.... why not read my blog .... its the developing story of the trials and tribulations of boat ownership!
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WindFinder
regular
Reged: 03/03/2008
Posts: 291
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Quote:
when their electronics fail, it will be such an alien experience that i'm not sure they'll know how to deal with it!
Why? It's not rocket science.
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Morgana
regular
Reged: 28/08/2003
Posts: 12220
Loc: East Coast
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nope.... its not rocket science because many of us have used the techniques extensively over the years..... but if you've never had to work your way into a coastline without absolute certainty before, it would I imagine be quite frightening...... Don't you remember the first time you went out of sight of land on DR?.... the relief of getting a proper fix again was quite a thing...... this would have been on the back of having learned to trust your navigation over time doing coastal nav..... but imagine if that experience was the first time you'd ever navigated traditionally?......
Maybe i'm overplaying it (a little bit intentionally), but just trying to make a point...
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Bored?.... why not read my blog .... its the developing story of the trials and tribulations of boat ownership!
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