Bunton-style Sextant

[tobymatthews]

I am just about to do the ARC. To fill any empty minutes, I decided to buy a sextant and work out how to use it on board. I now have a Bunton-style sextant.

Unfortunately, I can't find any links to use this sextant. Does anyone know of links or articles on how to use it, or would be able to email me a desciption of what to do?

We are leaving on Thursday morning (i.e. two days time), so this is last gasp!

Thanks in advance.
Toby

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[john_morris_uk]

Havn't heard of Bunton, but I suggest you invest in

Sight reduction tables for Air Navigation AP3270 (volumes 1,2 & 3)
Tom Cunliffe's book on Astro Nav (its the easiest one I know of to teach yourself with)
Some plotting sheets.
The Nautical Almanac

This lot will set you back the best part of £150, but with an accurate watch and you sextant, you wll never be totally lost anywhere in the world (so long as you can see the horizon and some celestial bodies!!)

All the above available from the Marine Bookshop at QAB marina Plymouth by mail order (and I have no connection except as a customer)

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[AndrewB]

The Brunton Pocket Transit (mountable handbearing compass) is well known enough, but the Bunton Sextant is a new one on me. Is this an unorthodox sextant design? Could you explain what it is like?

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[tonyran]

Having just done day one of yachtmaster theory I can only recommend that you forget about it until you get back! Bon voyage though.

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[snowleopard]

isn't stokey woodall there this year? he'd certainly be able to tell you.

p.s. what happens if your gps packs up?

 

[tobymatthews]

Hi Andrew

Thanks for the reply. Have a look at the following link - there is a picture and description of the item.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6126744982&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOAB:UK:6

Cheers
Toby

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[AndrewB]

That's a lovely item, and a great buy as they cost at least £150 new!

Yes, it's a Brunton Pocket-Transit (or replica). As a complete guess, without seeing it more closely, I would imagine it is adapted to be used as a mariner's astrolabe rather than as a sextant, for taking astronomical sights. This would mean hanging the instrument by one edge, and using the compass scale to measure the angle between the vertical and the object. Accuracy is low, so very much an emergency grab-bag tool, not for your ocean yachtmaster practical. For reducing the sights, the graph on the base ought to be an analemma rather than a sine curve.

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