[70521]
Well-Known Member
Yes, they are fantastic and I first learned to navigate over 35 years ago.
Do you use Waypoints.
- Thread starter Uricanejack
- Start date
Scotty_Tradewind
Well-Known Member
similar......
Plan by looking at the paper chart,
check the plotter chart,
stick some 'marks' on the plotter chart,
sail/motor using the marks as a guide to shortest distance between points missing 'nasties',
keep a half hourly log if not in sight of land, hourly if in sight,
Too much time can be spent below checking chart and boats position with landmarks imho.
S.
lw395
Well-Known Member
I call them waypoints because all my GPS's call them waypoints.
A waypoint can be any point on the way, or even the wayside.
It's not necessarily an 'alter course position', it might be something you pass close to, or even a hazard to avoid.
Maybe that's loose use of the word, but it's still in the GPS waypoint list.
Since everywhere I go tends to be upwind, I don't normally plan exactly where I alter course.
And even if tis downwind, the same applies with the cruising chute up.
However, when I get a mobo or a destroyer, my habits might change...
A waypoint can be any point on the way, or even the wayside.
It's not necessarily an 'alter course position', it might be something you pass close to, or even a hazard to avoid.
Maybe that's loose use of the word, but it's still in the GPS waypoint list.
Since everywhere I go tends to be upwind, I don't normally plan exactly where I alter course.
And even if tis downwind, the same applies with the cruising chute up.
However, when I get a mobo or a destroyer, my habits might change...
sailorman
Well-Known Member
X tide wp add miles far better the compass course
KellysEye
Well-Known Member
Try crossing the Thames heading from Burnham on Crouch to the Solent without them we had 34 waypoints needed to avoid mud and sand banks. On the Atlantic crossing we had three.
jdc
Well-Known Member
Certainly I do, but not necessarily to sail to. I don't have a chart-plotter (ok, I do have on a laptop, but use it quite rarely and only when I don't have a paper chart), and I find two uses which simply can't be done at all easily - at least not while short-handed - without them:
i. Put the WPT on an isolated danger, usually a rock (eg Vrogue). Now I have a distance and bearing to the one point I can't see but don't want to be at. Excellent when tacking, particularly at night when I can't see the transits.
ii. Some places aren't charted, so no plotter will help. But we (or someone else, eg the writer of the pilot book) crept in here beforehand and recorded a GPS position at a known safe position. No dependency on chart nor datums.
In neither of these are they 'alter course' points, nor strictly way-points, but it's what the GPS set (and most of the English speaking world) calls them.
i. Put the WPT on an isolated danger, usually a rock (eg Vrogue). Now I have a distance and bearing to the one point I can't see but don't want to be at. Excellent when tacking, particularly at night when I can't see the transits.
ii. Some places aren't charted, so no plotter will help. But we (or someone else, eg the writer of the pilot book) crept in here beforehand and recorded a GPS position at a known safe position. No dependency on chart nor datums.
In neither of these are they 'alter course' points, nor strictly way-points, but it's what the GPS set (and most of the English speaking world) calls them.
Davy_S
Well-Known Member
In the early days of GPS I used a Garmin 128 with Differential gps (it was used for wreck fishing) I used lots of waypoints as a means of finding my way up a twisting drying out river in the dark, it was invaluable, I could not have done it without waypoints! some of the waypoints were less than 50 yds apart! although passing under leccy pylons could throw the diff corrections out a bit.
dnickj
Well-Known Member
surly that depends on where you put the waypoint
Poignard
Well-Known Member
I find it useful to set a 'waypoint' in the centre of a compass rose. The lat and long of the compass rose is printed on the chart and you have a 360 degree 'protractor' encircling it. The GPS will show you the bearing and distance from it and to plot a fix just lay a ruler from the centre of the compass rose across to the desired bearing and mark the distance along it.
I find this easier and less prone to error than plotting using the lat and long scales.
I find this easier and less prone to error than plotting using the lat and long scales.
NealB
Well-Known Member
I'd argue with your use if the word 'needed'.
I've sailed around the Thames Estuary since the late 50's, and like generations of seamen before me, have managed with no electronic waypoints at all.
Ravi
Well-Known Member
I use waypoints for ...
- Safe water marks for entrances to difficult harbours and anchorages which are, often, not shown in enough detail on charts.
- To get the ETA information. I find this an extremely useful way of easily calculating how long I can continue playing with the sails in light winds before I need to give up and motor at 4 knots - keeping the sails up till the last possible minute. (usually, I am in no hurry but useful for a tidal gate, bridge or lock opening or ........ closing time)
- Safe water marks for entrances to difficult harbours and anchorages which are, often, not shown in enough detail on charts.
- To get the ETA information. I find this an extremely useful way of easily calculating how long I can continue playing with the sails in light winds before I need to give up and motor at 4 knots - keeping the sails up till the last possible minute. (usually, I am in no hurry but useful for a tidal gate, bridge or lock opening or ........ closing time)
sailorman
Well-Known Member
X tide is X tide & makes + 10 mile difference on a X channel trip
prv
Well-Known Member
Yes, but nowadays with a plotter you would do the same thing by keeping the little boat in the right place on the screen.
Pete
Davy_S
Well-Known Member
Of course, and it has nice colours! still need the waypoints altering in line with the shifting shallows unfortunately.
geoffatstanpit
Well-Known Member
When I did cruiser racing I had all the club marks in the gps as waypoints. Then I didn't have to remember all the headings between marks and the gps gave me the eta as well. When we all had gps the club was able to get rid of the gigantic iron spheres that had to be painted each winter and replace them with little plastic buoys that you could only see from about half a mile.
bitbaltic
Well-Known Member
+1 this is my routine way of fixing position and you can't do it without a GPS waypoint on the centre of the rose.
johnalison
Well-Known Member
I really don't care what other people do, but nor do I consider myself to be anally retentive because I put in a route for each day's sailing, any more than those who busily (and rightly) draw in their course line and the relevant tidal offsets onto charts. It is the work of a minute or two on a plotter, and gives me the chance to look at where I will be going in some detail. The whole purpose of the exercise is to have a pleasant and safe passage. Back in the '70s, when we crossed the Thames Estuary, you had to sail up to each buoy just to read the name and confirm your position, but nowadays a track will save me the effort.
Except when under engine and therefore following my track exactly, I always regard waypoints and tracks as flexible options. In my mind I am usually making calculations about the combination of my boat speed and the wind and tide conditions, saving a mile or so here and perhaps giving some distance to the tide there, so my actual course is a compromise between the shortest course and what will be quickest or least likely to be affected by a change in conditions. Just watching my boat on a plotter screen does not give me the chance to sail in this manner, though I am happy to do so when conditions make it useful, such as when we left Treguier this summer and had to weave between the rocks when the transits were scarcely visible.
Except when under engine and therefore following my track exactly, I always regard waypoints and tracks as flexible options. In my mind I am usually making calculations about the combination of my boat speed and the wind and tide conditions, saving a mile or so here and perhaps giving some distance to the tide there, so my actual course is a compromise between the shortest course and what will be quickest or least likely to be affected by a change in conditions. Just watching my boat on a plotter screen does not give me the chance to sail in this manner, though I am happy to do so when conditions make it useful, such as when we left Treguier this summer and had to weave between the rocks when the transits were scarcely visible.
prv
Well-Known Member
I'm much more likely to do this than set up a series of waypoints linked into a route
. Pete
pvb
Well-Known Member
Good summary of the usefulness of waypoints. If I'm going somewhere new, I always pop a route into the plotter - it takes minutes and it doesn't matter if I don't follow it. But on a number of occasions (think fog) I've been grateful I took the trouble, as it removes the need to think where I'm going, releasing brain cells to concentrate visually on what's around me.
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
Really. Bradwell to Dover is not significantly different for the first stretch & there are so many buoys & windfarms you would have to be blind not to find your way- or thick fog