Does anyone still (a) use, and or (b) carry aboard, any or all of these?

Kukri said:
1. Binoculars - 2 sets
2. Hand bearing compass - Yes
3. Stopwatch - Yes, otherwise way over start line
4. Lead line - Definitely!
5. Admiralty Pilots - Some
6. Walker log - Nope
7. Sextant - On bookshelf at home
8. Deck watch - Ditto
9. List of Lights - Yep
10. Norie’s Tables (or the one the Navy use) - No
11. The Ship Captain’s Medical Guide - No
12. International Code of Signals - Only in Almanac
13. Signal flags - If one counts bunting!
14. Nautical Almanac - Some years
15. Yachtsman’s Almanac / Tide Tables - Some years
16. C A Handbook. - No
17. Paper charts, Portland plotter or parallel rules and dividers. - Yes
18. Station Pointer... No
19. Aneroid barometer? Yes, but mainly to match clock!
20. Long wave radio for shipping forecasts? - Yes
Click to expand...

Re lead line, I use one all the time. Swinging off stern in a steep-to river bank, checking marina depths (2m below datum is biggest lie in yachting), calibrating depth offset, emergency use, scounting in Zodiac, etc.

For the cost it's got to be a total no brainer. Although I don't do the grease trick to sample the bottom type :D
 
Kukri said:
1. Binoculars 3 pairs - one with compass
2. Hand bearing compass 2
3. Stopwatch 1
4. Lead line 1 (more accurately described as a shackle line)*
5. Admiralty Pilots
6. Walker log 2 ( 1 KDO and 1 KDS - with analogue speed meter)
7. Sextant 2 (both freiberger ship model)
8. Deck watch (Chronometer)
9. List of Lights
10. Norie’s Tables (or the one the Navy use).
11. The Ship Captain’s Medical Guide Yes
12. International Code of Signals
13. Signal flags 1 set
14. Nautical Almanac 1
15. Yachtsman’s Almanac / Tide Tables yes
16. C A Handbook.
17. Paper charts, Portland plotter or parallel rules and dividers. yes
18. Station Pointer...
19. Aneroid barometer? yes
20. Long wave radio for shipping forecasts? Yes
Click to expand...

* saved us from damage twice this summer.

M.
 
I don’t race; my stopwatch is for timing lights. Yes I can use my phone but the phone is more valuable and less likely to survive a trip across the cockpit.

I have had occasion to use a lead line from the weather deck of a large container ship (yes, they all carry one, and a sextant).
 
Uricanejack said:
........re Nories Tables...............
Click to expand...

Many thanks for taking the time to give examples of using the tables. As you suggested, I've now spent a pleasant hour scanning through the first 50 pages, "Explanation of the Tables". I take my hat off to you and your fellow navigators from yesteryear.

A few sections in particular caught my eye; "change of hour angle per 1 minute of altitude" "change of altitude in 1 minute of time" and who could not be smitten by the 4 Ex-Meridian Tables. :D

It's interesting that you'd still prefer Nories to AP3270 Air Tables.

When and why did "navigation school" start using the convenience and simplicity (?) of Air Tables with Marcq St Hilaire method? Do you know?
 
They are different things. Nories, and the RN one which I still can’t remember, is a book of useful stuff.

AFAIK all professional navigating officers are taught “the long way”. In the UK they are all taught using the quite excellent Admiralty Manual of Navigation Volume Two.

The Air Tables and NP 401 are shorter routes to the answer. The fewer steps the smaller the chance of a mistake.
 
dom said:
Sounds scary :ambivalence:

Probably being thick, but why way up there on the weather deck?
Click to expand...

Better that than the bridge wing! If I could have got lower I would have. It wasn’t scary; we were in port but not quite alongside owing to a build up of silt on the berth and we were getting evidence of this interesting fact in case we had damage. That being the case I couldn’t use the accommodation ladder which as you say would have given a more accurate result.
 
1. Binoculars Yes
2. Hand bearing compass Yes
3. Stopwatch - On phone.
4. Lead line Yes
5. Admiralty Pilots No - Imray pilots Yes
6. Walker log No - Electric paddlewheel log Yes
7. Sextant No
8. Deck watch Ship's clock and other devices Yes
9. List of Lights - In almanac Yes
10. Norie’s Tables (or the one the Navy use) No.
11. The Ship Captain’s Medical Guide Medical guide in Reeds Handbook yes
12. International Code of Signals - In almanac Yes
13. Signal flags- Only a few
14. Nautical Almanac Though not always in date
15. Yachtsman’s Almanac / Tide Tables Yes
16. C A Handbook. No
17. Paper charts, Portland plotter or parallel rules and dividers Yes.
18. Station Pointer.. No
19. Aneroid barometer - Yes
20. Long wave radio for shipping forecasts? No
 
Kukri said:
1. Binoculars
2. Hand bearing compass
4. Lead line
6. Walker log
13. Signal flags
15. Yachtsman’s Almanac / Tide Tables
17. Paper charts, Portland plotter or parallel rules and dividers.
19. Aneroid barometer?
20. Long wave radio for shipping forecasts?
Click to expand...

Check, checkity-check check, check check check check.
 
1. Binoculars Yes
2. Hand bearing compass Yes
3. Stopwatch - On phone.
4. Lead line Yes
5. Admiralty Pilots No - Imray pilots Yes
6. Walker log No - Electric paddlewheel log Yes
7. Sextant No
8. Deck watch Ship's clock and other devices - Mobile phone
9. List of Lights - Yes
10. Norie’s Tables (or the one the Navy use) No.
11. The Ship Captain’s Medical Guide Medical guide - No
12. International Code of Signals - Yes
13. Signal flags- no
14. Nautical Almanac - no
15. Yachtsman’s Almanac / Tide Tables No
16. C A Handbook. No
17. Paper charts, Portland plotter or parallel rules and dividers Yes.
18. Station Pointer.. No
19. Aneroid barometer - No
20. Long wave radio for shipping forecasts? No
 
1. Binoculars yes, used daily
2. Hand bearing compass yes, used sometimes
3. Stopwatch yes, in wristwatch
4. Lead line yes, used a couple of times this summer to sound around the boat when there was a chance of touching bottom
5. Admiralty Pilots, yes, on iPad
6. Walker log no, sold with previous boat
7. Sextant no, we carry 3 GPS and at least 3 phones/tablets with GPS and Navionics
8. Deck watch no, see 3.
9. List of Lights no
10. Norie’s Tables (or the one the Navy use). No
11. The Ship Captain’s Medical Guide no
12. International Code of Signals yes
13. Signal flags no
14. Nautical Almanac yes
15. Yachtsman’s Almanac / Tide Tables yes
16. C A Handbook. No
17. Paper charts, Portland plotter or parallel rules and dividers. Yes to all
18. Station Pointer... no, what’s that?
19. Aneroid barometer? No, electronic x 2
20. Long wave radio for shipping forecasts? Yes

If we had to compile a list of basic requirements when speccing a new boat, what would it contain, apart from the obvious electronics like chartplotter, VHF, AIS and radar? Pyrotechnics or electronic flares? What else?
 
Sorry, I can't be bothered to read all posts to see if anyone has added "bolt cutters". I thought they were fairly standard. Even found them provided on a charter yacht. And used them, though only to threaten cutting the lines of an Italian motor boat that was trying to winch itself in next to us in Fiskardo, Kefalonia, where there was no space. My acting of lost patience, designed to convince the Italian, drew a ripple of applause from the assembled spectators on that busy quay...

Mike.
 
Kukri said:
1. Binoculars YES
2. Hand bearing compass YES
3. Stopwatch YES
4. Lead line NO
5. Admiralty Pilots NO
6. Walker log NO
7. Sextant YES
8. Deck watch YES - if my wrist watch counts
9. List of Lights YES
10. Norie’s Tables (or the one the Navy use). NO
11. The Ship Captain’s Medical Guide NO
12. International Code of Signals YES
13. Signal flags NO
14. Nautical Almanac YES (but five years old)
15. Yachtsman’s Almanac / Tide Tables YES
16. C A Handbook. NO
17. Paper charts, Portland plotter or parallel rules and dividers. YES
18. Station Pointer... WHAT? NO
19. Aneroid barometer? YES
20. Long wave radio for shipping forecasts? YES
Click to expand...
 
Lead line is good when anchoring as a bit of grease, candle wax etc on bottom tells you what is on the seabed. It's feel can also tell you the consistency of the seabed.
A simple modern echo sounder giving a depth read out cannot tell you this.
The old Seafarer with the spinner could tell you how silty the seabed was.
 
davidjackson said:
Many thanks for taking the time to give examples of using the tables. As you suggested, I've now spent a pleasant hour scanning through the first 50 pages, "Explanation of the Tables". I take my hat off to you and your fellow navigators from yesteryear.

A few sections in particular caught my eye; "change of hour angle per 1 minute of altitude" "change of altitude in 1 minute of time" and who could not be smitten by the 4 Ex-Meridian Tables. :D

It's interesting that you'd still prefer Nories to AP3270 Air Tables.

When and why did "navigation school" start using the convenience and simplicity (?) of Air Tables with Marcq St Hilaire method? Do you know?
Click to expand...

Thanks.
I don’t know if they ever have. They theory or math behind how the short method was taught back in my day but discouraged. The only acceptable answer to D.O.T was long hand. I heard they would accept short methods if you included a proof of how they worked. The exam time was always short. So you had to be good at long hand.
Truthfully, I learned at sea, from the 2nd or 3rd Mate. Not so much in school, where I learned the math.

I used the short method tables for stars . I was taught the theory and shown how to use a bubble sextant in the planetarium at shields.
Not sure this is gospel.
I believe, the air tables were developed for Bomber Command during WW2. Along with the bubble sextant. (I should have bought one years ago when they were worth peanuts) To solve the problem of navigation for long distances at the high speeds Bombers flew. I suppose it was just as important to Coastal Command.
There were huge numbers of navigators required and trained. And some very Bright mathematicians came up with simplified method and the pre calculated tables. It quite ingenious in its simplicity, Pre calculated for whole numbers, the assumed position doesn’t actually have to be where you are. Just close enough for plotting errors and to be acceptable.
Around the same time, electronic radio aids to navigation were developed. For the same reasons. Even GPS uses hyperbolic difference in radio signals and can trace its development back through deca, loran, to console and developments in during WW2.

It was quite interesting, the tables come into thier own for selecting stars and resolving stars quickly.

I just found the traditional long hand method was quicker for the sun. It was a personal opinion. Also a lot of practice. Very much like riding a bike.
 
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