how do you sail your boat?

[dancrane]

...having a car parked out the front doesn't mean you are not allowed to enjoy a nice walk to the shops...

My view too - although it's remarkable how many people acquire wheels and thereafter instinctively recoil from any opportunity to use the muscles in their legs.

I can't say we are going down the basic boat model...we like the domestic electrics from dehumidifier to ice maker but haven't felt the need for a proper chartplotter...

Yes. So many domestic benefits from tech, from wicking-fibre fabrics to efficient lighting/heating. Great for safety too, with the certainty of positioning by GPS, if instinct and mental application don't suffice. But, asking a navigation system to compute a course to steer, from the start? I think applying the mind to the "how, where and when" of navigation, is a pleasurable challenge, intrinsic to sailing - not a chore, like keeping crew and cabin, warm and dry. If I wanted an automated travel plan, I'd be on a ferry or flight.

I don't have the yacht yet, but I'm window-shopping for a steering compass, on principle.

 

[Delta94]

You simply line that projection line up with the route you have plotted on the screen and hey presto, you are continually adjusting your course in real time to follow the shortest possible track across the ground accounting for tide, leeway etc. Even without a route to follow, when just boating about for fun, the leading line from your boat symbol always tells you where you are actually heading and allows you to make course to steer adjustments and anticipate best times to tack etc to work tides and avoid the rocks. Chartplotters are brilliant bits of kit.

That's a little concerning.

Having read the "Declining number of Sailors" thread, I think I'm in the younger bracket at 35. Isn't it prudent to use all the tools at your disposal?

For our first (and only) channel crossing we had a planned CTS calculated and maintained the 180 / 181 heading almost the entire way. Really satisfying.

 

[dancrane]

I read about the Delta 94 for the first time, about fifteen minutes ago.

Lovely looking yacht. Damned shame there weren't more built.

Not my kind of thing - I'm too fond of drying harbours - but boats don't come any prettier. :encouragement:

 

[dolabriform]

I read about the Delta 94 for the first time, about fifteen minutes ago.

Lovely looking yacht. Damned shame there weren't more built.

Not my kind of thing - I'm too fond of drying harbours - but boats don't come any prettier. :encouragement:

? Wrong thread?

 

[dancrane]

Just expressing approval of the previous poster's boat. Kind of weird, because I'd only heard of it for the first time, a short while before.

 

[Delta94]

Just expressing approval of the previous poster's boat. Kind of weird, because I'd only heard of it for the first time, a short while before.

Thank you! (apologies in advance to the thread hijack police)

 

[Buck Turgidson]

I note the the OP does mention using the fluxgate compass which is still a magnetically driven device. Most modern commercial jets only have a small standby magnetic compass. Which frankly is never used. The aircrafts magnetic heading is actually derived from sensed true heading by inertial reference units and then local magnetic variation from a database is used to give magnetic heading. No magnetism is actually involved at all!!

 

[DJE]

I check the compass against several local transits from time and have a rough deviation card drawn up against the GPS compass.

GPS compass? Something like this?

http://www.furuno.com/en/products/compass/SC-30

 

[PeterV]

This is how I sail:
I'm making a passage from the Needles to Alderney so I'll look up the tide times and tidal streams and note them in my notebook. I notice that the tidal stream will be setting to the East as I expect to be approaching Alderney. I draw a line on the chart to the destination and note the course to steer. As I leave the Needles channel I set a course adding 10 degrees to the course I've plotted and note that I'm sailing quite close to the wind so actually sail a little higher to be close hauled. On the passage I read off the position from the GPS every hour and plot it on the chart. I notice several other yachts leaving the Needles with me but all sail further off the wind than me so I assume they're heading for Le Havre area. On the way the wind heads a little so I'm back to 10 degrees above my course, sometimes only 5. As I get to 10 miles off Alderney I ease sheets a bit to sail into Braye and I pick up a mooring. About 6 to 8 hours later I recognise yachts coming into Braye that left the Needles channel with me, but presumably followed their plotters course.
I'm not an expert on modern plotters (as you might tell) so I don't know if they're capable of allowing for future tidal streams and wind shifts but I think I'll carry on doing it my way.

 

[BelleSerene]

This is how I sail:
I'm making a passage from the Needles to Alderney so I'll look up the tide times and tidal streams and note them in my notebook. I notice that the tidal stream will be setting to the East as I expect to be approaching Alderney. I draw a line on the chart to the destination and note the course to steer. As I leave the Needles channel I set a course adding 10 degrees to the course I've plotted and note that I'm sailing quite close to the wind so actually sail a little higher to be close hauled. On the passage I read off the position from the GPS every hour and plot it on the chart. I notice several other yachts leaving the Needles with me but all sail further off the wind than me so I assume they're heading for Le Havre area. On the way the wind heads a little so I'm back to 10 degrees above my course, sometimes only 5. As I get to 10 miles off Alderney I ease sheets a bit to sail into Braye and I pick up a mooring. About 6 to 8 hours later I recognise yachts coming into Braye that left the Needles channel with me, but presumably followed their plotters course.
I'm not an expert on modern plotters (as you might tell) so I don't know if they're capable of allowing for future tidal streams and wind shifts but I think I'll carry on doing it my way.

That works because on that chosen passage you get roughly 6 hours of east-going tide and 6 hours of west-going tide cancelling each other out over the 60nm of your passage at ~5 knots. Now try to sail a straight line from Alderney to Guernsey, or from there to St Malo, or on pretty much any other offshore passage: if you don’t modify your course to steer with the tidal offset of the passage ahead, it won’t be you with your feet up watching the other boats arriving in harbour!

 

[chrishelen]

On my comercial boat I have to have the compass swung every few years. It's a bit rich as I seldom use it, maybe for wind direction. I am allowed to do it myself now. There are only a few professional compass singers left in the UK now I believe. The last guy that did mine was a great character.

 

[Tomahawk]

I try to stay off the hard stuff... otherwise known as land.

 

[wotayottie]

How do you work out a course to steer allowing for the anticipated effect of cross tide and leeway?

I dont bother. Just head off in generally the right direction and it soon becomes obvious from comparing track and bearing whether further adjustments are needed to take into account tide and leeway.

I occasionally have a play with all the old skills from running fixes to course to steer etc just to make sure I remember and if I am bored.

 

[wotayottie]

Offshore, I mostly steer by compass. I don't stare at it of course. I find something in the distance to focus on, such as a distant ship or a cloud, and refer back to the compass from time to time. I also have COG and SOG on display on a Graphic Repeater, along with course and distance to WP. Wind direction also comes into play, so steering is often a mixture of several functions, including boat speed when tacking. At night, I find the compass hard to read, and on the last passage I did in he dark, with a quartering F6, I mostly steered by wind angle.

Well that begs another question, the bit about " I mostly steer" . Do you? Really? I steer when racing but otherwise its the autopilot. There is nothing more boring than a 3 hour stint behind the wheel. Well maybe a 4 hour one!

 

[Lucky Duck]

There is nothing more boring than a 3 hour stint behind the wheel. Well maybe a 4 hour one!

Motoring - yes, sailing - rarely

 

[wotayottie]

:

...but to plan a coastal trip on a tablet, then steer for waypoints with half an eye on a computer screen? That's not what I call adventuring. Might as well be tamely approaching a roundabout waiting for a disembodied voice to tell you which exit. :disgust:

An interesting comment. Perhaps warrants another thread. What is adventure? I certainly dont see cruising local UK waters as an adventure and the only realm adventure cruising foreign waters is dealing with the different habits etc of worthy orientals and occidentals.

Now if you built the boat yourself, made the mast and sails yourself, no engine and no tech or comms, then sailing that would be an adventure but also arguably be stupid and selfish in exposing others to risk rescuing you.

IMO the only adventure is doing something new and risky

 

[Tomahawk]

Well that begs another question, the bit about " I mostly steer" . Do you? Really? I steer when racing but otherwise its the autopilot. There is nothing more boring than a 3 hour stint behind the wheel. Well maybe a 4 hour one!

Nothing I love more than hand steering and playing the waves and gusts. Why have a sailboat and treat it like a mobo?

 

[westhinder]

Nothing I love more than hand steering and playing the waves and gusts. Why have a sailboat and treat it like a mobo?

Depends a bit on the type of trip and hence the mindset. If I'm out for a few hours just to enjoy the boat and the sea I will steer, or let any guests steer as much as they like. If the purpose is passagemaking, so longer legs, steering to waypoints etc, then I will let the autopilot do the job and be free to move around on board while keeping watch and enjoying the scenery

 

[TangaraToo]

Well that begs another question, the bit about " I mostly steer" . Do you? Really? I steer when racing but otherwise its the autopilot. There is nothing more boring than a 3 hour stint behind the wheel. Well maybe a 4 hour one!

Depends more on conditions for us. Gentle relaxed conditions then auto goes on, sit back and relax. More challenging sea state/ wind or sail plan then helm as more fun.

 

[MountainGoat]

My magnetic compass, due to limited binnacle space, is right next to my helm instruments. As a result it has over 40 degrees of deviation at points.

So I treat the binnacle compass as decorative, rather like the brass clock in the cabin that doesn't work, and just read off the fluxgate bearing from the pilot head, or use the hand compass if I need to.