Pilot Guides & Almanac use in decline?

Wing Mark said:
That's not what 'broadcast' means.
Click to expand...
I think the days of true broadcasts are numbered, but I think there are services available if you have the right kit. A satelite connection though would allow downloading of Gribs or other forecasts quite cheaply (in the context of boat ownership)
 
Wing Mark said:
That's not what 'broadcast' means.
Click to expand...
Ok so an agency transmits regularly updated weather information and a suitable receiver on board puts it into a computer that decodes it and displays it on a screen.

Or if the iridium signal is good, I can phone my wife for weather routing.


For a broadcast wouldn't you need specialist big ship radio receivers?
 
I think that the principle of making a passage plan is the critical element, whether one records on paper or by careful route plotting. Just turning up and poking at a screen or grabbing a chart is asking for it.

My planning involves drawing the critical info from online & paper sources onto one sheet of A4 and plotting a course that avoids hazards and maximises tidal benefits & wind directions. I tend to now plot the course electronically, rather than on the chart.
 
Wing Mark said:
People used to manage.
Not everyone sails singlehanded, in the old days, it was typical to have a navigator below reading the book and some wet people up top operating the boat.

In theory, one reads the book before doing the pilotage.
In practice, yes it got fraught when events overtook the plan.
Click to expand...
yes, the " practice " is much more important than the " theory " .
 
capnsensible said:
Ok so an agency transmits regularly updated weather information and a suitable receiver on board puts it into a computer that decodes it and displays it on a screen.

Or if the iridium signal is good, I can phone my wife for weather routing.


For a broadcast wouldn't you need specialist big ship radio receivers?
Click to expand...
I think the issue is that the market for a broadcast service is quite small.
At one end, people get by with Navtex and LW and the odd HF transmission, at the other, people pay up for Inmarsat or Iridium.
So there is no great demand for a basic weather map to be sprayed over the Atlantic by satellite?
It would be easy to do and the receiver would not need to be any bigger or power hungry than a HH GPS, but GPS was costed on the military scales.
If it's not funded by the military or advertising, it won't happen.
 
It's nice to plan for the unforeseen and I've always found Reeds to be a comfort when you have to dive in somewhere unexpectedly .

As mentioned, it probably won't last forever . Paper based advertising continues to decline but hopefully major sponsors can still be found, perhaps not directly linked with sailing for prestige value.
 
Kukri said:
I am a dinosaur.

Every year I buy the “Cruising Almanac”.
Every year I buy the Nautical Almanac.
I am immensely impressed by the East Coast Pilot and particularly by “Crossing the Thames Estuary”.
I like pilot books.
Click to expand...
Kukri said:
I am a dinosaur.

Every year I buy the “Cruising Almanac”.
Every year I buy the Nautical Almanac.
I am immensely impressed by the East Coast Pilot and particularly by “Crossing the Thames Estuary”.
I like pilot books.
Click to expand...
Reading a book is often a welcome relief too after a day of looking at screens . :)

My favourite is plenty of cushions to get comfortable and a headtorch if needed.
 
Kukri said:
I am a dinosaur.

Every year I buy the “Cruising Almanac”.
Every year I buy the Nautical Almanac.
I am immensely impressed by the East Coast Pilot and particularly by “Crossing the Thames Estuary”.
I like pilot books.
Click to expand...
My all time fave was the Shell Channel Pilot. I had the great honour on several occasions to meet the wonderful Captain Johnny Coote. A man with presence and an extrodinary raconteur. His wartime exploits were legend and his sailing exceptional.

Hard act to follow but Tom Cunliffe did it in style. Another person I consider fortunate to have spun a few yarns with over liquid (various).

Their legacy, I hope, as great seamen is that safety at sea will continue to improve with all available technology that when properly tested, will stand up to the rigours of a harsh maritime environment. And that the users of that technology can stand up too....
 
I tried to start a debate on these issues in the RIN Navigation News in January 2015. My page The future of the GMDSS; A leisure sailor's view - Franks-Weather - The Weather Window sets out the problems. I never had any reaction. Part of my thinking is that WMO and IMO have to recognise that, as far as many sailors are concerned, the internet is the preferred route for MSI. Further, it provides far more and far more useful information than is possible over a broadcast system.
 
lustyd said:
Exactly that. Step one is getting the business model sorted, and free is how that works these days. Imray will fail because they're trying to push the same old tired subscription model that nobody can justify, and then copying their same old tired info accross. Maybe they'll surprise us this time, who knows? Ultimately though, someone with storytelling skills, cinematography skills and the ability to properly use cameras and microphones to create a narrative will win out here. All the info can be presented in an engaging way, and that's likely to drive people to try out new places more than a book that lists that there are toilets at every harbour and shows a picture of where the rock is which nobody was going to hit anyway because it's on the chart plotter. It would also be hard to talk about non existant restaurants in video format without it being obvious that there is in fact no restaurant.
Click to expand...
I have absolutely no quarrel with that; I would definitely use such an online resource when planning a cruise, and would no doubt avoid the disappointment of finding that the fish and chip stand so highly recommended in print had gone broke and closed up during COVID.

On the other hand, as Wing Mark says, YouTube uses a fair bit of bandwidth, and internet/mobile phone signals are often variable or absent in areas I sail in. Add to that my limited electrical supply for recharging electronic devices, I still read the sailing directions/pilots/cruising guides that I keep in a dry bag when cruising out of home waters, along with paper charts that I have had laminated to protect them in the open cockpit.
As one whose on-call work keeps me tied to my mobile phone day and night, I’m glad not to depend upon it while cruising. OK, I do admit to being a bit of a Luddite - I actually enjoy sitting under the boom tent reading up on my next day’s passage by the light of the paraffin lamp. I haven’t set the tent on fire yet… :)
 
cherod said:
how on earth do you use a paper chart in the cockpit when you are sailing or manouvering into a tight unfamiliar bay / harbour / port whatever with any kind of wind or motion ? i suppose it is possible but a small electric screen / device is so much better
Click to expand...
Well, you have a point there. Even though I have had most of my charts laminated for cockpit use, when it’s raining or the spray is flying, the water drops are running down my eyeglasses and neither the chart nor the little screen on my portable Garmin GPS are all that easy to read.
 
cherod said:
how on earth do you use a paper chart in the cockpit when you are sailing or manouvering into a tight unfamiliar bay / harbour / port whatever with any kind of wind or motion ? i suppose it is possible but a small electric screen / device is so much better
Click to expand...

For twenty years I had a simple gadget used by Edwardian singlehanders:

Under the sliding hatch, also sliding, was a “chart table” - a sheet of plywood on its own runners with a loose sheet of clear plastic over it. I put a folded chart there under the plastic with a chinagraph pencil and a Portland plotter.

(In the Edwardian era the sheet of perspex would have been glass.)
 
Last edited:
MADRIGAL said:
Well, you have a point there. Even though I have had most of my charts laminated for cockpit use, when it’s raining or the spray is flying, the water drops are running down my eyeglasses and neither the chart nor the little screen on my portable Garmin GPS are all that easy to read.
Click to expand...
Presumably thats the same eye glasses as you would be trying to read your paper chart with , while checking your gps with and plotting your position
 
Kukri said:
For twenty years I had a simple gadget used by Edwardian singlehanders:

Under the sliding hatch, also sliding, was a “chart table” - a sheet of plywood on its own runners with a loose sheet of clear plastic over it. I put a folded chart there under the plastic with a chinagraph pencil and a Portland plotter.

(In the Edwardian era the sheet of perspex would have been glass.)
Click to expand...
For thousands of years sailors used the stars and the tide to navigate by ( some polynesians still can ) then along came the sextant , then the compas then the charts then the gps then the chartplotters then the mobile devices , some call it progress , others are in denial ?
 
cherod said:
For thousands of years sailors used the stars and the tide to navigate by ( some polynesians still can ) then along came the sextant , then the compas then the charts then the gps then the chartplotters then the mobile devices , some call it progress , others are in denial ?
Click to expand...
For extra bonus points,.....
What will come next ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top