RYA Theory, GPS, Galileo and Card Readers!

On two separate trips in August I heard of two yachts with electrics taken out by separate thunderstorms.We had experienced a bad thunderstorm in Camaret and on arrival in Roscoff two days later there was a 50foot yacht which had been struck and electrics taken out this yacht I saw back in the Hamble when on my way to Dartmouth on the leg from Weymouth to Dartmouth there was a thunderstorm in Lyme Bay and there was a report on YBW of a yacht losing electrics.On the other hand on a trip back from Camaret to Falmouth there were thunderstorms nearly all the way and would have seen in excess of 100 lightning strikes into the water it was also raining most of the time and we were not struck.On my small 23 footer I do have a Chart plotter but still have charts for the above situations and can navigate without GPS as started offshore sailing in 1967.The accuracy is awesome but check your chart data if using paper charts as has been said and a chart plotter on deck when it's rough is very reassuring but a plan B can be necessary.
 
Uricanejack said:
A prudent navigator never relies on just one method of determining his position. If there is more than one available.
When the two don’t add up. Your intuition or 6th sense will kick in.
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This is the key point, in my view. Emphasis upon the word "navigator".

Reliance upon electronics equates to "computer operator". Absolutely nothing wrong with this and in our lives today it's hard to escape from a computer. I'm sure that most of us navigate by this means most of the time.

Being a "navigator" is much, much more. It involves an understanding of the basic underlying principles and the joy of practicing the art (or is that the science) of it all. To read a computer screen is, imho, missing so much of the pleasure of being afloat.
 
Jungle Jim said:
Pardon my ignorance but I can't understand why you should do this. Can anyone explain?
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If you ask your GPS the bearing and direction from the compass rose, you can plot your position quickly just by measuring the distance from the rose.
Trouble is, the rose is normally in the least useful part of the chart!
I prefer to put my own waypoints in useful places, I can sketch the angles to much better than 10 degrees.
It depends what yo uare trying to do, navigation is much more tha nknowing where you are, it is also about knowing when you need to tack or whatever, I'd far rather know I'm roughly half a mile from wanting to tack than know I'm exactly 12.743 miles from the compass rose or know my lattitude exactly etc.
 
dragonvc said:
On two separate trips in August I heard of two yachts with electrics taken out by separate thunderstorms.We had experienced a bad thunderstorm in Camaret and on arrival in Roscoff two days later there was a 50foot yacht which had been struck and electrics taken out this yacht I saw back in the Hamble when on my way to Dartmouth on the leg from Weymouth to Dartmouth there was a thunderstorm in Lyme Bay and there was a report on YBW of a yacht losing electrics.On the other hand on a trip back from Camaret to Falmouth there were thunderstorms nearly all the way and would have seen in excess of 100 lightning strikes into the water it was also raining most of the time and we were not struck.On my small 23 footer I do have a Chart plotter but still have charts for the above situations and can navigate without GPS as started offshore sailing in 1967.The accuracy is awesome but check your chart data if using paper charts as has been said and a chart plotter on deck when it's rough is very reassuring but a plan B can be necessary.
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This thread has drifted. When I originally posted it was very specifically about position fixing only.

Even if all the electrics blow up on a boat I don't believe there will not be one functional gps left working. Watch, phone etc etc etc. Everything has gps. And if you have a paper chart and a 2b pencil off you go.
 
lw395 said:
If you ask your GPS the bearing and direction from the compass rose, you can plot your position quickly just by measuring the distance from the rose.
Trouble is, the rose is normally in the least useful part of the chart!
I prefer to put my own waypoints in useful places, I can sketch the angles to much better than 10 degrees.
It depends what yo uare trying to do, navigation is much more tha nknowing where you are, it is also about knowing when you need to tack or whatever, I'd far rather know I'm roughly half a mile from wanting to tack than know I'm exactly 12.743 miles from the compass rose or know my lattitude exactly etc.
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The point of using the compass rose is it's quick and easy to plot the position on a chart, bearing/distance being much quicker to plot than Lat/Long. It's not actually a waypoint on a route.
 
lw395 said:
If you ask your GPS the bearing and direction from the compass rose, you can plot your position quickly just by measuring the distance from the rose.
Trouble is, the rose is normally in the least useful part of the chart!
I prefer to put my own waypoints in useful places, I can sketch the angles to much better than 10 degrees.
It depends what yo uare trying to do, navigation is much more tha nknowing where you are, it is also about knowing when you need to tack or whatever, I'd far rather know I'm roughly half a mile from wanting to tack than know I'm exactly 12.743 miles from the compass rose or know my lattitude exactly etc.
Click to expand...

Never seen the point of the compass rose idea. I always navigate with a chain of waypoints and the gps gives me the brg of the next one. Its all I need most of the time so even though I log the lat /long I dont use it. Just adjust the pilot so that BGG = TRK and off we go.

As for the use of back up skills, thats fine if you have a memory . I used to teach shorebased but I wouldnt now know how to do a running fix and I certainly dont know the colreg lights.
 
I used to use Way Points prior to having, and when I had GPS, but now with plotters, I don't see the need for them. What am I doing wrong?
 
The RYA are moving more towards electronic navigation and less towards pencil and paper navigation but in a holistic way i.e. its all just navigation. It is likely that radar will come compulsory on all sea school yachts at some point in the future. Teaching radar will become compulsory and training yachts will have to carry plotting sheets as part of the training material. Schools are also being advised that if they are upgrading electronics it is recommended to make sure that any upgrades are compatible with installation of radar. Astro is not being dropped from the Ocean Syllabus and both the power and sailing syllabuses are being combined into a more unified programme with a sort of competency range e.g. students will be expected to have a greater understanding of engines on the power course compared to the flappy thing students although the syllabus will be the same. I got this information from a news letter to schools that was issued in January this year, just happened to come across it at a friends place who is in the business.
 
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