Sextants - as useless as sudocu

[dylanwinter]

I secretly admire those who still know how to use a sextant

but in my experience in UK waters

given the smallness of my boat

the cloudiness of my skies

they seem an utter waste of good engineering and scarce personal grey matter.

They are, in my opinion, about as useful as sudocu.

An utterly pointless intellectual excercise.

By the way my wife warned me that I would alienate one group of sailors after another until there were only three left who still agreed with.

Dylan

 

[Reverend Ludd]

I've got a sextant and am doing my Y/M Ocean but I agree with you.

 

[Evadne]

A few years ago I succumbed to an ebay bargain and bought a Walker log. It is a thing of beauty and no boat should be without one, but I've never deployed it and I fear it falls into a similar category. Maybe when the Stowe trailing log breaks down for the last time it'll come in useful....

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I secretly admire those who still know how to use a sextant

but in my experience in UK waters

given the smallness of my boat

the cloudiness of my skies

they seem an utter waste of good engineering and scarce personal grey matter.

They are, in my opinion, about as useful as sudocu.

An utterly pointless intellectual excercise.

By the way my wife warned me that I would alienate one group of sailors after another until there were only three left who still agreed with.

Dylan

They are eminently useful for the sort of coastal navigation you do. For example, distance off by vertical angle is very precise, and very easy to do. One measurement, one quick check in the tables. Position by horizontal angles is a bit more tricky, but still relatively straightforward - especially if you've got a set of Station pointers.

OK, they are designed for celestial navigation that does suffer from the drawbacks you list, but I've actually used a sextant far more for coastal navigation.

I own up to enjoying Sudoku as a means of exercising the grey matter and keeping it working!

 

[dylanwinter]

well done - the last line

They are eminently useful for the sort of coastal navigation you do. For example, distance off by vertical angle is very precise, and very easy to do. One measurement, one quick check in the tables. Position by horizontal angles is a bit more tricky, but still relatively straightforward - especially if you've got a set of Station pointers.

OK, they are designed for celestial navigation that does suffer from the drawbacks you list, but I've actually used a sextant far more for coastal navigation.

I own up to enjoying Sudoku as a means of exercising the grey matter and keeping it working!

very good indeed

Dylan

 

[haydude]

IThey are, in my opinion, about as useful as sudocu.

An utterly pointless intellectual excercise.

I am afraid I disagree, sudoku is NOT an intellectual exercise.

 

[binch]

sextant

I still use one occasionally, mostly for setting a minimum distance off, and also for magnetic compass adjustment.
There are also two special astro sights that give me enormous pleasure.: one is equal alts near noon and the other, if I'm in the right latitudes, is the "basket of eggs" sight.
And I cherish the blasted thing because once it enabled me to have Comoro island moved one and a quarter miles to the east south east.
And you can take obs in cloudy weather. Only in very severe storms does the cloud cover become impenetrable.
Lastly, GPS can be jammed easily, it has twice in my eexperience been turned off completely.
Another lastly.
The dagger RN navigator's course, lasting 12 months devotes two months to navigating without any electronic aids. What do they know that we don't?

 

[Wansworth]

I have a sextant and as stated good for distance off.Not yet mastered GPS and now fogotten Sextant work,still...I would like a walker log as it avoids farting about keeping an impellor free.Found the walker log very acurate when I had one.These instruments take up little space and will work when all else fails.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

I am afraid I disagree, sudoku is NOT an intellectual exercise.

I have to strongly disagree.

Try the super-fiendish ones.

Spotting a "Swordfish", or even better, working out the reasons why it is one of the possible solutions, is an intellectual excercise and I love them.

As for sextants, I have a lovely antique one, I can use it, I enjoy doing so, but....... if I want to know where I am or how far I am from something there are several devices on board that cost less, work quicker, give more accuracy, do a host of other tasks and are just as entertaining to use.

 

[graham]

I have to admit to not owning a sextant, managed to blunder my way about the coast long before GPS Decca etc without one.Have to admit to sometimes having only a rough idea of position in those days.

I think that people who never experienced sailing without electronic navigation aids are at a big disadvantage as a rule.

GPS idsnt as infallible as some think it is.

Unless my 25 ft sloop really can do over a 100 knots

 

[Blueboatman]

I can sail competently I believe most anywheres with the batteries turned off.

Though I sort of have to agree, If you approach the kit from the batteryless point of view, you may begin to understand its versatility. Especially in and after a thunderstorm!

And exercising the grey cells seems like using other muscles. Use em or lose em? I for one do not want to be a veggie in me later years, ahem.

 

[yoda]

Careful words

I secretly admire those who still know how to use a sextant

but in my experience in UK waters

given the smallness of my boat

the cloudiness of my skies

they seem an utter waste of good engineering and scarce personal grey matter.

They are, in my opinion, about as useful as sudocu.

An utterly pointless intellectual excercise.

By the way my wife warned me that I would alienate one group of sailors after another until there were only three left who still agreed with.

Dylan

I have to agree in the context of your statement, on the other hand when offshore and looking for routine in the day sun and star sights can keep the brain very active and provide satisfaction for those of us inclined to Astro.

Yoda

 

[DownWest]

Ah, Dylan stirring the waters again.
But, after playing guessing games and being very lucky with the weather in pre-GPS days, if I ever go far out of site of land again, I will take a Davies and Mary Blewitt's book. If nothing else, it would help in knowing which lingo to use when I arrive....

 

[electrosys]

I still fire-up my ol' sextant from time to time to take a noon-sight, and a very valuable exercise it is too - for it reminds me just how lucky I am to live in an age of satellite navigation.

"GPS ? I'd be lost without it ..."

 

[Seajet]

I've used my sextant for vertical angle to find distance off a lighthouse - once.

I also used it with the sun-shades to let me and colleagues watch the eclipse in yr 2000...

Never have done an astro-fix, but I suppose if WW3 breaks out it might be helpful...

 

[alant]

I've used my sextant for vertical angle to find distance off a lighthouse - once.

I also used it with the sun-shades to let me and colleagues watch the eclipse in yr 2000...

Never have done an astro-fix, but I suppose if WW3 breaks out it might be helpful...

If WW3 breaks out, all will be academic.

 

[VicS]

If WW3 breaks out, all will be academic.

"If"

Perhaps I misread this mornings newspaper but I though Angela Merkel was threatening to start it!

 

[Porthandbuoy]

Alienated? Moi?

>

>

>

Mutter, mutter. Might just remove KTL's link from my website. Serve him right, or left.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

I have to strongly disagree.

Try the super-fiendish ones.

Spotting a "Swordfish", or even better, working out the reasons why it is one of the possible solutions, is an intellectual excercise and I love them.

As for sextants, I have a lovely antique one, I can use it, I enjoy doing so, but....... if I want to know where I am or how far I am from something there are several devices on board that cost less, work quicker, give more accuracy, do a host of other tasks and are just as entertaining to use.

No arguments?, no dissent?, no slander?

Does no-one know what a Swordfish is?

Surely you do these in your sleep Dylan?

 

[ChrisE]

Erm, great things sextants for long distance sailing, providing that you can see the Sun. There are accounts of people closing The Azores in cloud having to wear lifejackets plus all belongings in grab bags 'cos they're not quite sure where they were as there was 8/8 cloud cover.

I can, and have, used a sextant for position finding. Do I use it now, nah, I've sold it and now have a gps or three on the boat. GPS goes down? Go slow until it comes back up again. In a year or twos time we'll have both the Russian and Euro sats for backup.

Put the sextant in the same museum as the sliderule, the astrolabe and the abacus.

Seriously, use it 'cos you enjoy the pleasure of the sightings and the maths to work out where you are but as a primary location source it is not infalliable.