What Sextant would you recommend.

[Praxinoscope]

On average good quality second hand sextants seem to seek for around £200-£250. Auction sites are worth watching,.
I agree that on a small boat a plastic Ebbco will probably be as accurate as a Plath but the more expensive ones do have better optics which make taking sights easier.
I prefer to go for the best I can afford and in my case it was a second hand Zeiss Drum 20 years ago, it still lives on board and is a pleasure to use, and if looked after will last a lifetime.

 

[GHA]

I am thinking of buying a cheap sextant to play with, this thread was there, started to read it and saw the last post was 2012! I have been puzzled by the recent rash of resurrected threads without any rhyme or reason for them to be so and realised that for some reason these old posts are unilaterally surfacing. ie no one doing a search for info and answering old posts to elicit fresh info. So something is causing them to surface. I asked a reasonable question I thought?

Ah, OK, thought it sounded like the forum was bringing old threads back from the dead somehow. I got a rather nice freiberger off ebay

 

[Stemar]

I am thinking of buying a cheap sextant to play with, this thread was there, started to read it and saw the last post was 2012! I have been puzzled by the recent rash of resurrected threads without any rhyme or reason for them to be so and realised that for some reason these old posts are unilaterally surfacing. ie no one doing a search for info and answering old posts to elicit fresh info. So something is causing them to surface. I asked a reasonable question I thought?

I would surmise that people find old threads popping up because the "I've read that" cookie, or whatever got lost in the move to the new software.

Be that as it may, I have a plastic fantastic sextant that I'm never going to use. If you want to pick it up from Southampton or Gosport for a little something in the charity box of your choice, it's yours.

 

[Bilgediver]

I am minded to take up a bit of a hobby and buy a sextant.
I may or may not use it, but I want something that is useable and accurate that I can get bits for, and have it serviced.

Any recommendations for something worthwhile but wont make my eyes water?

Also, what to look out for, and approx cost used in good working order?

Depends at what cost your eyes start to water. Second hand sextants appear on various sites from about £350 upwards depending what accessories are included and condition. There are many servants hanging around now that ships are generally not using them so it is a matter of finding one.as many of the mariners that hung on to them might accept a sensible offer. Social media might help here .
There must be a glut of Kelvin Hughes sextants around. My company disposed of 10+ many years ago and no doubt other shipping companies did too. Just have to get the word out.
Just make sure you are buying a sextant made for navigation and not something made just to look good in a display case. Some of the latter can look like one of the former in a photograph.

 

[thinwater]

Anyone practice making a fire by rubbing two sticks together?

[Sorry--I couldn't help myself.]

 

[Praxinoscope]

Anyone practice making a fire by rubbing two sticks together?

[Sorry--I couldn't help myself.]

Why use an obsolete system of motive power in the form of wind? Just have a power boat and forget all this out of date nonsense of sails.
Using a sextant is another skill, no-one is forced to use one, there's always the gps, but some of us In addition still like to keep up our DR on paper charts and occasionally get the sextant out of its box.

 

[Skylark]

Anyone practice making a fire by rubbing two sticks together?

[Sorry--I couldn't help myself.]

That’s perfectly ok, feel free. You seem to miss the point quiet regularly. ?

 

[Beneteau381]

I would surmise that people find old threads popping up because the "I've read that" cookie, or whatever got lost in the move to the new software.

Be that as it may, I have a plastic fantastic sextant that I'm never going to use. If you want to pick it up from Southampton or Gosport for a little something in the charity box of your choice, it's yours.

Ooh! yes please, lets see how I can sort it out

 

[Beneteau381]

That’s perfectly ok, feel free. You seem to miss the point quiet regularly. ?

Indeed, we do things because we can and enjoy doing them!

 

[Kukri]

May as well chip in. Most people recommend what they’ve got. I’ve got a Plath, but if buying new I’d recommend the Astra. The ships I run all have Astras which is how I have come to play with them.

I don’t think any sextant maker came out with a really new design after 1945! WW2 led both Plath and Tamaya to develop sextants that could be used easily on board submarines. A submarine navigator usually had to take his sights at twilight from the top of the fin, so there was a premium on good big mirrors and general ease of use. The resulting sextants were good for yachts.

Plath sextants are not all the same. I have a bronze one and an aluminium one and I much prefer the latter. Similarly you can have a 4x40 telescope or a 6x30. The weak point of the Plath is the incredibly carp electrics, particularly the switch.

The Astra is Chinese, based on the Tamaya, and is a more modern design. It comes in two grades; the professional one and the IIIB which is the yottie’s one. Either will do. It’s light and has a full horizon mirror which is definitely a Good Thing on a yacht.

 

[Praxinoscope]

Ouch! Just looked at the price of new Freiberger and Plath sextants, fortunately can still find good second hand units. Mine is a 1985 Freiberger Zeiss Drum which suits me.
I notice that there is a Freiberger Zeiss sextant in the ybw forsale section at about €450

 

[Deleted member 478]

There are a few Astra IIIBs on ebay, but way above my budget.

 

[Daydream believer]

Jim,

I've got Zeiss yacht sextant sitting around. I bought it years ago when I did my YM Ocean Theory. Don't use it now.

I'd be very happy to lend it to you for a while.

Neal

Just out of interest I see that Full circle did get to borrow it.
Did he ever give it back?

 

[laika]

The Astra is Chinese, based on the Tamaya, and is a more modern design. It comes in two grades; the professional one and the IIIB which is the yottie’s one. Either will do. It’s light and has a full horizon mirror which is definitely a Good Thing on a yacht.

How do the III pro and IIIB compare? I've handled a IIIB (and quite liked it). From the blurb the III pro seems to differ in having a bronze arc which makes it 225g heavier. A little extra weight shouldn't be problem seeing as I've got the Davis as a backup and for air travel.

 

[Kukri]

How do the III pro and IIIB compare? I've handled a IIIB (and quite liked it). From the blurb the III pro seems to differ in having a bronze arc which makes it 225g heavier. A little extra weight shouldn't be problem seeing as I've got the Davis as a backup and for air travel.

I am in the opposite condition as I have only used the ‘pro’ model! But I have a Plath with an aluminium alloy arc and it works perfectly well so far as I am concerned - no different to the bronze one, just quite a bit lighter. I’m sure my technique isn’t anything like good enough to tell the difference!

I’ve just taken a snap of the aluminium arc:



Since everything else appears to be the same, I would go for the IIIB.

PS: Bronze one was £300 in JD Potter in 1982, newly recertified, with 6x30 and artificial horizon. When the switch died I bought the alloy one on eBay at the same price - unused, German Navy surplus but no telescope. It’s switch was duff too, so I did what I should have done in the first place, bought Dr WJ Morris’s excellent book and set about fixing both of them and finding another telescope. In the course of this I discovered that the Plath 6x30 is an East German Zeiss monocular as once supplied to the quondam DDR Army and readily available on eBay!

 

[laika]

Thanks for the info. The IIIB also has the advantage over the III pro of being readily available in the UK: With who-knows-what quarantine things happening now is probably not the best time to be planning a shopping trip to stay with friends in the US.

There's a little trip I've been intending to do for a while without GPS and currently finding myself with a little time on my hands this could be the year

 

[Kukri]

I strongly recommend this book. And indeed “The Sextant Simplified”. But you probably have both already.

 

[Solent sailer]

I have been thinking about buying a sextant for quite a few years but have not been able to justify the expence, I agree that a plastic one will "do the job" but so will the GPS on my phone.
I have tried the plastic sextants and whilst they are functional they are not a pleasure to use. The quality of the engineering of a metal one makes it far nicer to use and as unless something really serious happens to the GPS signal, you will be using the sextant becouse you like using it and not becouse you "need" a position that connot be derived another far more accurate way. At some time I will get around to buying/using a sextant but it will be when I am able to use a "nice" metal one and not a functional plastic one.

 

[GHA]

I have tried the plastic sextants and whilst they are functional they are not a pleasure to use. The quality of the engineering of a metal one makes it far nicer to use and as unless something really serious happens to the GPS signal, you will be using the sextant becouse you like using it and not becouse you "need" a position that connot be derived another far more accurate way. At some time I will get around to buying/using a sextant but it will be when I am able to use a "nice" metal one and not a functional plastic one.

After having a plastic one and treating myself to a nice metal one, found that, as well as it being a lovely piece of engineering, it actually gets taken out of the box more often (once in a while ) as its so much nicer to use.
Almost certainly will never get used in anger but it is interesting and makes you think about just how vast the universe is living on a tiny spinning piece of rock

 

[ghostlymoron]

I bought a Davis Mk15 at a local charity shop for £50 a year or so ago. It is functional but not a thing of beauty like a Frieburger. I had previously done the yachtmaster ocean course so knew how to use it. I am sad to say it has been in a cupboard since I bought it. My friend has two Frieburgers which are also in a cupboard.