Nav Gear

[Captain Smollett]

Do you cruise with navigational gadgets that add convenience, or rely on the old stand-by manual methods?

What is your MINIMUM necessary Nav gear list?

[s/v Faith]

THe most absurd combination of 4 GPS, and not one but 2 Davis mark 25 sextants!

[Triton218]

I have two handheld GPS's, a magnetic compass, and an assortment of paper charts and the basic tools that go along with them.

[Dougcan]

You need one more on that poll, “Dead Reckoning”!   

[Captain Smollett]

You need one more on that poll, “Dead Reckoning”!   

I figger'd you don't "carry" dead reckoning...ya should have it with you all the time.

[Dougcan]

Point! 

[Amorous]

I mostly carry the GPS for 2 reasons.
1)It was a gift (read FREE) and
2)It's fun to try to get the speed numbers just as high as you possibly can. 
I think it may help new sailors to learn about sail trim.

[s/v Faith]

Just thinking about this thread I went back and looked again on ebay for something that I had once thought would be a 'good to have' item.

  Radio Direction Finder.  Most are old 'am' and 'marine band' (looking for beacon signals) that are not all that useful anymore.  Every once and a while you come across one that works on 'FM' also.  I did, and bought it. 



  Also, while I removed mine, I undersatnd LORAN is making a comeback. Yes, there are stations going online, and the new E-Loran (old Loran units will work with the new system) is supposed to be coming online in some areas soon.

2006-THE YEAR OF LORAN
 
Greetings to the members of the International Loran Association for
AD 2006-the Year of Loran!

For the past twelve years, when the decommissioning of LORAN was decreed, we have all engaged in a struggle to save this marvelous, multi-functional technology from abandonment.

I am proud of the professional way this effort has been carried out.  Hundreds of papers, committee reports, and projects have been delivered to determine the
long term, low cost benefits of LORAN to all nations of the world.  Every bit of this
work has turned out positive.  Originally envisioned as duplicative of, and a threat
to satellite PNT, LORAN is now seen as the perfect, protective complement to
GNSS.  LORAN is the best friend GNSS ever had.

The radio navigation community worldwide now knows of the rebirth and recapitalization of LORAN in the US, and of the emergence of modernized,
more capable eLORAN.

  Here is a link to the story (http://www.loran.org/).[/b][/color]

[Captain Smollett]

  Also, while I removed mine, I undersatnd LORAN is making a comeback. Yes, there are stations going online, and the new E-Loran (old Loran units will work with the new system) is supposed to be coming online in some areas soon.

I just learned this past weekend that my brother-in-law has a Loran, in addition to two GPS's, installed on his 26 ft stinkpotter.  I gathered from what he said that he uses it more than GPS.  He lives in MS.

[Skipper Dave]

All Chris needed to discover the new world was his trusty compass.
We carry a handheld GPS, Compass, and Charts.  So far so good.  Of course as I have mentioned we seldom get out of sight of land.  GPS has come in handy when sailing at night mainly to verify course.

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This morning it looked so nice out I thought I'd leave it out.

S/V "Tina Marie" Cal 2-27

[captedteach]

three GPSs, one mounted compass, a lensatic compass, plotting tools,  Charts in places I dont know and I just added a sextant  Also plan to add a HH bearing compass and of course Binoculars are always on the boat if for nothing else so that I can check out bikinis on the beach

[hearsejr]

 so far I only carried 1 mounted manetic compass, and a couple of extra  smaller hand held ones. my GPS crapped out on me and it is time for a new one anyway, but I was thinking along the lines of a "street fire" with charts instead of streets. I also want a chart ploter/gps and the Sextant. I was not sure if a radio finder will still work or not...I know that a friend bought a wooden sailboat that was last used in the early 60's and it had one...looked like a left over from WW2 but he said it was clean and looked great inside. I was thinking it was A.M. from the looks of it.

[Zen]

For the time being, all I do is dead reckoning, with charts. However all my travels have been just in the Bay Area and mouth of the Delta. So it is not a big deal. I have land and markers all around me.

As i can afford it I will add, GPS, Sextant, more charts & tools.

[starcrest]

radio direction finders ar great.thats how the japanese found pearl harbor.they will always work with commercial am stations.....these are a must have.when doctors try to make a diagnosis they use more than one lab result.....when figuring position and the like...gps is cheating......I would still use more than one tool at my disposal.I had an incident with a vector loran from the 1990s,......the #2 button had to be pressed for lat/lon read out.it would also "beep" when pressed.well half way home from oahu....it would not give the read out....no "beeep".I had to coax it into giving a read out...and then left it on the rest of the way home.still I used basically the polaris sight for lattitude,and 90 degree azimuth bearings to yeild longitide lines