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"!   :D

[Captain Smollett]

You need one more on that poll, "Dead Reckoning"!   :D

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

[Dougcan]

Point!  ;D

[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.  ;D



  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.

------------------------------------------------------------

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

[s/v Faith]

Great old thread, wonder if anyone has changed what they carry....

Binoculars with compass are quite handy, my Nikons get used a lot.

[Godot]

The current setup includes a little Lowrance Elite-4M chartplotter (rather small display...this is my primary GPS), my android phone which does a pretty decent job as a backup plotter, an old IBM Thinkpad T40 running linux and OpenCPN with a hockey puck style GPS reciever just because I'm a geek. When I finish wiring it up, the GPS will connect to the VHF which will give me some basic nav data, although this is mostly just relayed stuff, plus it is an AIS reciever which really just seems like a good idea. I have papercharts of my cruising areas, and dividers and parallel rule.

Nothing celestial. Given my current cruising grounds (Chesapeake), celestial makes little sense. Perhaps when I'm ready to head further afield I may pick it up. Or not. I can buy a whole bunch of handheld GPSs for the cost of a decent sextant. So long as the satelites don't fall out of the sky...

I used to have binoculars (I took them with me to Costa Rica where they got stolen, along with everything else I brought that I wasn't physically carrying on me), and will replace them soon. I still visually look for bouys, and they help a lot. They are also handy for just looking around. I have a handheld LED spotlight that is pretty bright and very useful for finding bouys in the dark (where they are actually easier to identify due to their reflective markings). I think it is fair to include my depth sounder in my navigation tools, as well.

I have a couple old hiking compasses on board usually, along with the ships compass.

The GPS chartplotter is pretty light on the electrons (specs call for 0.75amps...I'll probably check that this year with the battery monitor) so I have it turned on most of the time. I do periodically turn it off and just run on pilotage, just to keep in practice.

[Snapdragon]

I'm still using the first generation Ipad with 3G that I bought almost four years ago.  I have several chart and navigation apps on it ( my favorite being the Navionics app ), a tides and currents app that I find very useful, and of course the unfortunately named "Drag Queen" app for an anchor alarm.  I worry that I will become too dependant on the Ipad because it works so well, even though I have the same apps running on my Iphone as a backup.  I try to keep them turned off as much as possible and use the paper charts, but it sure is nice to have real-time tracking when in unfamiliar waters. 

[s/v Faith]

I'm still using the first generation Ipad with 3G that I bought almost four years ago.  ......

Wow! That is "old school"!  ;D

I am on my ipad now as I type this... Motoring along the ICW miles from wifi...

I wish every bit of kit I had worked half as well as this thing!  I have had dozens of computers, and nothing works as well... Nothing even comes close.  I downloaded the new Garmin (free) app, and have a real time chart plotter that works better then the 5k raymarine setup on this boat!

I use the heck out of it, but still can not bring myself to count it as a go to tool....  Much closer then a lap top but still not getting rid of my paper charts.

[Captain Smollett]

Great old thread, wonder if anyone has changed what they carry....

Nope, not really.

Own one handheld GPS that is rarely on when underway unless I'm using it as a knotmeter and/or just want to record my track to overlay on a chart.

Use compasses, paper charts, binoculars extensively.  Have practiced DR "tricks" like "width of my thumb" to estimate distances off the chart vice using dividers, etc.  

I have a variety of charting tools...protractors, course plotters, etc, but the thing I get the most use from, second to the dividers, is a single arm protractor, similar in style to this one:

Hurst Locking Arm Protractor

though mine does not lock.  It's a handy tool: long arm for plotting long straight courses, deviation scale 'built in,' and just very, very useful.  Unfortunately, they seem to have gotten hard to get.  Davis used to make one, but it's been discontinued.

I think the one I have is the Celestaire Linex Course Protractor #4407, but I'm not 100% sure and I don't have it here at the computer.

I use it to read bearings off the chart as well as plot bearings to items sighted for LOP's.  It's not just for plotting the boat's course.  

Also, I need to replace my stopwatch.   :)  Been using the Stopwatch App on my phone since my stopwatch gave up the ghost, but I don't like that solution.

I am planning on installing depth sounders on several boats, but that is more to locate fishing holes/artificial reefs than for 'navigation.' I envision using the sounder more than the GPS for positioning, as generally I don't as much care where on the planet I am that precisely so much as I care where I am in relation to the hazards immediately around me....such as the bottom.

For "global positioning" and angle measurements (vertical and horizontal) in pilot waters, I carry a David Mark 25 sextant.  I do not carry SRT...I use a calculator or slide rule to do the site reductions directly.  Working on an ephemeris app for my phone (which I will share if I ever get it done) so I don't have to carry a NA.  Would like to add a higher quality metal sextant at some point.

[SalientAngle]

I think the one I have is the Celestaire Linex Course Protractor #4407, but I'm not 100% sure and I don't have it here at the computer......

Oh my, is Linus Torvalds involved in the course protractor  ;)

....or slide rule to do the site reductions directly...

that is a skill few remember, I am heartened to know a slide rule is still in use  ;)
(mine is in a well-worn leather protector from the sixties)

Grog to you, Cap'n... cheers