Are Cheap Replica Sextants Any Good?

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

D
It will breach ukHo copyrights if yiu do that

Sure about that? That would be tantamount to mandating the purchase and use of electronic charts and display systems. That doesn't sound like Veddy Brrritish impartiality and fair play, to me. Not exactly cricket, whot?

BA charts are great! Nice heavy paper, corrected to day of sale, very nice. But that isn't the only source for good, official charts. NOAA encourages the printing of their charts and you can even get them in PDF, to make that easier. Only problem is most NOAA charts of other than US waters and contiguous small scale ocean charts are not free. BUT, you can print them, whether they are the free ones, or paid.

Also while it goes against the philosophy of complete redundancy, there is nothing stopping you from plotting an LOP on your ECDIS, even advancing/retarding three LOP's for a celestial fix. Perfectly okay. Your boat, your chart table.

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I have a beautiful walker trailing log

But let’s not kid ourselves none of this gear is really necessary.

Quite. a chip log served adequately for hundreds of years. That's where we get "knots" for nautical miles per hour. And for that matter, recreational boaters are not required to know how to navigate. They can simply follow the little arrows on their ECDIS or smartphone or laptop, if that's how they wanna roll.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

Sure about that? That would be tantamount to mandating the purchase and use of electronic charts and display systems. That doesn't sound like Veddy Brrritish impartiality and fair play, to me. Not exactly cricket, whot?



BA charts are great! Nice heavy paper, corrected to day of sale, very nice. But that isn't the only source for good, official charts. NOAA encourages the printing of their charts and you can even get them in PDF, to make that easier. Only problem is most NOAA charts of other than US waters and contiguous small scale ocean charts are not free. BUT, you can print them, whether they are the free ones, or paid.



Also while it goes against the philosophy of complete redundancy, there is nothing stopping you from plotting an LOP on your ECDIS, even advancing/retarding three LOP's for a celestial fix. Perfectly okay. Your boat, your chart table.







Quite. a chip log served adequately for hundreds of years. That's where we get "knots" for nautical miles per hour. And for that matter, recreational boaters are not required to know how to navigate. They can simply follow the little arrows on their ECDIS or smartphone or laptop, if that's how they wanna roll.

UKHO charts are protected by copyright so unless you have a licence it’s a breach of that copyright to copy orbiting them with permission, British cricket come into into

About 30 years ago I contributed hydrographic survey data to U.K. HO. They are very diligent in ensuring I was paid the correct copyright fees based on printed copied usage of my data.

[goboatingnow]

“opyright and licensing of UKHO data
All work the UKHO creates is protected by Crown copyright and/or database rights in the UK, and it is also protected elsewhere in the world through international treaties. We control the copyright to our work under authority from the Controller of His Majesty’s Stationery Office, who is also Director of the Office for Public Sector Information (OPSI).

You may not reproduce, adapt, translate, store or distribute our material in any way (including electronically, by photocopying or recording) without our written permission.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Bestline

l period. I'll have Navionics and/or Open CPN aboard but I want to be prepared in case of disruptions to GPS satellites.

I suggest you order some HIMARS or a battery of SM-3s. Better then any sextant

[double u]

"...practice on the beach..."
mildly hilarious! One will learn the workings of the sextant, but if all one's practice was "on the beach", one will be in for a good surprise in 20kn of winds with corresponding tradewind swells. Good luck!
(as I wrote before: "Marquesas or Hawaii???")

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by double u

"...practice on the beach..."
mildly hilarious! One will learn the workings of the sextant, but if all one's practice was "on the beach", one will be in for a good surprise in 20kn of winds with corresponding tradewind swells. Good luck!
(as I wrote before: "Marquesas or Hawaii???")

Well, it may have been hilarious, but that's exactly what I did: practice on the beach, then set out through the Golden Gate en route for Hawaii. Damned if we didn't arrive at the Molokai channel light within visible distance and near to the ETA predicted the day before. (I was pretty chuffed!).

But your point is well taken, for learning to make accurate sights from the low deck of a bouncing yacht is not that easy, and in some circumstances not really feasible. Learning to recognize when sights are likely to be inaccurate is part of the skill set of the navigator.

I was kinda proud of my abilities with CN, but was quite happy to shift to SatNav and then on to GPS when they became available. I've not attempted a celestial fix in decades, but still carry the gear to do so. I'm sure it would take me some time to regain proficiency should it be needed, but I reckon I'd eventually get to a safe landfall... somewhere!

Jim

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

D
It will breach ukHo copyrights if yiu do that

I’m pretty sure that the UKHO or whatever House the call it has arrangement to pay a fee for printing to hard copy.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Adelie

I’m pretty sure that the UKHO or whatever House the call it has arrangement to pay a fee for printing to hard copy.

Ukho hasdeveloped a procedure to do on demand printing of charts my understanding is that upon withdrawal of paper products it will not allow printing of withdrawing paper charts it has not proven popular

Tbd UKHO sales of paper charts has fallen by 80% over last 10 years. They see no future in producing paper. Now they’d is no legal requirement they are abandoning that Segment

Really at the end of the day we need charts but digital is better anyway.

[Adelie]

Well you can get US NGA charts for the UK at:
https://www.nauticalchartsonline.com...waAmcJEALw_wcB
Not BA charts but based on shared data.

And then there’s Stanford’s which claims to be an official Print on Demand shop for a large variety of charts including BA charts.

https://www.stanfords.co.uk/print-on...autical-charts

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Adelie

Well you can get US NGA charts for the UK at:
https://www.nauticalchartsonline.com...waAmcJEALw_wcB
Not BA charts but based on shared data.

And then there’s Stanford’s which claims to be an official Print on Demand shop for a large variety of charts including BA charts.

https://www.stanfords.co.uk/print-on...autical-charts

My goto is Todd’s chart in Bangor in Northern Ireland. Great place last of thd true specialists. UKHO print on demand outlet also

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by double u

"...practice on the beach..."
mildly hilarious! One will learn the workings of the sextant, but if all one's practice was "on the beach", one will be in for a good surprise in 20kn of winds with corresponding tradewind swells. Good luck!
(as I wrote before: "Marquesas or Hawaii???")

So you think it hilarious that someone would develop confidence in the use of their sextant in settled conditions.
You think it hilarious that someone would develop confidence in their ability to reduce their sights and be confident that they could get reasonably accurate position lines.

You think that they should not bother with any of this until they are running down hill in reinforced trades with mountainous swells?

Hilarious indeed.

[skipperpete]

I suspect ....but can’t guarantee ...this grounding would not have occurred using paper charts. Initially it was claimed that a faulty ECDIS was the cause but the enquiry concluded that it was an error of ECDIS usage and operation.
When I built my first boat, the only nav equipment I had was a big Furuno paper roll sounder, a Sestrel Moore compass with azimuth ring, charts from dock sales and second hand marine shops and the Lucas cruising guide. On the east coast of Oz I always knew roughly how far from the land I was by the depths, no auto pilot, so someone was always always on watch at the helm [ATTACH]and paying attention.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

A navy is expected nay designed to operate in war times.

Leisure sailors have no such compunction.

Use the best tools available at present that’s gnsss

Anything else is a hobby. I like hobbies. But that’s all they are.

By that argument carrying a liferaft is a hobby. Or maybe better a pacifier/dummy/soother.

Do you carry a liferaft?

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Adelie

By that argument carrying a liferaft is a hobby. Or maybe better a pacifier/dummy/soother.

Do you carry a liferaft?

Yes as it my only defense against a fire on board

I don’t carryit because I expect the sea to turned to glass any day now.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Yes as it my only defense against a fire on board

I don’t carryit because I expect the sea to turned to glass any day now.

So you carry a $2-4k item on board that requires $1k service every year or so as a remedy for having a fire on board which is a low odds event that might sink the vessel, even lower odds; but somebody else spending $100-150 to remediate another low odds event is wasted money?