balderdash - I respectfully disagree with your premise.
You can't really claim to "respectfully" disagree when you've already described my position as "balderdash". It's kind of like saying, "No offense, but you are an idiot."
But, I'm not here to argue. Just keep it civil. We're only talking about navigation - it's not religion or politics.
You are essentially making the argument that good sailors use their tools well, regardless of what they are. I couldn't agree more, but then you extend this by asserting, if I understand you correctly that, essentially, better tools make for a better sailor.
It's kind of like saying that a person is a better carpenter if he/she has a better hammer. The tools do not make the sailor. Skills, knowledge, and judgement make the sailor. And, though it's not my purpose, I could argue that compass navigation enforces more skills, knowledge, and judgement than GPS navigation. If you have these traits, even a compass failure won't be a real problem.
But, I reject that the GPS is really substantially more capable when landmarks are visible. All of the capabilities you listed for the GPS, I can readily perform using a compass, chart, and situational awareness. This takes continuous practice, the benefits of which are eroded by habitual reliance on a GPS.
You can't argue against this point - that navigational skills fade with lack of exercise. My point, if you read carefully, is essentially that if you want to have sharp navigation skills using a chart/compass, you need to exercise them, but that it is not really necessary to exercise GPS skills. Those skills will be there when you need them.
That is, if you navigate by compass, the GPS will still be there when you need it. If you depend on the GPS, your compass skills won't be what they should be.
I believe that really good sailors know how to use all the tools available to them, and they are not mutually exclusive.
I completely agree. I, in fact, occasionally use my GPS to double-check my accuracy, check my speed, etc. I just don't rely on it. And, this is my point - that relying on a piece of equipment (whatever it is), one is only as good as one's equipment is reliable.
It is not my assertion that, if a person maintains compass/chart skills, that there is anything wrong with using a GPS. I am only saying that if you don't maintain these skills, you will be a weaker sailor (overall) than one who does. This seems pretty uncontroversial.
Now, as long as the GPS remains working and/or you never venture into a region where it is really much of an issue either way, you will get along just fine (as I mentioned). I am talking specifically about the skills of the sailor - skills you strengthen by using a compass, but which atrophy when relying on a GPS.
So, to simplify, I am saying that it is better to have compass skills than not. That a sailor with them is stronger than a sailor without them. And, that you only get them and keep them through habitual use.
we all get the chart/compass argument and many see it as a badge of honor
I just view it as a basic skill if you travel more than a day or two from familiar waters. Most people don't do this, so, as I mentioned previously, it really doesn't matter for most people.
I [...] gladly embrace the accuracy a GPS chart plotter affords me. it allows me to easily evaluate multiple scenarios, flag possible conflicts, precisely navigate to specific points in local waters or other oceans.
Yup, all of those things are great. It is certainly nice to have them. Can't argue against that. But, do these make YOU a better sailor, or are they just capabilities of your GPS device?
Now, you may claim/argue that you personally have good skills using various means (not just GPS). That may very well be true. But, my assertion is not that YOU or that SOME PEOPLE don't maintain these skills. It is that, in general, reliance on a GPS and not exercising other skills erodes these other skills and therefore diminishes one's capabilities as a sailor. Essentially, you are outsourcing these capabilities to an electronic device. Granted, the device does them very well, but reliance on it creates a dependency in most human sailors, and that dependency is potentially dangerous if one puts oneself in situations where the inability to get a reasonably accurate fix would be dangerous.
how does that work? dead reckoning makes grand assumptions of where you were and where you now are based on potentially fatal speculative projections and reliance on a point of reference that may not exist.
I'm not sure how you do it, but this doesn't sound like what I learned. I learned to navigate, first on land doing search-and-rescue, then by air as a pilot, and finally by sea. I've learned that, just as with a GPS, it is good to know your confidence factor and to operate within the margin or error.
It is true that it occasionally requires you to make a leap of faith from one known location to the next point where you are confident. But, this is where situational awareness (which only comes through practice) comes into play. If my last known fix was 3 hrs ago, and I have been following a compass heading of 172 at an average speed of 5 kts, if I am navigating by compass alone, I should know off the top of my head where I am more or less. If I am relying on a GPS (notice I said "relying" and not "using") - then probably not.
Accuracy? Well, when all is functioning as it should, there is no doubt that a GPS is more accurate. But, I also think about a sail I had last summer in the San Juans when a thick fog rolled into a channel that got as narrow as 1 nm. The GPS (which would have been very nice to have), could not get a fix. Of course, since I had two GPS devices, it was prudent that my crew continue to attempt to get a GPS fix, but as skipper, I didn't need to scramble to get out a chart and try to guess where I was because I already had good situational awareness. I just monitored my watch and speed and kept a mental picture of the landscape as we sailed a tense 90 minutes in the stuff before it cleared enough to reveal that we were precisely where I thought we'd be. After the fog lifted, the GPS confirmed that we were where we could clearly see we were.
no matter the means, you must always have an awareness of your approximate position, stay ahead of the boat in determining future actions, and anticipate failure with a secondary plan of action.
Absolutely. I'm just saying that relying on a GPS, human nature being what it is, these skills will not be as strong as they are in one who does not rely on GPS.
Hopefully you understand what I am actually asserting now, but I'll use an analogy: By extension, your argument is that, because autopilot is very useful, frees up your time and mind, and flies with great precision, that it makes you a better pilot if you have it.
Of course, it does not. But using it does make you more dependent on it.
There is no doubt that it does all of those nice things, and that it makes flying more pleasurable, etc. But, it doesn't make you a better pilot.
Conversely, flying without an autopilot helps keep your skills sharp. You can always turn it on if you want, but you can't turn on your skills with the flip of a switch.
As another analogy, one should not assume that because one has a book on one's bookshelf, that one has knowledge of its contents. Using a GPS does not give one the skills of the GPS - it only allows one to borrow them at the pleasure of the GPS.
One final thought: I've made the qualifier that the compass is really only as good as GPS when landmarks are clearly visible. But, in fact, when sailing in open water, compass navigation is MUCH more critical. The best use of equipment, in my view, is to use the GPS once or twice a day to verify position and get a "last known position", but to use compass and chart for all else. This is because GPS failure, if you rely on it, can be devastating in this situation. One is much better off continually refining one's skills without it, but using the technology available to test/hone those skills and to get known positions.
Again, to recap:
GPS: Useful
Compass/chart: Useful
GPS: More subject to complete failure, less prone to error
Compass/chart: Less subject to complete failure, more prone to error
GPS: Requires very little skill and does not reenforce good habits.
Compass/chart: Requires more skill and promotes good habits
GPS: Proficiency does not carry with it the requisite skill for compass/chart navigation
Compass/chart: Proficiency carries with it most of the requisite skill for GPS navigation
GPS: Allows precise situational awareness
Compass/chart: Requires good situational awareness
GPS: Does not require the navigator to accurately calculate projected position in the absence of reliable navigational information (this is both a pro and con)
Compass/chart: Requires the navigator to be able to estimate position in the absence of reliable navigational information (again, both a pro and con)
GPS: Superior or at least adequate when navigational failure is not particularly problematic.
Compass/chart: Superior when navigational failure is problematic, since it is less prone to failure.
GPS: Superior when extreme precision is desirable
Compass/chart: Superior when constant awareness of approximate position is desirable (which is most of the time)
GPS: Chart, position, heading, speed, projections, etc. are all in one device that can fail entirely with electrical problems or battery failure
Compass/chart: Chart is in one place, heading is in another, speed is estimated or displayed in another place, fix and projections are done in the brain. Failure of any piece (except the brain) does not cause a complete system breakdown.
GPS: Perfectly fine, and perhaps superior, for casual sailing. Very useful tool for all sailing.
Compass/chart: Indispensable for open water navigation. Very useful for coastal navigation.
GPS: Safety and efficacy are dependent on sailor skills, knowledge, and judgement
Compass/chart: Safety and efficacy are dependent on sailor skills, knowledge, and judgement
GPS: Has its place. Is not a substitute for compass/chart.
Compass/chart: Has its place. Is not a substitute for GPS.
In general: It is much better to have and be skilled in both, but given the choice, I would much rather have a compass & chart and be skilled in compass navigation.
