sextant

[thelocoman]

Here I am in central Nebraska and my wife wants a sextant! Well I said, but you don't know how to use it. What are you going to do with it? After all, any reading you take you are going to be in central Nebraska at Lake McConaughy. I guess she will be good at it. So here I am trying to save 500 bucks on a sextant on ebay. She has here sights (thats a oxymoron)set on a Davis Mark 25. Does any one have one to make my wife happy? Needless to say there will not be 500 bucks spent on a sextant to find myself in cental Nebraska! I might spend 50!

 

[Alan]

I have one. They work wonderfully well. I applaud your wife for wanting to learn celestial navigation. You should encourage her.
I've used $800 sextants and think the Davis is a damn fine instrument and you certainly can't beat the price. The accuracy of the Davis is every bit as good as much more expensive units. User error is probably the largest factor in the accuracy of the shot.

 

[ifmdalvey]

As an ex-aircraft navigator, who is old enough to have been trained in astro navigation, i would suggest she learns how to use it and the sight reduction tables first, any proposed course should let her try several models to see what she likes.

 

[shemandr]

Don't despair. They make artificial horizon's which will make it possible to use the sextant in Nebraska. Or maybe you have a usably horizon over those "rippling fields of wheat." In the Power Squadron course I took the inexpensive plastic sextants worked well. And they are light. Try to make sure anything you buy reads in decimal fractions of a minute rather than seconds. The tables will be in decimals and the interpolation is a PITA.

 

[Ken13559]

I think you should get the newer Sextant that has a usb port for gps connection. That way you can verify your sight reduction reading alignment via 12 satellites. Very accurate ! Don't forget to get batteries. AA for the gps and button cells for the Sextant ...if you can find the battery holder.

 

[kloudie1]

My sextant story: In 1985, my wife gave me a Davis Mark 25 for Christmas. We were renting a two story condo on the beach at Perdido Key. I stepped outside in only underwear to take a reading; temperature was about 45F.. My wife and two boys came out to watch and the youngest (3) carefully pulled the balcony door closed behind him.. Yes, we heard the click as it locked ! Luckily, I was able to climb over the partition to the next balcony (no one home) and they’d left the door unlocked.. then I went out their bottom floor door and was able to open my locked screen door which let me into the condo again.. MAN it got pretty cold before all that could happen ! Luckily no one had armed the burglar alarms !! Next time I used it, I had clothes on ! It always worked very well once calibrated..

 

[dfast7181]

You can find instructions on the web to make something like a sextant out of a protractor, some string, and nut (or washer) that will work ok. Should be less than $500.00

 

[Ron20324]

Baconsails.com has the 25 for sale. I think it was $169? http://baconsails.biz/sextants.htm

 

[Rick Sylvester]

Dude, buy her the sextant and be thankful.

Yeah, yeah, it's money that could be used elsewhere but she could be a wife who hates boats, doesn't want anything to do with them AND doesn't want YOU to have anything to do with them.

You're a lucky man.

 

[RichH]

I use a plastic Mark 25 and the only problem is that it can be thermally unstable ... meaning you have to continually adjust if the sextant's black plastic changes temperature -ie.: adjusting in shadows, etc. and then long term exposure to sunlight, etc. If one doesnt let the Mark 25 'soak' in sunlight which can change the 'adjustment', then you'll find it can be amazingly accurate but not 'consistent' to the probable degree of a 'fine' bronze, etc. sextant. The Mk 25 is a good/economical sextant to learn with, more economically so if you can find one on ebay, etc.

For land based (double angle) sights and artificial horizon needs, I use a black plastic pan filled with water.

Two years ago while on a moderate passage, Thor's Hammer visited my boat and 'fried' most of my electronics ... the Davis Mk25 got me to my destination with 'close enough' accuracy over a several hundred miles. For coastal sailing, I frequently use my Mk25 in 'horizontal mode' to take back-bearings when piloting.

 

[Gazuum]

There are several on Ebay.