Taking a Bearing (not accurate)

[Seattle Scott]

Just having fun w/Fred

and seeing if people remember what the digits in the Lat/Lon represent on the water. I run a GPS thru a PC with nav software, so course to steer and distance to destination or course changes are done by "point and click". Since my local waters run north/south Im pretty up to speed on the latitude stuff. Don't have clue as to longitude though. For example, accoring to Fred I put the boat "Free Beer" boat up in mountains to the east or west of Puget Sound.

 

[Roger1250]

correct for magnetic on the map

When you put your compass on the map, you didn't mention whether you corrected for magnetic. Your map is true, your compass is magnetic. Your deviation may be what puts you further down the shore on your line of position.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Roger, huh?

It is NOT a MAP, it's a chart. It only represents the particular environment graphically.The chart is NOT magnetic OR TRUE. That's what compass roses are for.WJ, please buy a book or do some research on th web. It's all out there. This thread is becoming very confusing and misleading.

 

[Stu Jackson]

John Nantz

Nice letter in Sea magazine. Well done.Stu

 

[WJ]

It is a chart,

And the chart has a compass rose and it shows accurate on the rose at magnetic and only a point or so off true, however i though that since i was taking bearings from only 5 or so miles i should not be off be 2 or so miles, my distance off is more than the distance of true and magnetic, my boat does have GPS, Depth and wind,all the little bells and wistles but somtimes its nice to just cruise with compass and brain,i have sailed small boats all my life but just started this nav deal,but i will try to not put the bearing compass on the chart. the beer sounds real good... had to get a corona with salt and lime..this is truly the life..

 

[John Nantz]

Thanks for the complement Stu

You know what really, really ticked me off about the guy's article was his statement "Those little sailboat reflectors are not enough." These are words that I'm sure would really appeal to his powerboat crowd readership (and some of the sailboaters that sign up for the free mag at the boatshows . However, in his response he says "Some boaters use to keep a full-size sailboat radar reflector in the console on the fly-bridge." I'm not exactly sure what he means by "in the console"; is that under the fiberglass portion of the bridge? If so, if the fiberglass is wet, or covered by wet canvas, the reflector won't work or won't work very well.What a lot of sailors don't realize either is that radar reflectors don't work well through wet sails, hence if under sail it's a good idea to have an additional reflector in an appropriate position if the sails would blanket the only one you have.Can you believe his other comment about not having a reflector on one of those streamlined powerboats because it is wind resistant??? WIND RESISTANT??? Whoa! Give me a break! I can just see it now, some guy with a 60-foot Ocean Alexander and 2,000hp being slowed down because of a 'sailboat radar' reflector.

 

[Seattle Scott]

WJ, maybe start backwards

to check your compass. Just get out your chart ( at home with your compass in your pocket)and figure a couple of bearings from a known location on the beach. Then go to the beach and check then with your compass. If you get different bearings with the compass (outside of possible true/magnetic declination, which I guess is less than 5 degrees in your location) then maybe it is something wrong with the compass.

 

[J.B. Dyer]

WJ

Are you confused? Are you trying to triangulate your location? This is really not that hard to do.If you don't get this worked out, contact me through the O'Day owners site and we'll set up a time and I'll get up with you on the phone and talk you through it.