MacGregorSailors.com

Those who were interested in SeaClear charts and what was available to download, might find this web site of interest. I was all set to buy the sight reduction tables (cause I am old and need a hobby and I thought clestial navigation might be really of value on Lake Michagen, did I mention I am old) when I looked in the biblography of the book I was reading and it lead me to this place. They have pilot charts, sailing directions planning guides, Chart 1 if you don't know what all those symbols on your charts mean, and other free stuff.
They also have calculators and hidden in the misc products is a very nice map of the magnetic variation

I took a course in celestial navigation in my teens. Dont remember how now. With a week practice and refresher I think I could still find my A** with a sextant. (I said Sex-tant) har.

Fun stuff but I only used it legitimately 15 or 20 X in my life. Haven't done any real distance ocean sailing since my early 20's though I still have my sextant. My Pops bought it for me for passing the course.

A cool skill to posses anyway.

Back in the good old days before GPS and only Laran A than C. I did a 3Yr trip from Cape Cod Ma. down to S.America (1982-1985) in my highly modified 1963 Pearson Alberg.
I taught myself Celetial Navigation useing the 249 and 229 reduction tables along with a Tamaya sextant. I also had a short wave receiver to get exact Greenwich time.
I used the 249 tables most of the time as it was quicker in a rocking boat, but with 4 more steps you can use 229 with more accuracy.
I still have my Bronze Tamaya as a show case and would have to do a good mind reminder to refreach my memory. I also have the 3 volumes of the 229 reduction tables covering the World.
When I did a 1200 NM to St. Thomas from Beaufort NC and seas were 40ft. I could hardly get a site.
Had a taflog that jamed often (Saragrass )so dead Reconing was hard to do doing sig zags slideing down these mountains until the wind vain kicked in.
I taught a fellow sailer waiting for a window at Beaufort, NC how to use his plastic Davis Sextant in 9 days and he also did the 1200 nm trip with that knowledge.
Dave

I just received my Celestial Navigation certification from the CYA (Canadian Yachting Association)

The format was:
- one three hour lecture a week for six weeks. (lots of homework)
- one four hour on the water practical.
- one three hour exam.

Although we sail in protected ocean, it has helped round out my navigation skills and is a good knowledge companion to my Advanced Coastal Navigation Certification.

Question: if I have all of this navigation certification ... why is it that the admiral still tells me where to go??

Darry

Wind Chime wrote:I just received my Celestial Navigation certification from the CYA (Canadian Yachting Association)

The format was:
- one three hour lecture a week for six weeks. (lots of homework)
- one four hour on the water practical.
- one three hour exam.

Although we sail in protected ocean, it has helped round out my navigation skills and is a good knowledge companion to my Advanced Coastal Navigation Certification.

Question: if I have all of this navigation certification ... why is it that the admiral still tells me where to go??

Darry

I will have to ask mine what my opinon is and then I will let you know, but first let me ask her if I want to wear this tie and if I like what they have in the buffet line for breakfast.

Hey Ron,

Did you submit that link to Heath for inclusion on the "Navigation & Charts" link under the Resources/Sailing Links drop down menu?

Jim

You're only as old as you feel tangentair, is that why so many older guys date younger ladies?

If navigation is so important maybe I should get put my sextant in the boat and not use it as a decoration in the house .... which bit do I look through again.

Seriously thanks for the links to the sites we shall all enjoy having a good look and hopefully learn a bit more.

Might talk to a printer mate about putting the map on the wall near the bar.

Glenn

With celestial navigation, and doing exercises from the one location, how would you get a variation in answers...I have done a couse but the silly old fool trying to teach was using the Mark St. Hilaire method, very complicated mathematics, and we only got to handle an actual sextant on the final night of the course...got to see the moon...and this after seven weeks, one night three hours per week...did not do me any good at all...Puggsy

A mind is a terrible thing to waste

Inexpensive Instructional DVDs from a sponsor on this site:
( scroll way down for these two: http://sailvision.net/cruising_instruct.html ):

Celestial Navigation for the Complete Idiot

Hundreds of years ago, Celestial Navigation was considered a national secret, because the country that could navigate could find the best trade routes and would also be able to have its naval fleet rendezvous.

Nowadays, utilizing the developments made by Nathaniel Bowditch (tables to solve the celestial triangle) and John Harrison (accurate timepiece) plus newer sextants, computers and quartz time keeping devices, celestial navigation is available to every sailor... but for some reason, the old mystique seems to linger.

The purpose of this program is to once and for all de-mystify the subject, and clearly explain how it works and what it does, in plain English.

Skipper Gene Grossman covers the entire subject, from comparison to Coastal Piloting, to the various methods of navigation using all the celestial bodies... and if you watch all the way through, you'll see the surprise ending that will show how to change the cover and graudate from "Idiot" to "Navigator."

Celestial Navigation Simplified

With William F. Buckley, Jr.

At last! An enjoyable and painless way to learn the difficult art of celestial navigation. William F. Buckley, Jr., working primarily with the sunlight, gives you his own step-by-step procedure for navigation; a vintage distillation of his 35 years of sailing.

Artfully designed computer graphics illustrate and clarify each step on the way, making this one of the best and easiest learning programs ever devised for such a complex subject.

Subjects include:
The sextant.
Geographical position.
G.H.A. & L.H.A.
G.M.T.
The celestial triangle.
Sight reduction tables.
Declination.
Sextant errors.
Dip.
Correction factors.

And much more!