September 1, 2007 01:11
I won't prolong this discussion too much.
By 'sudden' I just meant that as you reduce the distance it 'suddenly' turns into yards/metres.
There are many sailors in Europe who don't have electronic/computer navigation. Not because they are 'out of date' or anything, but just because it's expensive (much more so than paper), unreliable (PC's crash, we don't all use Macs), it needs a power supply, and other factors.
Some engineless boats I know of don't use it. They are mostly traditional wooden boats where solar panels would look out of place.
There's not normally any need to quote distances of less than a cable (0.1 miles) in any formal way. People might say yards as that's what they are probably more used to, or metres now we are all supposed to be metric.
Yes undoubtedly in the US people use electronic nav a lot. But then they use yards too and not metres. And miles on the roads and not kilometres. So it's horses for courses.
Here people understand cables and relate to the distance.
No I've never used ENCs.
I stick to Admiralty charts, as updated by the UKHO and Irish Authorities.
Why?
Well just because they are the best available in this area (UK Ireland).
And even then they are not totally accurate. Some surveys go back to the 1800s, and people are always finding uncharted rocks, usually the hard way!
I'll have another look at ENCs though.
The mine was blown up a day after it's discovery.
Having only sailed in this area for 2 years now (previously UK with Atlantic excursions) I'm starting to think that forward looking echo sounders are worth looking at :wink:
Ron
By 'sudden' I just meant that as you reduce the distance it 'suddenly' turns into yards/metres.
There are many sailors in Europe who don't have electronic/computer navigation. Not because they are 'out of date' or anything, but just because it's expensive (much more so than paper), unreliable (PC's crash, we don't all use Macs), it needs a power supply, and other factors.
Some engineless boats I know of don't use it. They are mostly traditional wooden boats where solar panels would look out of place.
There's not normally any need to quote distances of less than a cable (0.1 miles) in any formal way. People might say yards as that's what they are probably more used to, or metres now we are all supposed to be metric.
Yes undoubtedly in the US people use electronic nav a lot. But then they use yards too and not metres. And miles on the roads and not kilometres. So it's horses for courses.
Here people understand cables and relate to the distance.
No I've never used ENCs.
I stick to Admiralty charts, as updated by the UKHO and Irish Authorities.
Why?
Well just because they are the best available in this area (UK Ireland).
And even then they are not totally accurate. Some surveys go back to the 1800s, and people are always finding uncharted rocks, usually the hard way!
I'll have another look at ENCs though.
The mine was blown up a day after it's discovery.
Having only sailed in this area for 2 years now (previously UK with Atlantic excursions) I'm starting to think that forward looking echo sounders are worth looking at :wink:
Ron