Passage Planning: Text 1 (out of 3)
This first text of three shows a recipe to build a passage plan. Read it to understand and master the process of planning a safe navigation.
Navigation
Automated Routing: Basic Principles
Read this if you wish to understand how onboard computers find time minimizing routes.
Identifying the Course to Steer Algebraically
Tired of the graphical addition of vectors? Learn algebra and remember those trigonometric identities thaught by your high-school teacher
A Software For Drawing Navigation Symbols
This software is for instructors and professors of navigation. It draws navigation vectors as per the International Maritime Organization drawing convention.
How Nautical Charts Represent the World
It is not a conspiracy, nor a computer bug. It is a fact established mathematical fact in 1837: every rectangular map of the world is a lie.
Forecasting Tides With 37 Numbers
Tides are special. Almost all aspects of the weather are the outcome of complex interactions: cloud formation, winds, or rain patterns. For any of these dimensions, advanced numerical modeling is required in order to produce reliable forecasts, often limited to a window of four days. These models rely on large...
The Rules of Twelfths and Twentieths
Is the rule of sixths better than the Oceans and Fisheries “rule of twenthieths” for manually calculating tides? Here is the punchline: they both yield similar results.
Paper Charts: A Look at Five Countries
An update on paper charts carryage requirements in the UK, France, Germany, the USA and Canada.
On the Closest Point of Approach
The practical use of the CPA/TCPA pair is to evaluate the risk of collisions. If the CPA of a boat is zero (or close to zero), there is a collision risk and the skipper should alter the boat’s current course to increase the CPA.
Is the Fastest Route the Longest Route?
Is it faster to sail downwind a straight line or to gybe from one tack to the other? The answer, of course, depends very much on the boat performance and the prevailing winds. It is however possible to provide some practical guidance with a little use of theory.