Someone somewhere recently said that compasses on boats are now a waste of space. We inhabit a universe, this person said, in which GPS reigns supreme. Anyone who wastes time looking at a wavering disc decorated with numbers is living in the past and should immediately clap on his top hat and direct his hansom cab to the nearest Home for the Functionally Bewildered. This point of view needs investigation.
It is of course true that aids to navigation have improved over the past half century. This has been handy in the heat we had early this summer, as the navigator was spared the necessity of crouching over the chart table attempting to make pencil marks on a chart greasy with the sweat of the brow. Navigators have been able to relax under the bimini, tablet running Navionics in hand, making sailorly remarks like 'Left a bit' and 'Mind that whale.
Esta historia es de la edición September 2023 de Practical Boat Owner.
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Esta historia es de la edición September 2023 de Practical Boat Owner.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Orca sink yacht in Strait of Gibraltar
Spain's maritime rescue service, Salvamento Maritimo, has reported that a 15m (49ft) yacht sank in Moroccan waters in the Strait of Gibraltar following interaction with a pod of orca.
No kill cord or lifejackets were worn during fatal powerboat crash
A kill cord and lifejacket are useless unless worn-that's the warning from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), following its investigation into a powerboat crash that killed a 32-year-old woman and five-year-old girl on 2 October 2022.
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Seaworthy dinghies for less than £500
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Playing with coloured sails
Maintaining an hourglass-shaped balloon and ratcheting up the log numbers
