Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

[BugsBunnyBoater]

Simple question.
Will the gps cause the use of charts and compass art since most new boaters have grown up with GPS systems.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

I hope not, because knowing how to navigate via dead reckoning is a very useful skill when the "trons" decide to take a vacation!



???

 

[5150abf]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

I think yes for the average recreational boater, just like maps in cars are almost a thing of the past, but I don't think the navy will stop teaching navigation so someone will always know how to do it.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

every license captain, will be required to be able to use the old system for backup. you will not catch me, out of sight of land with out a compass.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

If you boat in an area that requires the use of GPS, leaving the dock without a map and compass as a backup is like leaving on a road trip without a spare tire.

BTW: It's not "old ways", it's called being a prudent mariner.

 

[Ned L]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

Have you looked a the wake of a boat where someone is trying to steer by looking at the chart plotter? Talk about a 'zig zag' course. Use the GPS & chart plotter to set your coarse & then steer by compass.

 

[Capt'n Chris]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

What a question? I was thinking that very thing just the other day. How sad it would be knowing that someday avid boaters and professional mariners knew nothing of charts, calipers, sextants and the compass. I expect they will have heard or learn somewhere "the way it was". Shipwrights, lofting and chinking are all pretty much lost marine history with the arts practiced predominantly by the old craftsmen as merely a hobby now. I feel fortunate that my dad was so influential teaching navigation and boat building many years ago. I remember his comment to me about fiberglass boats....he said, "ahhh, plastic boats...it will never work...no one will ever accept them".

 

[Boydski]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

It is already becoming somewhat of a lost art. The "Charting" portion of the USCG Master's License test is always the part that students have the most difficulty with (even though they only need 70% to pass).

I have even seen commercial fisherman, with years of blue water time, that had no idea how to read a chart. Most Captains now how to read and still use a compass, but the charts are gathering dust in a drawer somewhere.

 

[rbh]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

The shortest route between two points is in a straight line except for the rocks and reefs in the middle.
Gps will tell you were you are, were your going but will not tell you how to safely get there.
A compass shot is just that a shot, if you can see a land mark, you can head for it.
now if I could only remember how to do a triangelation
rob

 

[Cofe]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

When the batteries go dead, I personally would like a back up plan.
Was reading a article on checking your speed with the old rope/knot method the other day. These things are good to know. Now if I can just remember them.

 

[woosterken]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

I think that is a very scary thought (out with no compass) !!!
my son's school allows calculators he knows how to work IT but not how to do arithmatic !!

woosterken

 

[BugsBunnyBoater]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

I was reading that the GPS satelites are getting old. So what happens if we lose one. On 7 May 2009, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, released a report citing the very real potential for the GPS system to degrade or fail in light of program delays which have resulted in scheduled GPS satellite launches slipping by up to three years.

 

[captharv]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

I have used the chart compass back when we navigated B.C.
(before computer). We went out 20-30 miles, trolled in the guld stream (2.5 knots current, and than back to port while cleaning fish. I also taught marine navigation for the CG Auxiliary and in a community college adult ed class (12 times). I still run a deviation table for my boat once a year.

Look at your GPS. Then, explain to yourself what its telling you when its says: SOG, CMG, ITR (intended track), course, track, SMG, ETA, and many other things which are part of basic navigation.

A GPS is a tool. It gives the navigator the info he needs to plot courses, navigate around hazards, and return to the starting point. However, for a REAL navigator, it does not replace him. I still use charts and a compass offshore.
An example. we had a group starting out on Lake Toho which is about 12 miles long and about 2 miles wide. well marked channels by the state DNR. We were inrestricted visibility (fog) one morning with a group of 5 boaters. I took the lead, because I had all of the markers and canal entrances in my LORAN, and had the knowledge to use the info. One wise ***** said he had a new GPS with a map and he's going by himself. So, afet an hour at displacement speed, we get a radio call from Mr. GPS. He's in a great weedbed. After the customery chidding, I ask his lat/long. After 3 minutes he finally figured out how to read it. I punched it into my machine and told him go due west. Well, no compass aboard. Longer story short, if he preplotted his course taking the markers from a chart and entering into the GPS he would have been OK.

 

[BugsBunnyBoater]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

I guess the problems becomes that we dont know what we dont know. Most of us look at the gps but dont enough to question what it says.

 

[Woodnaut]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

Dead reckoning is fun. (Sometimes.) And, well, it can also be a little bit dicey. But it forces you to use your experience and judgement. I definitely have a GPS, and I use it, but I always keep a chart folded up within handy reach.

This is somewhat analagous to reading information from a book, or reading it off of your computer screen. Depending upon what you're doing, one just makes more sense than the other (and vice versa).

However, the principles used in Dead Reckoning are solid.
Simple Math + Seamanship = Dead Reckoning

 

[WAVENBYE2]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

I don't use a GPS, I use navigation maps and the day markers, Lake barkely is 58 mi and Kentucky lake is 104 mi one way each, I always know where I am at on L.B.L

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

It's not a matter of old ways dying out, it's a matter of boating becoming popular with people who don't respect the water and think they are driving a car. They are the same ones who don't check the WX and go out in boats way too small for conditions, overloaded. They are the ones who stern anchor, can't troubleshoot a motor, carry no tools and too small an anchor, if at all. The Caost Guard often describes them as "victims."

Obviously you don't need charts if you always boat in sight of familiar land but you still need a compass. You need to know how wind and current affects your path (and which way the tide is running).

I just started using GPS, and I love it especially at night, but I fear I am loosing my ability to dead reckon and to see the unlit hazards that I store in my mental GPS. I have spent a good part of my life running a totally dark marsh with twisty creeks, wild current, shoals and unlit poles, and don't want to lose that skill--I don't use GPS out there.

 

[bkwapisz]

Re: Will being able to use a chart and compass become a lost art?

I don't go far enough out to need either, but I have both and can use them. I agree it's a good idea to be able to use charts and a compass if you need for when the electronics fail.

It's kind of like being able to change a flat tire on the road. That's another lost art.