What instruments do you have?

[domenic]

I'm not saying I will never use a GPS Rust. I think they are the best thing since God made women. I will even use one at sea...but, I will always take a noon shot with my sextant just to make sure of my position.
I'm thinking about going to Panama, into the Atlantic, and cross over to Europe within the next 18 months. I will have a GPS on board.

[ILikeRust]

Yup. And yuppity yup.

Just one side note:

Sexton: a church, congregation or synagogue officer charged with the maintenance of its buildings and/or the surrounding graveyard.

Sextant: an instrument used to measure the angle between any two visible objects.

If you bring your sexton with you, make sure he/she won't eat too much of your food!

[domenic]

LOL...I'll do that.

[dvd]

I have an amp meter,Oil pressure guage, Water temp and vacuum guage. However I am replacing my old steel tank this weekend and the new Moeller plastic tank came with a fuel gauge. What a luxury. The fuel guage wont fit in my existing guage cluster so I was thinking of mounting the new fuel guage underneath somewhere. Not sure if I should throw away the wooden stick I have always used before.
dvd

[Gordo]

Again...to keep facts straight...there is NO VERIFIED CASE where the GPS system gave bad info. We need to keep this up front. GPS is far more accurate than your sextant. Give me a week of complete cloud cover and I'd sure prefer a GPS.

I'm not anti Sextant, I'm pro facts. Especially for new adventurers who might pass on a fantasticlly easy and accurate tool. I'd be willig to bet, though can't prove, that GPS has saved more lives than a Sextant in the last Dozen years.

I'm sorry to be argumentative, this is a point of concern for me. I'll stop now

[rigspelt]

So the GPS vs sextant debate finally found its way onto the peaceful A4 forums. Although a GPS receiver is not among the poll choices, it probably should be. GPS plays a role in calculating fuel consumption and remaining, for example.

My take, much honed after years of debate on this point and teaching navigation: GPS (or one of the other electronic satellite navigation positioning systems) is our primary positioning tool now in both coastal and offshore navigation, but the great navigation luxury in our electronic age is the ability to have a completely independent backup positioning system. GPS can fail, either on board or in the system outside the boat. Near shore, ability to do positioning with a hand-bearing magnetic compass, sounder and dead reckoning works fine. Offshore, the only practical independent backup solution for a recreational boater is celestial navigation. So I agree fully with those posters who use GPS primarily, but intend to learn CN for offshore backup.

A sextant is a fine way to snap bearings in coastal navigation, but a handheld compass is a more practical solution for manual positioning in the rare event of GPS failure, or to check a GPS positioning in tight quarters near hazards. Using a sextant for horizontal and vertical angles near shore takes a lot of practice and requires a 3-legged protractor.

One big advantage of taking a celestial navigation course like the USPS Junior Navigator/Navigator package is better understanding of navigation and positioning generally: it is not all about the sextant, athough that's the main content. Even if graduates never need celestial navigation in real life, the discipline and knowledge learned for general navigation can pay dividends. GPS merely automates (and hides under the hood) the same mathematics used in celestial navigation, except using man-made satellites instead of natural celestial bodies.

there is NO VERIFIED CASE where the GPS system gave bad info.

Depends what one means by bad info I guess, but there are many well documented examples. Fortunately they are infrequent, but the results have been spectacular in some cases, minor and easily recoverable in others. Like the day we were steaming along a river in the US and the chartplotter went blank because the electonic chart was missing that sector of the river for half a mile. The e-chart was white with black crosses. And cases in the Caribbean where GPS positions did not match the chart owing to datum differences.

[domenic]

Rigspelt, I agree. Everything at sea, or in the air, needs a back up. I don't sail with a spinnaker, so I rigged my spinnaker pole so it can be used as a makshift mast.
I love the sea, and I fear it. I do my "Just what if?" thinking along side the dock. If the, "Just what if?" happens at sea...my back up is ready.

[H3LlIoN]

hehe. What instruments do I have, or what instruments do I have...that work?

[ILikeRust]

Hehe! Good point!

My boat "has" a knotmeter. Well, it has a round thing in the bulkhead with a cracked piece of glass or plastic in it, with a round black surface behind it with numbers and and a pointer on it. The pointer never moves. It might as well be painted on.

I plan on replacing it with a speaker for to listen to some tunage whilst sailing.

[Mo]

Exactly what I did Bill, I use my speed reading off the chartplotter. I don't have significant current here so it really makes no difference. Also have speakers in the cabin bulkhead in replacement.

I will say buy decent speaker though as mine are garbage and I actually use my satellite radio / boombox thing from inside the cabin...certainly puts out much better sound than the stereo /speakers. That was a waste of money. The stereo CD can't take the constant motion either - the CD lasted about a month...so it's an all an ornament although the radio works.

[Chris T]

Busted fuel guage?

To check on fuel level, try using a studsensor???? I use
this to monitor fuel tank and holding tank.....

[Mo]

Chris,
How does that work...fill me in please when you get a chance.

Tks

[ILikeRust]

Depends on the stud sensor and how easily you can access your tank from the outside.

I have an ultrasonic stud sensor, which detects changes in density - it sends an ultrasonic signal through the sheetrock, and as you slide it across the wall, when the sound bounces back off of a stud, instead of empty air space, it beeps and lights up.

I could see applying it to the outside of the fuel tank and sliding it up and down until it encounters the fuel. Start at the top of the tank and slide downwards - when it encounters the fuel, it will detect the change in density because the sound waves will bounce back rather than going into the empty space.

Not very practical in my case, being that the fuel tank is under the cockpit and not very easily accessible.

I have made myself a nice black walnut stick, on which I have marked 1/4-tank increments.

[JOHN COOKSON]

The other part of this equation is how much fuel is useful because of the dead space. If you have 10 gallons in the tank can you pump 10 gallons out when the boat is heeling and or rolling in a seaway? I doubt it.

TRUE GRIT

[domenic]

A hammer. I have a hammer because I’m Italian. If things like starters freeze up, we just give it a wack with our hammer. Wacking things is sometimes the only solution to a problem. Besides, if you can’t fix something, a good wack makes you feel good.

A folding bucket. I also have a folding bucket. Folding buckets are good for bailing when you have a big hole in your hull…you can also use the bucket as a water closet when your holding tank is full. Just line it with a small plastic bag. Tie the top when your done, and deep six it at night.

An Italian flag. This warns other boaters your little ship is underway, and there possibly is nobody on deck. After all, love, and wine are a part of how we Italians sail.