Equipment Outfitters

Coastal piloting, or piloting, is basically the art of getting from here to there without going aground or getting lost. It requires a few basic tools—a compass, a chart, parallel rules, dividers, a sharp pencil— and a few simple, easy to learn skills. This kind of basic way finding allows you to range far a field, venturing out of familiar home waters and into new cruising grounds with a sense of confidence.

Tools

Compass: The most basic and useful navigation aid available, the compass houses a card that is magnetically oriented towards north, regardless of your boat’s direction. The card reads in degrees. Your boat’s heading is indicated by a “lubber’s line,” a pin or stripe lined up on the clear dome. A professional should adjust the compass to compensate for the magnetic field set up by your boat.

Parallel Rules: This handy device allows you to draw a course between two points, then “walk” the course over to a compass rose to determine the magnetic direction in which to steer.

Compass Rose: Taking its name from the flower it resembles, a compass rose on a chart shows two sets of bearings: the outer ring is oriented to true north, while the inner one shows magnetic bearings oriented to the magnetic north pole. Since your compass is magnetically oriented, use the rose’s inner (magnetic) bearings for navigational purposes.

A course on the water., much like a road on land, may not provide the straightest line to your destination. It will, however, take you around or away from shallow areas, land masses, rocks, sunken wrecks and other underwater obstructions. Calculating your route through inland waters and along coastlines also provides a way by which you can recheck and update your current position along the way.

Dividers: Hinged to open or contract, dividers are used to measure distances on charts. Normally, navigational distances are measured in nautical miles (approximately one-seventh longer than statute miles). Speed, in nautical miles per hour, is expressed as knots (not knots per hour).

Planning and Steering a course

1. Beginning with your starting point, pick your first intended waypoint on the chart.
2. Using the parallel rules and a sharpened pencil, draw a line between the two points.
3. “Walk” the rules over to the center of t h e compass rose. Do this by holding one rule down firmly while opening the other in the direction of the compass. Then reverse the procedure until one rule bisects the cross lines at the center of the compass.
4. Note where the rule intersects the inner (magnetic) circle in the direction you wish to go. In this case, the indicated course will be 147°.
5. Mark the course on the original line you drew.
6. Precede the bearing with the letter “C” (for course) and follow it with the “M” (for magnetic).
7. Align the lubber’s line on your boat’s compass on 147 and try to steer that course.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Boating and some Basic Navigation Guide

• Explorers Speed Sailing
• Trifoiling
• Basic Boat Engine Maintenance
• Hauling Out/Retrieving boat from the water by Sling
• Boating and some Basic Navigation Guide continued
• Boat Collision, what to do?
• The right Boat Gear Storage Aboard
• Boat Hull Maintenance/Waxing and Painting
• Practice Boating Drill Guide part 3
• Boating Journey, how to cope Weather Conditions to Anticipate