On Board with Mark Corke

Reading a chart and why you should.

 

In this day and age you would think that any boat owner would have little use of a paper nautical chart. But a chart is very useful and contains a wealth of information which may not be available on a chart plotter or computer display. Typically all charts will contain depth, sometimes called soundings in either feet, meters or fathoms ( one fathom equals 6 feet). Charts also show navigational markers, obstructions and other points of interest or hazards to mariners. Charts come in different scales and which is used will depend of personal preference and the area being navigated, a large scale chart for harbors and rivers and a small scale chart for passage planning or longer voyages offshore. A chart will have a scale along the top and bottom and these show latitude and longitude, horizontal along the top and bottom for longitude and vertical along the extreme left and right of the chart for latitude. Positions marked on a chart are always given as a series of numbers; degrees, minutes and seconds. It is also worth noting that one minute of arch, not to be confused with one minute of time is equal to one nautical mile with 60 seconds making up one degree. You can often find a scale elsewhere on the chart showing nautical miles and thus by opening up a pair of compasses to a desired distance measured on the scale it is possible to walk the dividers across the chart to find the distance between two objects. Assuming that we were cruising on a sailboat traveling at 5 knots and we knew where we were we could set the divers to five miles and mark our estimated position in one hours time as long as our course did not alter. Or we could find our distance off from the shore or other point by measuring the distance with the dividers and then referencing this back to the miles scale. It is also worth pointing out that latitude and longitude are measured north or south from the equator and east and west from the Greenwich meridian in London, England. For instance the position of the 59^th street harbor marina in Chicago is at 41. 47' 30” North and 87. 34'51” West. Knowing your lat and long at anytime is a good idea as it unequivocally establishes your position which can then be passed onto the coast guard if you got into trouble and needed assistance. This is much simpler and less ambiguous than just saying “about 10 miles from the big white light house”. Also charts are an important back up should your electronics fail, knowing where you are at all times is less stressful and means that you are less likely to get into trouble or make mistakes especially when you are tired. One good practice is to update your position on the chart every 30 minutes or hour, if on a longer passage, noting not only your position but the time as well in soft pencil on the chart which can later be erased when you have safely completed your voyage. In fact you can also mark favorite fishing or gunk holing spots on the chart too so that you can easily get back to them at another time. Another way that charts come into their own is on passage planning. I like to lay the chart out and study my intended route, making note of any obstructions or places that I need to avoid, sure you can do this with a chart plotter but by the time that you have zoomed out to show your starting and finishing points all detail is lost, this is especially troublesome on smaller chart plotters. Once I have done the basic planning on the chart I can then enter way points into the electronics with confidence.

If you don't keep charts on board then I strongly urge you to do so and even if you do have some aboard it may be time to pull them out dust them off, brush up on your chart work, you might be glad you did.

Nautical charts can be obtained through the NOAA website which lists all chart agents.

West Marine and other boating suppliers may also often have charts although these will often be limited to your local area.

Waterproof notes

 

The chances are that at some time everything on the boat will get wet and nothing is more annoying than bringing charts and pilot books out into the cockpit only to get them all damp and soggy. I like to navigate the old fashioned way and not rely entirely on electronic charts. Before I approach a strange harbor I write down all the relevant information in a note book; the height of tide, tidal set and drift, VHF frequencies of the harbor master, marina and so on. Having these all on one or two pages makes things just a little easier and it saves having an almanac, pilot and other paperwork on my lap as I get on with the business of feeling my way into some strange place. Having  a note book that will stand up to the rigors of a damp cockpit is difficult. I have tried all sorts of low tech devices, a section of white plastic laminate that I can write on with a pencil, a strip of Tyvek and other such products. All of them worked to a degree but saving the notes conviniently was not one of them. But now that I have been sent a sample of  Rite in the Rain I think my search is over. Essentially Rite in the Rain looks and feels like ordinary writing paper but is completely water proof so I can write on it in pencil or ballpoint in the cockpit on a foggy night confident that my notes will not mysteriously disappear or the pages get stuck together. Prices vary depending on the product but a small note book like the one above sells in the $3 range.

Electronic flares

 
 

The photo and the schematic above show very interesting possibilities for the future, an electronic distress flare. Some time ago I blogged about the disposal of out of date distress flares and how they are almost impossible to dispose of in a safe, legal and environmentally responsible way. Judging by the amount of e mails and comments that I received it seems that I am not the only one who has had this frustration, but a solution may soon be at hand for recreational boaters. Called the ODEO flare it is in fact not a flare at all but has high intensity revolving LED's that give off a super-bright red light with similar characteristics to a normal pyrotechnic flare. Apparently according to the blurb it is powered by a couple of lithium ion batteries but will run on normal AA cells as well if needs be. With a fully charged set of batteries the makers claim that the light will run continuously for 12 hours which is really cool, a normal red flare burns for 20 seconds if you are lucky. It is not approved for commercial vessels as yet but you can use it aboard a recreational boat. It's made in the UK and costs 100 pounds stirling but I doubt if it will be long before it is available for US suppliers. If you can't wait you could order one on line as it is safe to send through the regular mail unlike a pyrotechnic.

 

Standard Horizon AIS radio

It looks like Standard Horizon are on to a winner with their new  GX2100 VHF radio. In addition to it being a fully featured VHF radio with DSC etc it also very cleverly integrates an AIS receiver into the unit as well. Considering that a AIS receiver from West marine costs the best part of $500 and this still has to be connected to a compatible multi function display or chart plotter then this makes the GX2100 even better value. On the display that you can see above your boats heading is symbolized with a small black arrow in the center of the range circles and the four closest AIS equipped targets are also shown as circle with a small tail. You can scroll through each of these targets in turn and to the right of the display the call sign, the speed and direction of the vessel and all other necessary information is displayed. Up until now I have avoided installing an AIS receiver as it is just another piece of equipment but now one can simply replace the existing VHF set that I have aboard and get the functionality of the AIS as well in one small compact bundle. Incidentally these is an NMEA output on the back of the unit so that it can connect to a suitable multi function display and show AIS information overlaid on the chart.

I have requested a review unit and hope to give it a try in the real world at sea in due course. The GX2100 will be on sale in stores for $399 I am told and at that price I can see the manufacturers selling an awful lot of these radios.

I personally was not the only one who was impressed, my fellow judges at the Miami boat show also like it too and so we gave it an NMMA innovation award in the electronics category.

LORAN - the end is nigh

Today is the last day that the LORAN chains will be fully operational in the USA. As I write this the US government is starting the process of decommissioning with total closure no later than the end of October 2010.

This means that if you are currently using LORAN then you will have to switch over to another system of electronic navigation with all due haste as the position fix if you can get one at all can no longer be relied upon.

Loran C - R.I.P

If you have a Loran C receiver on your boat which you use for navigation you have exactly on more month to use it before it will be useless.

The USCG have just announced that as part of cost cutting exercises the LORAN transmitters will cease functioning after February 8th.

The press release is brief which you can read here but it seems that the government seems to feel that with so many people now using GPS the Loran chains are now superfluous. I would  be interested to hear what On Board readers think.

Speed transducer replacement

If you have one of the paddle wheel speed transducers like the one shown above then you will know how easily they can get clogged up with weed. Made by Airmar who supply transducers to Raymarine, B and G, Lowrance and just about all the other manufacturers of marine electronics these transducers are very common. They work fine after the annual haul out and service but even the smallest little critter or section of weed can effect the reading or stop the paddle wheel from going around at all. Considering that the log is one of the most useful and essential bits of navigational kit aboard it is frustrating to say the least when it packs up working.

Now thankfully there is an answer and that is to install the replacement Airmar CS4500 sensor which as I understand it is a direct replacement for the removable center section of the existing transducer. This means that the old paddle wheel can be removed and the CS4500 slipped in it's place and once wired up will mean that you or I will be back in action in a jiffy. Because Airmar transducers are made to be serviced from the inside of the boat even when afloat then the paddle wheel can  be swapped out for the new unit even while the boat is in the water thus saving the expense of a haul out.

Unlike the paddle wheel log the new unit has no moving parts and measures the speed of particles in the water moving past the transducer face. It does this twice every second so an instantaneous readout is virtually guaranteed.

Best of all the new transducer has nothing to hang up on any weeds and so it looks like I might be able to go a whole season without having to clean off the paddle wheel every time I go out on the boat.

For full details on the CS4500 you can click Download CS4500 to view a PDF.

Pop up Nav light

Accon may not be a name that is familiar to a lot of readers but even if you have never heard of them my guess is that you will have either been on a boat with some of their products fitted or at the very least seen them at one of the boat shows.

Black Fin and Regulator sport fishing boats both feature the smart Accon pop up cleats which keep the deck clear and avoid damaged toes and feet. But now Accon have come up with pop up lights, which like the cleats sit flush with the surrounding deck when not in use but flip up at night when you require navigation lights. LED powered the 210 model shown at the bottom is a 2 mile visible nav light that complies with current USCG regulations.

I like the look of these lights a lot and I expect that they will find favor with a lot of the fishing guys who generally go out only during the day but have to have nav lights in case they head out in the early hours or get back late. The 210 model is available direct from Accon and has a list price of $177, expensive by some standards perhaps but it's hard to put a price on style.

Tiller pilot installation

I often sail alone, and ordinary chores, food preparation, sail changes, chart work, and the like often require me to leave the tiller unattended for a time. Although my boat has a long keel and tracks well, it soon became clear that having a self-steering system would be a great asset.
There are two basic types of electronic self-steering systems one for wheel-steered boats, the other for tiller-steered boats like mine. There are numerous choices from numerous manufacturers; your search will be narrowed to some extent by what will work with your boat. Turning a wheel or pushing a tiller requires a certain amount of energy in the form of thrust, and the larger the boat, the greater the required thrust will be.
Because I have Raymarine electronics on my boat, I chose Raymarine’s ST1000 Plus tiller pilot, which is compatible with my existing electronics. It has a maximum push/pull torque of 125 pounds, which is more than enough for my modest 26-footer. The ST1000 Plus is a self-contained tiller pilot; for a larger boat you’ll need a larger pilot.
Before the advent of integrated circuits and NMEA protocols, automatic pilots were not able to share information with other equipment. My ST1000 both sends and receives information and can steer to a course set on a connected chartplotter, a very useful feature for a single hander like me.
Installation of a tiller pilot varies from boat to boat, but my installation was typical enough to give you a good idea of what’s involved and whether this project is for you. It’s essential that you read, fully understand, and follow the instructions that come with your tiller pilot.
My boat is made of wood, so I simply seal the edges of any holes I drill with unthickened epoxy a solid glass fibre boat would not be any more difficult but cored decks need more attention; you need to remove the core around the holes, fill them with thickened epoxy, and redrill the holes when the epoxy cures. The epoxy will keep moisture from entering the core.

Choose a position for the tiller pilot, paying special attention to the unit’s installation instructions. With the ST1000, the pivot point on the tiller where the pilot’s drive arm is attached must be 18 inches from the centerline of the rudder pintles. Note that when the tiller is steering dead ahead, the drive arm is at a 90-degree angle to the centerline of the boat.
The drive arm also needs to be level athwartships. This was initially a problem on my boat because the tiller was too high relative to the side deck. I solved the problem by adding an extension to the pedestal socket.
Raymarine offers a large range of optional parts to ensure that the tiller
pilot will fit just about any boat.
Following the installation instructions, mark the positions of the pedestal mounting base and the pivot pin. On my boat the pedestal is on the side deck, adjacent to the cockpit coaming, and the pivot pin is on top of the tiller. I like to use masking tape for marking positions; pencil shows
up well on it, and you can double-check before drilling the holes.

Anytime Valentine Gifts

Seems like just yesterday that we were giving each other Christmas gifts and guess what, Valentine's Day is here. My wife Rita thinks that all Valentine's Day gifts should be lovey-dovey. but then she might not be such a hard-core boater as me.  So to satisfy all tastes here is a round-up of suggestions that are sure to appeal to everyone.  You wouldn't believe how many gift suggestions were sent to me.  Some of them, like the guy flogging a square foot of land overseas to all those who want to be international property owners!  Unbelievable!  So I've sorted through them all and put together a selection costing from just a few dollars to several hundred any of which would be welcomed by any boating inclined member of the family at any time of the year -  not just on Valentine's Day.

TAG Heuer 27° AIR Sunglasses  $230-365.00

They're well-known for the range of watches they have been making since 1860, but until these arrived in the mail some time ago I had no idea that TAG Heuer made sun glasses as well. These are from the AIR range collection.  They look stylish, are comfortable to wear and the soft neoprene ends grip well so they will stay in place when you are on the boat. The wrap around style of the lenses stops glare from entering around the sides..an absolute must when you're out on the water on a sunny day.  Prices vary depending on the exact model and run from around the $230 mark. Not the cheapest sunglasses that you will ever buy perhaps, but certainly some of the most good looking and effective.  If you decide to wrap these up for your Valentine, just be sure to invest another 5 bucks in an eyewear retainer like the ones made by Croakie.  As they say, "better to be safe than sorry!"

    Tullamore Dew    $35
    Glenrothes          $45
    Yamazaki            $44.99

I’ve never been a great one for drinking beer, but I do enjoy a drop of whisky from time to time. Always something of an acquired taste and not all whiskies are created equal. Single malts are at the top of the tree and although more expensive than blended whisky, they are far smoother with each distillery producing their own distinct unique tipple.

The trio shown here includes the Glenrothes, which is a Scottish Speyside whisky, Tullmore Dew from Ireland and Yamazaki from Kyoto in Japan.  I'm a fan of first two, but the Japanese whisky was completely new to me.  Now that I've indulged, I must confess that I have developed quite a taste for it. The booklet describes it thus ‘ a 12 year old that is slightly syrupy, honeyed in flavor, perfumey, with a cookie like dryness in the finish’. 

Whichever you choose none of these will disappoint a true whisky drinker. A great gift when visiting a friend’s boat for the weekend and a sure fire guarantee that you will be invited back.

Incidentally, we've got a few great whisky cocktail recipes that I just might feature on St. Patrick's Day.  I know you won't be disappointed in the ones that include Tallmore Dew. 

Distributed in the USA by Skyy and available in all good liquor stores