Table of Contents
Backstory: About This Blog Post
This blog post was first written in 2014 before we owned a sailboat and I was struggling to understand sailing navigation without GPS. I was so new to sailing that I didn’t realize until four months later, when I was actually sailing in Antigua, how much of an impact the wind had on choosing a direction to sail.
After more than a decade of sailing behind us, we are still circumnavigating. I continue to find it interesting that there are so many avenues for life-long learning. Sailing allows you (and sometimes forces you) to take a deep dive into boat systems, weather, rigging or sailing navigation using vectors— to name a few.
Learning Sailing Navigation With Vectors
Today, the sailing life reared its head first thing this morning when the subject of vectors was raised. Anyone remember vectors from high school math? Me? Vaguely — I would have to google it. This is the heart of sailing navigation without GPS.
Google it. I feel like I have enough interest to pursue the topic further, but will delay this pursuit, perhaps indefinitely. But, my husband was persistent. It seems vector diagrams are an important skill in charting a course to sail, especially if the power fails and the GPS and autopilot die, so I will not spare you our discussion.
How Vectors Help With Sailing Navigation Without GPS
Following a visit to wikipedia, there are many types of vectors. But, what my husband was explaining, as I looked hard into my coffee cup, was the concept of the Euclidean vector. A Euclidean vector, according to wikipedia is:
a geometric entity …used to represent physical quantities that have both magnitude and direction, such as force
Plotting a Course by Hand With Charts and Callipers
If you are still with me, vector drawings are simply straight lines that hold meaning. In sailing, vectors can help determine how to travel from point A to point B, factoring in wind speed and tidal force.
Here is a picture of my husband demonstrating how to use callipers and a chart plotter to create a series of vectors. By drawing vectors, he determines the number of hours, and what direction to take to travel from one point to another.
Callipers vary in style. Our callipers are gold-coloured, and the “legs” can be moved about to measure distance. Meanwhile, the chart plotter is used as a straight edge, and the compass rose in its center is used to gauge proper sailing angle.
My husband is completing an on-line Day Skipper theory course. He is on section 4 of 12 at the moment. I will be starting this course next week. With practice, our goal is to manually calculate our sailing position within seconds.
Gordon Laco: Navigating Without GPS the Old-Fashioned Way
In the past ten years we have encountered many interesting people including Gordon Laco. He is able to navigate without GPS so effortlessly that he has made something of a career as a historical consultant and technical advisor in film and television.
In terms of background, Laco is retired from the Royal Canadian Navy. He was Captain, HMS BEE, which is a replica War of 1812 warship.
His experience and muscle memory led him to consult on and contribute to a number of films including Master and Commander starring Russell Crowe. For that film he wrote dialog, trained actors and, at least on one occasion, appeared as the stunt double for Russell Crowe’s hands.
An interesting interview with Laco describes his career and involvement in films. Laco is so passionate about sea history I swear he must sweat seawater.
Pin it
If you enjoyed this story about sailing navigation without GPS, you can save it to your own Pinterest board using the image below. Thanks for reading.
Related Post
Hey! New reader here :). My husband and I are considering a sailor’s life as well… still in the research and development phase. I’m going to try to read through your blog today to see if I can pick up a few lessons-learned!