ASTRO NAV TIPS

Recognise the difference between what you need to know and practice to actually navigate a yacht, and the interesting theoretical aspects and background, which you don’t necessarily need to understand.

When using air navigation tables everything follows from the assumed position – make sure you have a solid grasp of this concept.

It’s important to stay grounded and avoid transcribing the wrong figures from the tables. Before you start, estimate the angle of the sun when you’ll be taking your sight. In the northern hemisphere in the morning, for instance, the sun will be in the south-east.

Pro-formas make sight reduction easy in practice, but may not help when learning the essential concepts.

If you only have time to learn one type of sight, make it a sun-run-sun, not a noon sight.

Using a sextant is much easier than most people have been conditioned to expect.