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From: Dave Weilacher (no email)
Date: Fri Jun 03 2005 - 09:13:25 EDT
I have taught a Celnav class three times.
My first class had six students. Five were USCG licensed captains. Four were Ameican Sailing Association certified instructors. One was the school owner. He had practical experience with it in the US navy and had taught a celnav course at one time.
My job approval rating at the end of this class was awful. Only one of the six gave me a good rating. The other five, including the owner, damned me to hell for the bad job I did.
It is not in my nature to take a hint so...
I taught the class again at another sailing school. Four students. One the owner. My approval rating at the end of this was 75 percent satisfactory. That included the owner. One student damned me to hell for the bad job I did.
My third class. Back to the first school. Four students. One of them was a repeater from my first class. Nobody complained but I did lose one of the students. The other three passed the exam. One of them didn't have a real clue however.
All of this was presented as a mini resume' to show why I have opinions on the subject. They are well honed opinions. Not necesarily correct or reasonable; just well honed.
More to follow.
-----Original Message-----
From: George Huxtable <>
Sent: Jun 3, 2005 8:58 AM
To:
Subject: Re: suggestion for a satisfactory celnav narrative
Andrew Corl wrote-
>For Courtney, I am raising my hand to help with this. Don't know what I can
>do but here is a list of techniques I feel should be in the manual:
>Dead Reckoning
>Latitude by Noon Sun
>Longitude using a shortwave radio and the noon sun
>Sextant operation and how to determine the elevation above the horizon of
>the sun, moon, star, and planet
>Sight reduction using H.O. 249 - method I am presently learning
>Sight reduction doing all the math (the "apex of celestial navigation"
>according to Frank)
As a world-weary old cynic, my opinion is that any offer, saying "this is
how I think it should be done, and I'm prepared to contribute" is worth at
least 10 proposals of "this is how I think it should be done, but by
someone else, not by me". So Andrew's suggestions are indeed useful.
No doubt, he expected a bit of nitpicking about his choice of topics, and I
am happy to provide it. It relates to his suggested topic-
"Longitude using a shortwave radio and the noon sun"
Although proposals for timing the moment of noon, by observing the Sun
around noon, reappear on this list at regrettably regular intervals, the
fact remains that noon is the worst possible moment for doing that job.
Although it's possible to make a crude assessment of the moment-of-noon by
making an extended set of observations, before noon and after, the only way
to get a PRECISE value of time-by-the-Sun (and hence longitude) is to do so
at a time WELL AWAY from noon, so that the Sun is rising and falling at a
measurable rate. If Andrew were to rephrase his suggestion to read instead-
"Longitude using a shortwave radio and a time-sight of the Sun",
then I, for one, would be happy.
George.
================================================================
contact George Huxtable by email at , by phone at
01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy
Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
================================================================
Dave Weilacher
.IBM AS400 RPG contract programmer
.USCG Master lic. 100 ton
.ASA Sailing Instructor Evaluator
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