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From: Mike Maurice (no email)
Date: Sun Mar 23 2008 - 15:31:05 EDT
Fact is that it take considerable time to become proficient at real
steering of boats. This skill is less and less evident as more and more
boats are equipped with autopilots. You can't learn to steer straight by
just thinking or reading about it.
I have a constantly changing mix of crew and the one single skill
weakness which I can count on is, the ability to steer the boat by hand.
There are three parts to the problem. First, the ability to steer a
straight course, or to handle the boat under rough conditions and the
third is the ability to follow a course, using the compass. The fact is
that very few helmsmen can steer by the compass because they tend to use
visual cues from watching stars, landmarks, clouds, etc. And, because
most compass installations are so deficient as to be nearly useless, for
a variety of reasons I won't go into, here.
You can't learn the needed level of skill in even a thousand mile
cruise. Trouble is that in at least my situation, I can't afford to have
the boat wandering all over hell, just to allow someone to hand steer in
order to gain experience. So, we use the autopilot which doesn't provide
them experience at hand steering. Assuming, that the boat has an
autopilot and if it doesn't then, I can count on our steering a "ragged
course".
Regards,
Mike
_____________________________________
Capt. Mike Maurice
Beaverton Oregon(Near Portland)
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