Is GPS Obsoleting the Sextant?

[JiffyLube]

The elctronic calculator made the slide rule obsolete. Is GPS going to make the sextant obsolete?

[Plumper]

It already has. I believe that most boaters don't own a sextant and most navigators would have to dig out the books to do a sight long hand. The often stated argument about the GPS becoming useless because of electrical storms, US Military shutting it down, no batteries etc is silly. All those same arguments apply to the radio, calculator and electronic watch that most folks would have to use to reduce a sight. Even after many years of using a sky wrench to get across the pond, I would be embarrassed if someone asked me to shoot and reduce some stars right now.

[Stillraining]

Whats a sextant...

[JiffyLube]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

Whats a sextant...

Hahahahaha

[wind_magic]

Not again! This topic comes up every once in a while and always causes arguments.

I think it depends on the person. It's like anything else - beer brewing for example. There are guys who like to drink beer. There are guys who like to brew their own, so they buy some stuff to do it, make a few brews in their basement, etc, and enjoy drinking them. And then there are people in this world that want to excel at what they are doing, so they really learn about hops and yeasts, containers, processes, and they really get into it and turn it into an art. I think sailing can be like that to - you can get from point A to point B with GPS and probably nothing bad will ever happen to you, or you can have a few GPS units just in case one goes bad, keep one in the microwave in case of a lightning strike with some extra batteries, and all that, and that's even better, hard to imagine how you could fail doing that. Or, you can be one of those guys who excels and knows how to find where they are through a lot of different means, can use a sextant, can glance up at the sky and knows all the constellations and major stars, can figure out latitude using two sticks and a piece of string, etc, you can turn it into an art like anything else. Depends on who you are as a person.

[Hartley18]

Sextant out of date? What, you mean no-one uses a quadrant any more??

Whatever will they think of next!..

[sailaway21]

If you check the sailnet archives using the "search this forum" tool you'll find pages of debate on the subject, many of them by me. I'm not going to refight that battle just for kicks.

The sextant is no more obsolete than it was when Loran A and Omega came out and GPS has not changed that fact. It certainly is used a great deal less on a daily basis but then so are pencils and erasers. For the yachtsman it's probably obsolete but then, it was probably never a commonly held skill by most yachtsmen. Let's just leave it by saying that, if you want a USCG-Oceans license, you have to know how to use one and a passing grade on the exam is 90%.

[bobwebster]

Sextants are obsolete. (So are film cameras.) Other than training and fun, there is not much reason to use a sextant. BUT, if you were to lose all electricity on an oceanic crossing, a sextant would be nice to have, especially if you are headed for an island rather than a continent.

[T34C]

Originally Posted by sailaway21

If you check the sailnet archives using the "search this forum" tool you'll find pages of debate on the subject, many of them by me. I'm not going to refight that battle just for kicks..

What? You fill pages of text debateing the relevance of old ideals?????

[XTR]

I'm the guy who likes to do things just because, so just because I could I bought an astral before I did a delivery from USVI to MD and started to learn how to use it.

IMO for 90+ percent of the people out there who sail, and who will NEVER cross an ocean on anything not made by Airbus or Boeing or have to worry about a landfall there is really no reason to ever need one. I think that in the event of a lack of GPS coastal navigation skills are more important than any celestial nav skills. Being able to read a chart, shoot bearings are far more likely to be useful that using a sextant.

Did I carry it when I went to BVI last week? no,

Would I use it if I left for Bermuda next week? you betcha.

Would I carry it on an ocean crossing? yes.

Would I rely on it if I had working GPS? no