Navigators: The Sextant you own and have a License?

[eric3a]

Master 1st Class. All seas, all types of ships, unlimited tonnage. (expired due non renewal)
Chief Engineer 1st Class. All seas, unlimited power, steam and diesel.(expired also)

Own an old family sextant, no idea the make. Never used it on board as always used the boat's/ships instead. As long as it's decent I'll get an accurate (enough) fix. I may cheat using GPS for time signal though.
I wrote a program years ago to calculate ephemerides for the sun, planets and 52 stars because I hate relying on the book and doing calcs by hand.
Eric

[Tea-Rex]

my own sextant is a russian copy of a C&P sextant (close enough a copy so spare parts are interchangable).
aside from that i inherited 5 sextants from my dad. 2 modern drum sextants, 1 brass and two wooden vernier sextants. all in working condition, tho the vernier sextants come with correction tables

sport boating license as required here in germany.

[hellosailor]

Boasun, what's a Navigator? (G)

I'm not certified by anyone but have owned a Freiberger Yacht Sextant and C. Plath Horizon Ultra, have used the Ares, Astra, and Cassens & Plath as well. Bottom line...in some ways the cheaper ones are better than the top ones. The Ultra has some nice twists, like being able to reset the zero on the fly (one less number to work), and the horizon prism, and the polarized shades. And one very nice feature for star sights that's not mentioned or visible for sun sights: One mirror has a slight red cast, the other has a slight green cast. The result is that star sights show a distinct red/green split until they "pop" into a single white image, making it easier to get a real sharp image on a star. It gets "white" as it gets perfectly aligned.

On the other hand--the sight twists on back side, so it goes out of focus as it twists against your eye/glasses. Unlike the Freiberger and others where the twist is in the front--away from contact.

On a moving boat, they're all about the same precision, although the gimmicks on the Ultra would make nay one of them nice. (But heavier.)

Haven't had a GPS fail on me yet--although I never forget the one LORAN that wanted me to steer a course into Kansas. Don't trust any of the silicon kids any more.(G)

[Boasun]

Navigators are those who is, has, have and been a navigator at one time or another.
In other words someone who knows where they are at by the use of instruments, instinct and asking directions from the Big Guy in the Heaven.
And don't need the Loran, GPS, DECCA, or OMEGA to find their way. But the fore mentioned is nice to have.

[Valiente]

I guess I'm a navigator then, if shouting out a bearing for the helmsman from the depths of the nav station counts!

[sailingdog]

Yup... provided the bearing is correct... otherwise, not so much.

[slocum2]

I have an ASTRA sextant and hold a 2nd Mate, unlimited, oceans. Master 1600 ton. ARPA,GMDSS, etc. Im lucky enough to teach navigation for a living

[XTR]

I'm definitely not licensed but I do have an Astral IIIB that I've enjoyed learning to use.

[CharlesCook]

Astral IIIB

Master 100 ton inland,
Mate 100 ton near coastal,
OUPV
All with sail and towing endorsements.
I also have my STCW 95 BST and Basic and Advanced Fire Fighting

[Flybyknight]

C Plath here.
I use the NASRM.
Taught CN.
"N" in the USPS
Dick