Thread: Useful gadgets
View Single Post
  #4   Report Post  
Jack Dale
 
Posts: n/a
Default Useful gadgets

On 28 Jan 2004 07:07:38 -0800, (Parallax)
wrote:

Jack Dale wrote in message . ..
On 24 Jan 2004 09:18:25 -0800,
(Parallax)
wrote:


Any other useful things?


Portland Plotter - after one of my coastal navigation students showed
me one I put away the parallel rules. I still like a Douglas
protractor, but I use the parallel rules as an antique. The Plotter
is my mainstay.

After I demonstrate all 3, almost all of my students opt for the
Portland Plotter.

Jack



Portland Plotter? I'll do a search on it.

I hate the parallel rules because they are hard to use with the chart
spread on a pitching cabin floor. Instead I use my hand bearing
compass mounted to aplastic square I can align with north and
perpendicular to the edge of the chart. I have a protractor mounted
to it so I can rotate it about the compass axis. Works for me.
Around here, in most cases, i can ignore the difference between
magnetic north and true north.


The Portland Plotter has a scale that permits instant conversion for
variation. We have 19 degrees east in the Gulf Islands.

The manufacturer's web site is:

http://www.blundellharling.co.uk/nav...ucts/index.asp

Jack

__________________________________________________
Jack Dale
Swiftsure Sailing Academy
Director/ISPA and CYA Instructor
http://www.swiftsuresailing.com
Phone: 1 (877) 470-SAIL (toll free)
__________________________________________________