On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 03:21:21 GMT, otnmbrd
wrote:

Worthless in what way? Accuracy or reliable signal?

Reliable signal. My experience with LORAN in Bermuda is somewhat
dated and things may have improved, or you may have better equipment
on large ships than we did on sail boats in the late '80s. By the
early 90s everyone was using GPS so LORAN didn't get much attention
after that. My present boat has two very decent LORAN units aboard
and neither are connected, mostly for lack of antenna space. Don't
really miss them with 3 GPS units, 3 chart plotters, and two radars
available.

I ask, because that
was not my experience.
Assuming you are correct and this applied to the ship also, would you
agree that as they approached the Nantucket-Boston Safety Fairway that
Loran became useful?

LORAN should have been quite usable in that area in my experience.
The only time we had difficulty with coastal LORAN was during severe
thunderstorms. One of my units would also jump out of sync
occasionally but the error was so large as to be immediately obvious.