{"id":463,"date":"2025-11-18T14:42:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T14:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yachtersworld.com\/?p=463"},"modified":"2025-11-18T14:42:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T14:42:21","slug":"5-expert-tips-your-guide-to-navigation-fundamentals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yachtersworld.com\/?p=463","title":{"rendered":"5 expert tips: Your guide to navigation fundamentals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even the most hi-tech boats can experience a glitch. World-class navigator Will Oxley explains to Andy Rice why fundamental navigation skills are so key<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I was navigating on the 80-footer Beau Geste<\/em> on the Round New Caledonia Race, steaming towards a reef system when suddenly all the systems went down. We were on a dark ship and were within five minutes of hitting the reef.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s because of times like these that Will Oxley remains so committed to his no-stone-unturned approach to navigation<\/a>. He\u2019s all too aware that the smarter the technology we rely on, the less smart we become. At least, that\u2019s the danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I get people coming to me for coaching and training in improving their navigation skills, the first thing I\u2019ll ask is have they mastered the fundamentals?\u201d says Will. \u201cHave you done your RYA Yachtmaster certificate, for example?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where you get to learn the fundamentals of the job \u2013 coastal navigation, transits, how tides<\/a> work, about wave patterns and the fact that you\u2019re not necessarily safe in more water than the depth of your boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the arrival of GPS and electronic charts<\/a>, many sailors have increasingly lost touch with these fundamentals, which leaves them dangerously exposed, according to Will. Here are his five best boat knife<\/a> tips for making sure you\u2019ve covered yourself for those times when systems go down and the only thing you\u2019ve got to fall back on are your raw navigation skills.<\/p>\n

Software skills do not make a navigator<\/h2>\n

The ability to use software like Expedition and Adrena is obviously critical to being a good navigator in the modern age of offshore racing, but this is not the be-all and end-all. While people come to me asking for help in training them in the best boat knife<\/a> use of these tools, I\u2019m conscious of my responsibility to make sure they\u2019ve covered the other vital aspects of navigation.<\/p>\n

The software tools are the top of the pyramid of skills required, but you can\u2019t call yourself a good navigator unless you\u2019ve studied the fundamentals \u2013 the base of the pyramid \u2013 in great detail. There are plenty of examples I could draw to make the point, but one that we see in the Caribbean 600<\/a> is when someone hits a rock that they say wasn\u2019t shown exactly on the chart.<\/p>\n

If you come from the UK where the charts are five- or six-star and every tiny rock is accounted for, it\u2019s easy to fall into the trap of putting the same level of blind trust in the ENCs (electronic navigation charts<\/a>) for the Caribbean. They are nowhere near at the same level of accuracy and you\u2019ll come unstuck if you place too much faith in them. This is just one of many examples why studying the fundamentals matters so much.<\/p>\n

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Pro navigators use the latest navigation software \u2013 but still rely on paper charts as vital back-up. Photo: Amory Ross\/Team Alvimedica\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Make backups for the backup<\/h2>\n

You\u2019ll hear people tell stories about how the boat went aground because the chart was inaccurate or there was a GPS failure. But they\u2019re not really valid excuses because you have to assume that these things are going to happen at various points in your sailing life.<\/p>\n

You can get yourself into some pretty complicated situations with a deck screen and a detailed chart. For instance, at night time, you can get inside some rocks that are not very wide, but you\u2019re still happy that all is well. Now, what happens if your GPS goes down? A well-rounded navigator should be able to say: \u201cI know that if I stay between these depth contours, then I\u2019m safe. I know there\u2019s a lighthouse and the bearing to that lighthouse needs to remain at this angle for me to be safe. There\u2019s a transit here\u2026\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n

There are a whole lot of other pieces of information, using fundamental navigation, that you should be paying attention to.<\/p>\n

I use a mesa rugged tablet as a backup to the main desktop nav system on any boat that I sail on, so even if the boat\u2019s electronics go down \u2013 say, after a crash gybe and all the antennas have been ripped off the back of the pulpit \u2013 then I can flick straight to the tablet.<\/p>\n

But what if the mesa goes down? Navigation is as much about knowing where you\u2019re not as knowing where you are, and you always need to know your escape route if absolutely everything goes down. At all times, and for all potential worst-case scenarios, you need to plan your way to safety.<\/p>\n

Spread the workload<\/h2>\n

Just as we\u2019re talking about backups for all scenarios, the same applies to the navigator too. You need to spread the workload and make sure other people on the crew are up to speed with your plans. When you\u2019re doing a handover and you\u2019re planning to have a sleep for a little while, explain the projected scenario for the next few hours, including those vital paths to safety that we talked about. Before the race you\u2019ll do hours of preparation, particularly looking at the sailing instructions and the course routing.<\/p>\n

I realise everyone else on the crew has their own area of responsibility, so I\u2019ll boil down the really vital information that I think everyone needs to know, and condense it into one page. I\u2019ll summarise the key points from the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions and say, \u201cEverybody should be aware of this, and there will be a fine if someone asks me a question that\u2019s already on this one page,\u201d because there\u2019s basic stuff that absolutely everyone needs to know.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to sit back and think \u201coh, Will is prepared, we won\u2019t read it. We\u2019ll just assume that what he did was right.\u201d That reliance purely on the navigator is a big error that even professional teams sometimes make.<\/p>\n

Article continues below\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

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5 Expert Tips: How to run a succesful offshore campaign on a budget<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/header>\n
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Lawrence Herbert loves his offshore racing but he and the Corazon crew are campaigning their J\/133 on a tight budget.\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n