Basic Coastal Navigation: An Introduction to Piloting for Sail and Power / Edition 2

by Frank J. Larkin

Overview

This clear and accessible introduction to coastal navigation outlines most of the techniques of piloting that are still fundamental to safe navigation even with modern electronic aids. Step-by-step, the reader is guided from simple to more complex piloting solutions. In addition to dead-reckoning techniques, the author covers tides and currents and explains how to use LORAN C and GPS. There are numerous illustrations throughout the text and practice problems at the end of each chapter.

Key Advantages: fully updated new edition, perfect for sail and power, clear layout and instructions, comprehensive overage of all aspects of coastal navigation, review questions and answers, and suitable for self-study and Coast Guard or other similar courses.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781574090529
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	01/25/1998
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.24(h) x 0.97(d)

About the Author

Frank J. Larkin is a Master Mariner with some 30 years of boating experience. He is an instructor in boating safety and coastal navigation and was until recently District Staff Officer-Aids to Navigation with the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Nautical Charts
2. Navigational Reference Publications and Almanacs
3. The IALA-B Aids to Navigation Systems
4. How to Use the Basic Navigational Instruments
5. Measuring and Plotting Latitude and Longitude
6. How to Plot a True Course on a Nautical Chart
7. How to Measure Distance on a Nautical Chart
8. Military Time
9. Calculating Your Dead Reckoning Position
10. Converting True Courses to Compass Courses
11. Taking and Plotting Bearings
12. Dead Reckoning
13. Piloting Exercise: A Typical Day Cruise
14. Electronic Navigation Systems
15. The Height of the Tide at Any Time
16. Compensating Your Course for Current and Other Elements
Appendices
Glossary
Index

Editorial Reviews

useful as a study tool for those preparing for Coast Guard and similar navigation courses.

Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal

An excellent self-teaching textbook....His approach is straightforward and his sense of humor refreshing.

The Ensign

Yes, we have our Chapman and our Bowditch (somewhere), and The Annapolis Book of Seamanship, but it seems to us that the author Frank J. Larkin, in this new edition, makes the subject of piloting and dead reckoning much less daunting and easy to comprehend. Larkin starts at the beginning and takes the reader through the basics of such things as using dividers and a chart, with the kind of useful information sometimes passed over in more sophisticated treatments of the subject. We like that, and we think this 278-page reference is more likely to be read cover-to-cover.

Powerboat Reports

Every navigator would benefit from having this comprehensive reference book available as a refresher or for new skills.

Ocean Navigator

useful as a study tool for those preparing for Coast Guard and similar navigation courses.

Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal