Pegasus Open 50 Log: Lucky Sextant, Heading For The Starting Line
On-board all of our equipment is state of the art. We’ll use our GPS app will pin-point our position accurately and reliably from the Start to the finish at Diamond Head.
July 4th, 2009
Yet one of the most important pieces of equipment on-board is my trusted 1979 Tamaya Sextant. For tradition’s sake (a good thing), the Transpac race organisers wants each boat to submit four completely reduced sight at the finish line. In other words, at least 4 times during the race you have determine your position on the ocean solely by reference to the Stars, Planets, Moon and Sun. An endangered art. A beautiful skill to have. However one that takes time a lot of practice to learn. Because there are only two of us on board, that’s my job.
Mark Rudiger taught me the basics of celestial navigation during the many passages that he and I sailed together. Navigation is a skill passed on, navigator to navigator. Especially celestial navigation. Mark and I sailed and won two Transpacs together in 2001 and 2003. Mark, this record attempt is for you.
The principles of celestial navigation are pretty simple: Given three distinct celestial objects in the sky, at any given time if you measure their elevation over the horizon, there is only once place on the planet where you could be. For example at 10 PM tonight as you watched fireworks, if you saw Saturn 19° 32′, Arcturus 62° 55 and Vega 57° 54′ above the horizon, you would be close to Long Beach, exactly at latitude 33°2′ North and longitude 118°26′ West. All you need is an instrument to make those very accurate measurements together with the tools to “reduce those measurements” to your exact estimated position.
I have a “lucky Sextant”. She was made in Tokyo in 1979 and I got her from Captain, Katayama, a retiring successful Japanese merchant Captain. Katayama’s last command was the mighty Takara hailing from Yokohama. Katayama told me of many “lucky” voyages across the Pacific, mostly between Yokohama and San Francisco, taking Japanese cars and electronics to America and returning with American farm products together with Harley Davidson motorcycles (his favourite) and American Pop culture icons. When Captain Katayama retired, he wanted to make sure that his “lucky sextant” would be in good hands and shown proper respect. (All sailors are superstitious. I am). So Katayama placed an advert on eBay. I answered and we connected. I have several sextants. This is the one that I want to take with me across the Pacific Ocean: Katayama’s 1979 lucky sextant.
July 5th, 2009
The start is at 1PM PST. We leave the dock at 10:30 AM so that we get there in ample time. Our last moment decisions will be which sails to take or not to take. The rule goes: “If we don’t take them, we’ll need them, if we take them we will not need them”. That’s mainly for the the very light air sails. They are typically large sails that we have to carry all the way to Honolulu, like useless furniture if we don’t use them. However, there is an exorcism quality to this decision. For now, the first 48 hours are forecasted to be wet and wild. Here’s Kanaloa welcoming us to the great Pacific Ocean. That’s good luck!
Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He’s also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He’ll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50.
[Pegasus on Gizmodo, Pegasus]
fullmotion
fullpower
gadgets
pegasus
pegasus sailing
philippe kahn
sailboat
sailboats
sailing
summer fun
summer funnology
- Next Post: Breakfast Wrap: Best Of The Weekend »
- « Previous Post: Samsung Glyde 2: Better Luck Second Time Around?
Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
I just got my merchant mariners license. I am trained to use one of those. unlimited tonnage Third Mates license!
bigwrestlerguy
@philibuster:
Elevation? Okay, I won't pretend I understand why. I thought it was to measure length.
brahmachari99
@brahmachari99: Degrees elevation.
But it's made of all metal! I'd think it'd be pretty uncomfortable to use, not to mention unsanitary, unless each sailer has his own. I'd be pretty scared to bring this thing close to myself. But the measurements on the side can't possibly be centimeters.. they go from 0 to 120!!!
brahmachari99
@Curves:
Indeed! I've recently transformed into a big bike nerds (they're awesome to customize; also expensive -.-) and would like to see more posts on biking gadgets to make it that much sweeter. Like that Light Lane thing.
@Curves: I agree wholeheartedly, and that exactly was the intended meaning of my comment, though now I can see that it could be taken the opposite way. I was expressing my disappointment that today's society values such wonderful things so little, as evidenced by the fact that seeing a sextant on Gizmodo is quite exceptional. Indeed, since seeing this article, I've read up on celestial navigation and started building the LEGO sextant referred to in the comments.
aednichols
@sofong: glad you appreciate it. lots don't get what's going on here. a shame.
@sofong: Don't forget Steve Callahan's pencil sextant!
Evan Jordan
Don't forget Steve Callahan's classic pencil sextant!
Evan Jordan
@aednichols: Why ever not? Some of the most interesting gadgets are non electronic. The mechanical devices here always catch my eye faster than the electronic ones do. They are just cooler, somehow. Like a music box or player piano, simple to even complex mechanical devices never cease to amaze new generations.
Respect to you for learning that skill. Bon voyage
pixelpushing
I 2nd dingus' thanks to Philippe for Turbo C and Brian Lam for posting these. I'll follow the race.
That's a beautiful sextant, a thoroughly magnificent piece of hardware with a wonderful provenance. (Used they're $700-$1,000 and new $1,700 with no accessories.) It is great that the race committee enforces their continued use, not knowing how to use one can kill you. Sadly the US Navy no longer teaches their use to midshipmen.
[www.nytimes.com]
{Errata: Three classic sextant uses batteries not included.
1789 Lt. William Bligh
1895 Joshua Slocum
1916 Ernest Shackleton
}
sofong
Yo Philippe, good luck and thanks for Turbo C
dingus
Didn't they post the lego sextant a couple years back?
I never thought I'd see a sextant on Gizmodo.
aednichols
Is that a sextant or are you just happy to see me?
Amazing piece of equipment. I used to sail quite frequently, but unfortunately never got to learn the Sextant. Best of luck on your travels!
teehee...he said "Sex" tant
Huy Truong
@Tvhargon: From Above: Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50. He and Mark Christensen set the race record for a double handed team in 2008 with a time of 7 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, besting all boats in overall time for that year.
[Previous Pegasus Sailing posts on Gizmodo, Pegasus]
The Pegasus is what again?
Tvhargon