CRUISING CLINIC
‘…LEARN HOW TO USE THE RADAR FOR PILOTAGE & NAVIGATION’
To the uninitiated, radar can seem like a dark art. The splurge of blobs would look more at home in the Tate Modern than the nav station. Recent advances in radar technology make it more affordable and easier to use than ever before, however it’s easy to misinterpret the display.
Radar has several applications on board: navigation, collision avoidance and even squall dodging in the tropics. It is easiest to become familiar with the radar by practising navigation, because there is only one moving object in this equation – you!
There are three main nav applications for the radar: ‘eyeball’ pilotage where radar takes the place of visual cues; to avoid isolated hazards by use of clearing ranges; and position fixing.
DIAGNOSIS: Sophia Lagus has owned her Malo 46 Wimsey for just under a year. She has thousands of miles of cruising experience as crew, but she’s relatively new to skippering and is happiest 12 miles offshore where there’s nothing to hit! She’s a farmer by profession and her practical skills are excellent, but she’s less confident when it comes to technology. The boat is fitted with a modern radar, but when I jumped on board she hadn’t yet turned it on! I joined her and crew members Bennie and Wendy in Dartmouth to help get her started.
Moored up the River Dart at Noss Mayo, there are a couple of miles of busy channel to navigate before reaching open water. Collision avoidance is largely close-quarters, with plenty of boats to dodge, but this isn’t the best setting for learning how to use radar for collision avoidance. It is, however, an excellent setting to learn the basics of what radar can do and how to use
