Thread: Show your helm!
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Old 11-20-2014, 08:17 AM   #94
Art
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City: SF Bay Area
Vessel Model: Tollycraft 34' Tri Cabin
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 12,569
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayfarer View Post
42 feet... wide?

Some of these superyacht bridges are just bananas. I don't even know what all of that stuff does! It reminds me of the Monty Python hospital sketch, where they wheel in all of the machines (including the one that goes PING!) for no reason, other than to look impressive.

I work on a 730 foot cargo ship, and our stuff is light years behind yachts. The monitor we use for the chart plotter is fuzzy, and it's got duct tape holding it to the coffee stained formica countertop that serves as an entirely too small paperwork station. My autopilot is a 30 lb chunk of lead with a lever and a knob, and there are 4 switches to to turn it on or off. the pilothouse rattles and squeaks, and I have to pee out the door. The most important piece of equipment here is the coffee pot. Oh, and don't turn the big radar up past the two mile scale, because it makes the TV cut out in the galley.
That is funny!

Being brought up on boats in 1950' and 60's with a dad who was well trained navigator as a pilot from RCAF (before U.S. entered war WWII) and U.S. Navy thereafter... we ran all over New England Coast off shore with no land in sight. Our tools were paper chart, knowing tide flow and current speeds, compass, watch, time trials that had firmly established boat's rpm to speed traveled, depth sounder, and celestial bodies. He was damn accurate, often exactly hitting our mark; I learned a lot! We were intrigued with Loran when it became easily available to the pleasure boating market. Used it as backup/check-up regarding our other plotting sequences - nothing more, nothing less.
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