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Peter,
My first sextant was a 13 dollar plastic Davis, the one with a solid frame
and it was made before they even blackened the marks and numbers. I used
that on my first Transatlantic on a 22-foot boat and made my landfall at
Bishop Rock Light about � mile to a mile north of my intended track. Used
with care it is more then accurate enough to navigate within the limits
obtainable from a small boat given the height of eye and movement of the
boat.

The gray plastic English made Ebbco (East Banks Boat Company) is even better
and more accurate then the cheapest Davis. The Ebbco even has a micrometer
drum that the original Davis did not. I have not used the more expensive
plastic sextants except to just hold them and look at them, so I can make no
comment about them in use.

I bought my first metal sextant because it was embarrassing to do a delivery
or be the navigator during a race using a plastic sextant. Of course, I
would never go back to plastic, but the addition of a metal instrument to my
kit did not add anything to the precision of my landfalls. To me, this means
either I am terrible at navigation or the Davis is equal to the job.

I am not saying that the plastic is as good as the metal. Just that it is
adequate and I would not be uncomfortable aboard a boat were the skipper
used one as the primary means of navigation. My only question is about the
skill of the user, not the accuracy of the instrument.
Robert Gainer


>From: Peter Fogg 
>Reply-To: Navigation Mailing List 
>To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
>Subject: Re: Plastic sextants and prejudice. was: GPS shortcomings.
>Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 07:16:35 +1000
>
>From George, with claws showing ever so slightly:
> >
> > I don't pretend that such sextants are perfect, and we have discussed
>some
> > defects more than once on this list. But Peter Fogg's comments read more
> > as
> > a rehearsal of prejudice than a reasoned evaluation.
> >
>There was no claim to a "reasoned evaluation", just a report of my limited
>experience, given somewhat reluctantly after being specifically asked. Yes,
>it was a Davis, I don't know which model - grey with a solid arc of
>plastic.
>I'm prejudiced about very little and certainly not sextants - the doors of
>my mind are blocked eternally wide open!
>
>However, what I've just read here inspires even less confidence; it all
>runs
>too much along the lines of: ' yes, they may have this and that and the
>other shortcomings, but they're really not so terrible after all; given
>this, that, and the other caveats'.
>
>Much too defensive. Nevertheless, I'm not really all that into sextants as
>such, and think it entirely appropriate that each navigator choose his own
>instrument after careful reflection.
>
>If I needed a hammer I would probably buy the cheapest on offer, why pay
>more? If a carpenter chooses a hammer it is done with considerably more
>care, and he may pay several hundreds of dollars. It makes sense from his
>point of view; such things as the balance and the composition of the steel
>are very important to him - just as a crude blunt instrument is all I need
>from the same tool.

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