NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Ebbco sextant
From: Mal Misuraca
Date: 1999 Jan 23, 11:27 AM
From: Mal Misuraca
Date: 1999 Jan 23, 11:27 AM
The Ebbco in my opinion is not a good sextant, either for beginner or more advanced navigation. It tries to have a foot in both camps, but not successfully. It is too plastic for the stability you would seek from a metal sextant, such as an AriesIII series, and it contains pretensions to optics and a drum micrometer that are likewise not of good quality. You pay more for these pretentions, but they won't satisfy you for long. A much better plan, if you are a beginning navigator, is to buy the Davis Mark 3 and use it until it no longer challenges you. (This may not happen for a very long time; I still drag mine out every once in awhile and surprise myself how accurate it is.) By then, you will know how far up the chain you wish to go for a better sextant. In the meantime, keep your eye on the "used cruising gear" ads in sailing magazines. The sailor who has become disillusioned about cruising across the seas will often advertise a new and very fine sextant for disillusionment prices. That's the time to buy a better sextant, and not until then. I have taught for many years using the Davis Mark 3 for my students, and I can say with absolute confidence that it would if necessary take you safely around the world with considerable accuracy (say, 2 parts in 1000 n.m). It lacks optics (hence, won't gather light from stars or planets very well), a micrometer drum (hence, must rely on a vernier scale---as did generations of R.N. navigators), and it's plastic (hence, needs to be protected from heat and being sat on). But, pound for pound (or is it Euro for Euro, now?), dollar for dollar, it's a great buy---about $40 U.S. Good luck. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= =-= TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send this message to majordomo@roninhouse.com: =-= =-= navigation =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=