NavList:

The Ocean Globe Race is near the end.  As I write this the third boat is about to finish and is sailing up The Solent.

One of the fun features of the race has been the photographs of the various crews using sextants (no GPS allowed in this race).  Most are posed.  Sometimes the subject of the photo knows what they are doing and sometimes it appears otherwise (crew members not charged with navigation duties).

The variety of sextants is limited, which makes sense in today's environment.  My gut feel (I did not make an empirical study) is that the Freiberger is the most common.  This makes some sense:  it is a solid sextant, ubiquitous, with spare parts available, and often a little cheaper (second-hand) than the high end models from Plath (both flavors) and Tamaya and is certainly cheaper new.  And the boats are from Europe where the Astra does not seem to have the same market penetration as it does in the U.S.

Others that have appeared in photos I have seen of the race include C&P, the Freiberger "Yacht" sextant and, in the photo here, a Davis (from Maiden - all femaile crew and a personal favorite).  There are probably others that I have not seen.

None of this means anything.  They all do the job with a competent user.  Just a little Sunday fun.

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