NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Jeremy C
Date: 2011 Apr 14, 15:43 -0400
As a kid my first introduction to speed through the water was aboard a 33 ft. classic racing sloop (no engine). A crew member would flick a cigarette butt over the side at the bow followed by a long count. The skipper did some mental math and like magic blurted out our speed in knots.
In retrospect the skipper must have had his boat factor number committed to memory so that this number could then be mentally divided by the long count (seconds) of the cigarette butts travel from bow to stern.
Example for 33ft. sloop:
- Boat length in nautical miles = 33/6076 = .00543
- 3600 seconds in an hour..00543/ long count = Kts. / 3600
19.6 / long count = Kts.
Round 19.6 up to 20 to get an easy to remember boat factor number.
Greg Rudzinski
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