"Joe" wrote in message
om...
"Donal" wrote in message
...
"Joe" wrote in message
om...
"JN" wrote in message
. ..
Now you're qualified to take me for an evening sail next summer when
I
spend
my annual week in the Keys and serve me a glass of wine when I
demand
it,
serve me a snack when I want it, and in general put up with all my
garbage
because I won't give a tip if you don't ?????

Huh, cappy wappy? Is that what your paper gives you permission to
do?


Thats the OZ yachtmaster ticket you must be talking about. I hear the
only pratical test a "yachtmaster" has to take, is how quick he can
get his knee pads on and off. Here in the USA licences are for working
mariners.

Joe, it appears that you know as much about the Yachtmaster
qualification as
you do about international affairs.

One of the tests involves sitting at the chart table, with the ports
blacked
out, and predicting your position to within a few metres.

Hmmm. I shouldn't have said "a few metres". I don't know what degree of
accuracy is required.


Big deal Donal. I use to run the Schaffer, Shane, Mississippi and the
Holma navigation canal and the houston ship channel at 25 knots and
the fog was so thick you could not see 2 foot.

2 foot!!! Now *that* is what I would call a peasouper!!



You could paint the
wheel house windows black and I could tell you ever dock we passed and
every stream that lead into the river and tell you every were every
shallow spot was.


Emmm. So what? Those things are all clearly identified on the chart,
aren't they?





In other words, you have to sail (and navigate) the boat "blind".

Yea did it all the time carrying 100 passengers and half a million
dollars of tools, everyday. This time of year is the worst on the
Mississippi delta. But like I said Ive ran south and SW pass of the
mississippi in fog so thick you could cut it with a knife. Had to-the
helicopter could not fly. And I wasent farting around at 4 knots, we
usually ran at 25-30 knots.

No Coll Regs in your part of the world, huh?




Do you have to do this for the USCG ticket?

Plotting is a major part of the test

But whats important is we had to do it everyday for real, and you
better be able to tune in a radar to pick up logs, perows, and plywood
hunk of **** boats unless you want some insane coonass to put a few 30
30 shells thru your wheelhouse.



I picked up a 2 gallon paint tin on my radar once. The visibility was about
2 feet, (or maybe 50 yards), and only a third of the can was sticking above
the water. The gain was set to "auto". Isn't modern technology a
wonderful thing?



Regards


Donal
--