Using GPS in yachting
Denis Korablev
  • 21.09.2021
  • 461

Using GPS in yachting

The past decades have been marked by the emergence of completely new technologies used in various spheres of human activity. We stopped noticing microwaves, Teflon-coated dishes, mobile phones became a common accessory. These developments, quite recently strictly secret, like many other developments of military-industrial complexes, have firmly and organically entered the life of every person, thanks to conversion. The use of space technologies, originally created for the constant tracking of a potential enemy, have found incredibly widespread use in peaceful use.

As specialists 2yachts note, GPS monitoring is a global tracking system for movement on land or on water - with a large accuracy can determine the location of almost any object. Satellites in orbit (24 tracking satellites have been launched), regardless of weather conditions and terrain, can receive signals from GPS transmitters around the clock. All satellites are integrated into a single network with terrestrial tracking devices.

By constantly informing ground stations about their location, satellites enable the user's receiving device, as a result of automatic calculations, to very precise coordinates of their location. Modern navigators with the WAAS system allow determining the coordinates of an object, with an error of only 2-3 meters.

DGPS stations correct inaccuracies and errors of GPS-receivers, but additional technical support is required to operate DGPS. DGPS stations are usually in coastal areas and are free of charge. The quality of the GPS signal may be slightly affected by weather conditions, foliage, and even walls of premises, but the error in determining the location of an object is the smallest.

Road and sea navigation, aviation and ordinary people now cannot do without satellite data - after all, navigators are now in almost any mobile phone. Knowing your coordinates is useful for everyone who needs to navigate their location: tourists, geologists, sailors, etc.

Yachtsmen, as representatives of a dynamic and extreme sport, appreciated all the advantages of using a GPS navigator. With the navigator it is almost impossible to get lost in the sea space, the GPS-receiver will accurately determine the location of the yacht and, if necessary, determine the distance to the required port, thus calculating the optimal speed of movement.

The all-weather availability of satellite navigation allows yachtsmen to use the navigator, even during a storm. A few minutes are enough to determine your location and correct your route in case of deviation. The variety of offered navigators allows you to choose models, with functions for loading coastline maps, with an overlay of a paved route, and other useful options.

The best navigation applications for yachting (Navionics, Plan2Nau, iNavX, etc.), which have an excellent level of detail, turned out to be excellent assistants not only for plotting the route, their zooming ability even helps to choose a parking spot in the marina you like. The Plan2Nav application makes it possible to project a digital compass onto vector maps, which will show not only latitude and longitude, but also course and speed over the ground. The application shows the weather forecast for the required area, indicating the speed and direction of the wind, as well as the height of the wave. The skippers of the past could only dream of such opportunities.

Now more advanced GPS navigators are being developed, which have a zero error in the accuracy of positioning, do not react to interference, delay the signal, excluding the possibility of errors when synchronizing the receiver and the satellite. Based on this, before taking in yacht charter, you need to make sure how modern GPS navigation is installed on it.

The use of GPS-navigators has become so widespread that their use to locate a missing phone, a lost dog or a cow is no longer surprising. The navigator has become a part of human life, saving and saving more than one life, both on land and at sea.