A Boat Navigation Guide for Beginners

Navigating while operating a boat is far more challenging than navigating while driving a vehicle on land. This is because, on the water, there are no roads to follow, and rain, fog, and darkness can reduce your visibility. However, don’t let these factors dampen your spirit or dissuade you from taking your boat out on a cruise. 

To help you with the basics of navigation, the experts at The Ski Shack have created this guide. Keep reading to know how you can equip yourself and plan your desired course without getting lost.

Tools for Navigation

There are traditional tools and modern, electronic tools that you can use to navigate a boat. Some of the traditional ones include a compass, a stopwatch, parallel rulers, dividers, paper charts, and maps. In times past, navigators used to plot their courses on charts and utilize observational techniques and simple pace-keeping methods, such as lengths of rope with tied knots at certain intervals, to determine the speed of a vessel.

Today, boaters rely on electronic tools like GPS and chart plotters to help them safely navigate. You can use mapping programs that follow GPS (global positioning systems) to determine your vessel’s exact location and chart a course considering essential factors like winds and currents. If your boat lacks a built-in GPS, you can use mapping tools on your smartphone, such as Google Maps.

Dead Reckoning

Dead reckoning was the primary means of navigation before technology took over. It is a process to calculate a vessel’s current position by referring to a previously determined position using external reference points. For measuring a vessel’s speed, the dead reckoning process uses nautical miles called knots, where one nautical mile equals 1/60 degree of latitude traversed. Since this process doesn’t consider factors like winds, tides, or currents, there’s a high risk of error involved here. A preferable way to make use of this process will be to combine it with your GPS so you can adjust your course if required.

Create a Route with Bearings

You can also use a series of bearings to plot a route. A bearing is like an interstitial destination, which lets you get around obstacles like a piece of land. To create a course, plot your starting position on a chart and move towards your desired location. You can either use a magnetic compass or a pair of parallel rulers to mark the different legs of your journey and note the distance between them. Doing this will help you determine where you are, where you want to go, and the expected time it will take you to reach each bearing.

Navigational Rules

For seagoing vessels, the United States Coast Guard enforces rules that help prevent collisions. The International Maritime Organization’s rules mandate that boat operators:

• Must remain vigilant and be aware of other boaters on the water.
• Must use aural and visual observation or radar to spot other crafts.
• Must maintain safe speeds and distance from other vessels.
• Must know the preventive steps to avoid a potential collision and be familiar with how one should react if a crash becomes imminent.

The key to developing good navigational skills is practice. Learn the basics of using tools such as compass and maps and enroll yourself in a course where they teach safe boating practices, including improving your navigational skills.

If you need to service your vessel before you head out or want to upgrade your craft, visit The Ski Shack in Springfield, Branson, or Shell Knob, Missouri. Our team can help you find the perfect vessel for you and even share a tip or two on boating safety. We are happy to serve our friends in Nixa.