{"id":160752,"date":"2025-11-18T06:50:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T06:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/?p=160752"},"modified":"2025-11-18T06:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T06:51:12","slug":"5-expert-tips-your-guide-to-navigation-fundamentals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/expert-sailing-techniques\/5-expert-tips-your-guide-to-navigation-fundamentals-160752","title":{"rendered":"5 expert tips: Your guide to navigation fundamentals"},"content":"Although he\u2019s the crew boss and watch captain of 100ft Maxi yacht Scallywag in his own right, Pete Cumming is always eager to learn from the best. After operating as a driver\/trimmer on board Volvo 70 Tsch\u00fcss 2\u2019s line honours victory in the Transatlantic Race 2025 in June, he was inspired by the calm leadership of watch captains Neal McDonald and Stu Bannatyne.\r\n\r\n\u201cNeal and Stu are really good at making sure everyone on the boat is connected with the decision-making process, which keeps everyone motivated and all pushing towards the same objective. Which might seem really obvious, but I\u2019ve been on plenty of boats where the front end of the boat has no idea what the people at the back are thinking.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe moment Neal or Stu come off watch, they\u2019re checking in with the navigator, Campbell Field, just getting an overview of what\u2019s going on before they go to sleep. Are there going to be any sails challenges coming up in the next four hours while they\u2019re off?\u201d\r\n\r\nDone right, the watch captain spans many roles, from co-ordinating the boat handling up on deck to making sure everybody on their watch is physically and mentally able to work to their best within a demanding and maybe even sometimes hostile working environment.\r\n\r\nHere are Pete\u2019s five key tips for being the best watch captain you can be.\r\n

Staying in the loop<\/h2>\r\nI think it was Brad Butterworth who said that when a team breaks down, lunatics start running the asylum.\r\n\r\nWhen there\u2019s no communication through the boat, and maybe a lack of trust, you get in situations when the crew suddenly decide they\u2019re going to call the gybe because the navigator\u2019s asleep and you don\u2019t want to disturb him. With the seasoned pros this lack of comms is never allowed to happen.\r\n\r\nArticle continues below...<\/em>\r\n\r\n[collection]\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s the watch captain\u2019s job to make sure the chain of communication is always operating smoothly. Splinter groups develop on boats all the time, but if you can work with the navigator and the guys on deck so that everyone\u2019s got buy-in to the strategy and the decision-making process, it makes the world of difference to the atmosphere on board, and ultimately to the team\u2019s performance.\r\n

Earn respect<\/h2>\r\nTo be an effective watch captain you\u2019ve got to earn the respect of the people around you, and that generally only comes with experience, a sense of competence and a good deal of self-confidence without arrogance.\r\nIf someone questions you, you\u2019ve got to be able to cope with that and not look weak with your decision-making. Sometimes there can be big egos on board and you have to be able to stand your ground. You also need to lead from the front and occasionally show the guys that you\u2019re prepared to get your hands dirty and do a tough or unpleasant job yourself.\r\n\r\nThat said, it\u2019s important to choose the right moment. Don\u2019t go down a rabbit hole of trying to get one small job done if that takes your attention away from the big picture. That\u2019s your main job. Ultimately you\u2019ve got to have good knowledge of most areas on the boat, without being an expert at everything, which is why watch captains tend to be recruited from the middle of the boat \u2013 a trimmer or someone who\u2019s worked in the pit area who\u2019s connected to the front and the back of the boat and understands the challenges of both ends.\r\n

Questions, not commands<\/h2>\r\nA good watch captain empowers his team to make their own decisions, to run their own part of the boat as best they can. You have to be able to ask questions of each other, to check in on each other and ask for thoughts and ideas rather than pretending that you\u2019ve got all the answers.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nStu and Neal are brilliant on watch and they might ask me: \u201cPedro, question for you: is the staysail over-trimmed? I\u2019ll leave it with you.\u201d It\u2019s not an order, it\u2019s a prompt. So I\u2019ll go forward and I\u2019ll see if the staysail needs a bit of an ease. They\u2019re very good at empowering every team member to make their own decisions.\r\n

Keep it fun<\/h2>\r\nSometimes you can forget why you\u2019re out there. We do this because it\u2019s fun, and it has to be fun for all the crew. You might be capable of extracting the best performance in the world, but if you\u2019re a miserable bugger you can shut that watch down pretty quickly. It reaches a point where everyone just counts down the minutes until they can go off watch.\r\n\r\nDon\u2019t be that person. Keep it fun, maintain an open dialogue where everyone feels comfortable talking to everyone else and enjoying each other\u2019s company.\r\n

Have a quiet word<\/h2>\r\nIf there\u2019s a bad atmosphere, as a watch captain you need to get to the root of the problem quickly. If someone is playing up or not fitting in with the team for whatever reason, the worst thing you can do is try and shame that person in front of the crew. It\u2019s not always easy to find a place on board to have a quiet word with them, but that\u2019s the way to approach it.\r\n\r\nFind your moment to hear what they\u2019ve got to say, because sometimes the reason for the upset can be completely different to what you might have imagined. Most people will appreciate the fact you\u2019ve tackled the problem head on.\r\n\r\n
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\"\"<\/a>If you enjoyed this\u2026.<\/h2>\r\n
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I was navigating on the 80-footer Beau Geste on the Round New Caledonia Race, steaming towards a reef system when suddenly all the systems went down. We were on a dark ship and were within five minutes of hitting the reef.\u201d It\u2019s because of times like these that Will Oxley remains so committed to his no-stone-unturned approach to navigation. He\u2019s all too aware that the smarter the technology we rely on, the less smart we become. At least, that\u2019s the danger. \u201cWhen I get people coming to me for coaching and training in improving their navigation skills, the first thing I\u2019ll ask is have they mastered the fundamentals?\u201d says Will. \u201cHave you done your RYA Yachtmaster certificate, for example? That\u2019s where you get to learn the fundamentals of the job \u2013 coastal navigation, transits, how tides work, about wave patterns and the fact that you\u2019re not necessarily safe in more water than the depth of your boat.\u201d Since the arrival of GPS and electronic charts, many sailors have increasingly lost touch with these fundamentals, which leaves them dangerously exposed, according to Will. Here are his five best boat knife tips for making sure you\u2019ve covered yourself for those times when systems go down and the only thing you\u2019ve got to fall back on are your raw navigation skills. Software skills do not make a navigator The ability to use software like Expedition and Adrena is obviously critical to being a good navigator in the modern age of offshore racing, but this is not the be-all and end-all. While people come to me asking for help in training them in the best boat knife use of these tools, I\u2019m conscious of my responsibility to make sure they\u2019ve covered the other vital aspects of navigation. The software tools are the top of the pyramid of skills required, but you can\u2019t call yourself a good navigator unless you\u2019ve studied the fundamentals \u2013 the base of the pyramid \u2013 in great detail. There are plenty of examples I could draw to make the point, but one that we see in the Caribbean 600 is when someone hits a rock that they say wasn\u2019t shown exactly on the chart. If you come from the UK where the charts are five- or six-star and every tiny rock is accounted for, it\u2019s easy to fall into the trap of putting the same level of blind trust in the ENCs (electronic navigation charts) for the Caribbean. They are nowhere near at the same level of accuracy and you\u2019ll come unstuck if you place too much faith in them. This is just one of many examples why studying the fundamentals matters so much. Make backups for the backup You\u2019ll hear people tell stories about how the boat went aground because the chart was inaccurate or there was a GPS failure. But they\u2019re not really valid excuses because you have to assume that these things are going to happen at various points in your sailing life. You can get yourself …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5203,"featured_media":160755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[975],"tags":[846,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160758,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160752\/revisions\/160758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160752"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=160752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}