PILOTAGE DONE PROPERLY

Chartplotters are an amazing aid, but can detract from your real-world pilotage if not used with caution, says Justin Morton

- 

Long ago, in the days when paper charts were precious, navigators would sketch out the relevant details in their notebook and take it on deck rather than risk the chart getting damaged.

Navigator's notebooks have blank and lined pages for this reason, so sketch maps are not a new idea.

However, I think a slight adjustment to the theme adds real benefit and ease, even when most of us navigate primarily from our on-deck chart plotters, although the rationale may be slightly different to what it once was. The Royal Marines three-dimensional (and the Army) still make models of the area on the map they will be going to when giving 'Orders' (military instructions; look online for 'model pit' to see what I mean) as it's a good way to get everyone orientated.

THREE-DIMENSIONAL THINKING

What I found was that if I ever had to make the model (which we had to do often on leadership courses), the topography of what I created out of mud and coloured bits of ribbon often stayed in my head for a surprisingly long time. My takeaway wasn't that a three-dimensional model stays in your head longer than a two-dimensional map; but rather it was the physical act of making the model that embedded the topography into my brain as a byproduct of what I was doing.

So for me, the real benefit of making a pilotage plan sketch map is not really in the product (the sketch map). It is in the making of it. I would say 70% of the benefit comes from going through the motions of making it and just 30% in the sheet of paper at the end with the detail on it. Crucially, for me, it is the least painful and most efficient way I know to learn an area sufficiently well enough to be able to make a really decent and well thought out pilotage plan