NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: The Big Sextant Manufacturers
From: Robert Eno
Date: 2007 Oct 23, 10:16 -0400
From: Robert Eno
Date: 2007 Oct 23, 10:16 -0400
Group: Re-sending this post. Gremlins appear to have invaded the previous post and made a mess of it. apologies. Alexander wrote: > > Can you really testify that C. sextant performs better than > Tamaya or Freiberger? > Or it is just the snob appeal? Robert responds: With respect to the Frieberger, yes, absolutely. No question. With respect to the Tamaya, I have only used these on a few occassions and did not like the "feel" of them. But if you re-read my post, I was referring to Cassens and Plath as being, in my humble opinion, the best of the lot in today's market. If you want a statistical analysis of the two, you're outta luck. I agree that in some cases, preference in choosing a sextant can be quite subjective and yes, I readily admit that snob appeal was one of the motivations for my purchasing a C.Plath sextant. Guilty my friend! Guilty! But, aside from snob appeal, there were a whole host of other, more practical considerations that lead to my final choice. Alexander wrote: > > It is interesting to know what the reputation of various > brands really depends on. Has anyone really seriously > compared > performance of various brands? Off the top of my head, I cannot think of any published works on this topic. A lot of authors side step the issue. When I was on my steep learning curve, I had the good fortune to have some first class mentors at my disposal: all ex-Navy officers with decades of solid experience in the pre-GPS era where having a good sextant was crucial to safe and accurate navigation. To a man, they all believed that C.Plath and Cassens and Plath sextants shared the apex of the sextant world, with all others vying for position as second, third, fourth etc. And all of them owned either a C.Plath or a Cassens and Plath. The late Bruce Bauer (author of the Sextant Handbook)for example, owned a Cassens and Plath sextant. Having myself carefully examined and used many types of sextants, I share their sentiment. An interesting thing to note is that Bruce Bauer indicated that the late Frank Janicek of Maryland Precision Optical in Baltimore, felt that Cassens and Plath was the superior sextant because, from the perspective of the instrument repair man, they are easier to work on. I don't pretend to be an expert. I can only pass on the "wisdom" of my own limited experience. Others may have more compelling reasons to support their own preferences. cheers, Robert --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---