NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: DR vs EP vs MPP vs Fix vs Running fix
From: Yves Arrouye
Date: 2002 Feb 9, 15:18 -0800
From: Yves Arrouye
Date: 2002 Feb 9, 15:18 -0800
> <"The DR position is only an approximate position because it does not > allow > for the effect of leeway, current, > > Is there anyone here who would "reckon" their position without attemping > to factor in ALL known effects? If one is plotting a DR position while > crossing the Gulf Stream, even without knowing the current, is there > anyone who would not indicate *some* offset as a best guess of the current, > since they approximate current direction and speed are almost certain to > exist to some extent? > > I ask this as a poll, not as an arguement. My understanding of DR, the > good Mr. Bowditch aside, was that a navigator placed EVERYTHING he could > into the DR position and that it was supposed to include all "guestimates" > of where you actually were, not just ignoring the ones you couldn't > specify to five decimal places. This is indeed how I learned it in France. I don't remember having the distinction. Now, the only thing we used was called point d'estime, which *is* what you call EP (a good translation too). We did include leeway and current in our plots. I am puzzled by the comment about plotting the DR being the "legal track record" used in case of collision etc. Do you mean that from the DR, and the time, and everything written in the log book (what sails you had, what course you did, what the wind was, etc.) one would then work a new plot of EPs that are as good as possible using all the time needed? Because AFAIK, if you're having 9 knots of current for a few hours, your DP is going to be quite far off your real position. YA