Te Sailor’s Dilemna Navigation Apps for Small Sailboats


by Craig Summers


I


n the late 1940s, the Mahone Bay Plycraſt Company began in a factory that still sits on the waterfront in the town of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada. When the war ended,


Plycraſt apparently used aircraſt construction techniques from Britain’s Mosquito fast bomber to make molded plywood speedboats. It was very unusual in WWII to design a new aircraſt out of


wood, but testing showed that the Mosquito could get a better strength-to-weight ratio using wood than a light alloy or steel frame. With plywood, several thin layers of wood bonded together are also stronger and lighter than a single thick layer (hence balsa- or foam-core in boat decks). Te shell on the Mosquito was load-bearing (like a boat hull), rather than the usual thin aluminum skin on a frame. In 1941, the Mosquito was one of the fastest aircraſt in the world, at least 30 mph faster than fighter aircraſt of the time such as the Spitfire. Te Plycraſt factory had initial success shipping plywood


speedboats (often unfinished), but it burned down in the mid-1950s. Rebuilding gave the opportunity to re-tool for new fiberglass hulls, initially some runabouts but especially a growing line of modern sailboats. Around 1962 the sailboat line was rebranded as Paceship Yachts with a range of boats that were eventually from 7 to 32 feet. By 1981 Paceship sail- boats were no longer in production, although there is still an owner group at www.Paceship.org Te Paceship 17 is shown in the photo. You can launch it


from a trailer in under 20 minutes. One person can easily step the mast through the deck, and connect the turnbuckles on 3 stays. Te perfect size to pop in for an aſternoon sail, or trailer to a campground with a new waterway to explore.


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Te Sailor’s Dilemma Some centerboard boats may not point as high as keelboats, which makes selecting the optimal tack headings important. The Sailor’s Dilemma refers to the longstanding seafaring problem of whether to pinch tighter upwind to reduce dis- tance (but at lower speed), or to head off the wind for more speed (but longer distance). The old racer’s concept of Velocity Made Good (VMG)


from the days before GPS refers to progress towards a way- point upwind. It is a common parameter on GPS chartplot- ters, but there are a lot of measurement problems for using it in sailboat navigation. Similarly, Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) was amazing when it became available with LORAN in the 1970s and then GPS in the late 1980s. But even now no GPS chartplotter on the market can determine your tacking distances. Obviously the chartplotter cannot determine your correct ETA if it doesn’t know how far you are going to travel. Dinghy sailboats were never designed to have navigation


electronics. But ironically, small craſt can now have the most advanced sailboat navigation available, with innovative apps that are easy to use with just a few taps. Vector marine charts, wind angle, weather-routing, race tracking—no different than televised America’s Cup races—and all now available in low- cost apps. We are at a historic inflection point where wireless elec-


tronics and chartplotting is now available for sailing dinghies, beach catamarans and trailersailers. That has never been possible before. Even in the smallest sailboat, you can take a smartphone in a waterproof case or ziplock bag.


SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR


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