The easy way to calculate course to steer
Like many sailors I have gradually drifted away from printed charts over the last few years, and have come to rely more on my tablet and smartphone than on bits of paper.
On last year’s cruise to the Channel Islands and northern France I insisted on carrying a ‘proper’ chart, but the truth is I only used it once: and that was to give my mainly novice crew an overview of the area we were sailing in.
A TRADITIONAL APPROACH
In the August 2019 edition of Yachting Monthly Bruce Jacobs made the following observation:
‘Course to steer (CTS), much beloved of RYA theory courses, is barely used in truth as the wind, current, tacks, traffic and timings are always different to the plan.’
He’s right, of course. On most shortish passages, it is enough to keep an
