Bellingham Yacht Club

STARPATH SCHOOL OF NAVIGATION starpath.com
Celestial Navigation Course presented by Starpath Navigation and sponsored by the Bellingham Yacht Club byc.org and San Juan Sailing yachtworld.com/sanjuansailing
To be held at the Bellingham Yacht Club, Squalicum Harbor, during the month of February, 2001

Celestial Navigation
The course consists of 27 hours of instruction, including 8 three-hour classroom classes, an optional (but highly recommended) two-hour planetarium class, and a three-hour weekend sextant practice class... plus the invitation and encouragement to call us if questions arise during the week as you do practice exercises.
The course covers how to find position at sea from timed sextant sights of the sun, moon, stars, and planets plus other routine and special procedures of safe, efficient offshore navigation. No previous navigation experience is required; the only math involved is arithmetic. This is not just a "celestial" course, it is an ocean navigation course — how to find out where you are with a sextant is just one part of ocean navigation. We guarantee that you will not only learn it, you will learn it well. At the end of the course, you will feel completely confident to head offshore and get to where you want to go without any fear of what to do if the GPS might fail underway. And we also cover how to make the most of the GPS while it is working. Topics include:
· Lat, Lon, and nautical miles · Principles of celestial navigation · Sextant usage and care · Noon sights for latitude · Running fixes from the sun and other bodies · Ocean dead reckoning · Time keeping · Sight reduction of sun, moon, stars, and planets · Star ID and sight planning · Daily procedures and logbooks · Route planning · Compass checks at sea · High seas radio usage · Landfall procedures · Use of StarPilot and other computer aids · Use of GPS · Special issues of ocean navigation under sail · Emergency navigation techniques

See starpath.com for more information

-
Planetarium Class — Star Gazing for Mariners
Covers star and planet ID, terminology, some mythology, some astronomy, with emphasis on finding directions from the stars without a compass. An ideal way to see many of the techniques from David's book (Emergency Navigation) illustrated as if under a real sky.
This class meets at the Pacific Science Center Planetarium at the Seattle Center (almost directly underneath the Space Needle). Pre-registration with Starpath is required. Note special start time, 7:00 pm, not 6:30. Also, if there is a big event at Seattle Center or the Coliseum, there is a parking issue, etc.
Only some 20% of the talk deals with special terms or topics of celestial navigation, so you are welcome to sign up a guest (as space permits) who might be interested in the night sky. Occasionally we add a second session to this talk if we have the need and opportunity.

Schedule and Contacts:

Celestial Navigation Classroom Course Schedule
Celestial Navigation Feb 6 till Mar 1 Tues and Thurs, 6:30 to 9:30 pm —

sextant practice Sat/Sun, Feb 17/18 and 24/25

$295 or $475/couple, materials $39

Planetarium tentative date Feb 23 Fri, 7:00 to 9:00 pm. Guests may sign up as space permits - Planetarium $15 per person (students and guests)

For additional information contact David Burch at 1-800-955-8328 or Will Lesh at 966-7245 or visit starpath.com

To register call Starpath School of Navigation at 1-800-955-8328

 

Will Lesh sailing "Gimble" off the SW coast of Turkey

Your Instructor

Born in Maryland, outside of Washington, D.C., Will Lesh grew up sailing on the Chesapeake out of Annapolis.
Will graduated from Princeton University in 1974. While at the university, he studied celestial navigation, raced on the varsity sailing team and was the commodore of the university yacht club.
Will has taught sailing at numerous places including the Hurricane Island Outward Bound Sailing School in Maine, Rehoboth Bay Sailing Center in Delaware and the Boston Sailing Center. He has run Hinckley yachts as charter boats out of Northeast Harbor in Maine. He has made yacht deliveries from Maine to Florida and in the Caribbean.
Will has taught Celestial Navigation courses at the Starpath School of Navigation in Seattle and at the Boston Sailing Center.
In 1974 Will built a 22 foot sailboat and sailed down the East coast, throughout the Bahamas and along the coast of Haiti.
In 1981 Will Built a 24 foot sailboat from laminated western red cedar veneer and sailed across the Atlantic and continued through the Mediterranean to Turkey. He had no motor during the entire trip and navigated entirely by sextant on the Atlantic passage.
Will also taught at Putney School in Vermont and at the Park School in Boston before founding Tippecanoe Boats in 1983. Tippecanoe Boats has now produced over 45,000 fine pond sailers that are sailing all over the world. See modelsailboat.com for more information.
Will and Cynthia Lesh have been together for 19 years, since sailing together in Greece. They are married and have two daughters, 3 years old and 6 years old, who are learning to sail in Puget Sound on the same boat that Will built and sailed across the Atlantic. The family spends a month sailing together every summer.