Navigator's tips

1.Get the Right Tools. If you are trying to 'cheat the tide' close to a shoreline do it only with the largest scale charts, go for the Admiralty 1:20 000 scale charts that show more detail as you head towards the shoreline hazards. One particular trick that I use, when using paper charts on the rail, is to draw up a lat/long lattice over the intended race area. You can then very quickly plot your position using coordinates and interpolation, which is fast and allows you to fold the chart to a manageable size and you do not need to refer to the margins of the chart, or use awkward plotting instruments.

2. Highlight the important bits. Read both the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions and highlight the bits that are vital to you. Get a couple of other crew members to read them too and brief the rest of the crew on the salient points at the start of the week. Remember particularly the restricted areas, such as sailing south of Snowdon buoy, which continues to catch out boats every year - if you were to forget in the heat of a tacking duel, another crew member may well remember and save you from a huge embarrassment.

3. Check out the Marks. Few have changed this year, but do go through the all the marks and have a rough idea where they are. Also check you have the WGS 84 horizontal datum set on your GPS (no longer OSGB) and that your waypoints correlate. One in particular to watch for is the old MDL mark of Old Castle Point which is now called Gales HSB and seems a few metres further north than last year. Skandia Life is a mark laid in the western Solent just prior to Cowes Week and not always on the 'Check charts'. Race Organisers often like to send the fleet around sponsor's marks, so make sure you have marked this one on your plastic chart prior to the start of the Regatta.

4. Don’t even think about doing it down below. The modern navigator needs to take a full role in the crewing of the boat and have both eyes out of the office. Navigating from the rail takes preparation and anticipation. Preposition all your charts and instruments into a cockpit bag that is reserved for Nav Kit. The old style navigator, who sticks his head out of the hatch to make occasional calls while inshore racing, risks being alienated from the rest of the crew after one poor decision. Whereas on deck you can make the most of all the free navigation information, such as the tidal set every time you pass a buoy or lobster pot mark, as well as being able to look further up the race track for wind shifts. Racing in Cowes Week often allows the navigator to check his call for a 'gybe set' against the larger yachts in the class ahead going round what is quite often the same mark. I suggest that you stay below while getting the course and quickly plot it out, but be on deck with three minutes to go as a minimum.

5.Get the Crew to work for you. Many brains pooled together make navigation easier. When you are struggling to find a mark, get the team on the rail to help. Let them know roughly where to look, for that Yellow buoy, "25 degrees on the starboard bow at one mile". This then frees you up a little to concentrate on the best strategy for the next leg. I have found that by going through the process of explaining to the crew where to look, you actually find it much quicker. Get the person who finds the mark to describe its actual position relative to an object on land behind, rather than another yacht as this makes it easier to locate again.

6.Kitchen Roll and White Spirit. Not just for wiping up spilled coffee off the chart, kitchen roll has many uses for the navigator, from cleaning binoculars at the start of each day, to drying chart booklets and plastic tide slides. I find tide slides very difficult to operate when wet. The best fix is to break open the slide and dry each bit with kitchen roll. For years I have struggled using 'spit and elbow grease' to remove chinagraph course markings from plastic charts. The simple answer I found recently sailing aboard Nokia is White Spirit. You only need a tiny amount in a very small container, but works brilliantly.

7.Last Leg analysis. Be truthful and objective, when looking back over the last leg, particularly when sailing over the same bit of water again. You want to go left again, but did going left really work? Have the conditions now changed sufficiently to throw out what you learnt on the last leg? Continue what pays and learn from your mistakes.

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