Navigating in the Offshore Powerboat Race

Extract

When the Offshore Powerboat Race was first held in 1961, navigators made the painful discovery that conventional methods of coastal pilotage were useless in a comparatively light, high-performance powerboat being driven to its limit.

Taking part in the race is like driving a Mini-Cooper over a frozen ploughed field in intermittent fog from London to York, the same distance as the course from Cowes to Torquay. Chart-work is out of the question. It is physically impossible to lay off a bearing or read a course. Furthermore, the figures and symbols are too small to be read, and, as often as not, the chart gets blown overboard. Radio bearings are unobtainable over the engine interference. A hand-bearing compass cannot be held steadily enough. Parallel rulers, dividers, pencils and the navigator's notebook end up in the bilges.