Facebook

Login

Support Sailonline

If you haven't already - join the SAILONLINE YACHT CLUB!

Please also consider making a donation - all amounts are greatly appreciated!

Board » General Discussion » Navigation problrm

If I set a course on the goal line I expext to end up in the goal not 15 nm to the north. I had activated Great circle navigation and saw tyhat the course line was curved but when I
checked why my boat was stranded I saw
that it had sailed in a stait line not as shown on the map when a doid set the course (last rare to Boston previouse race same problem on Hawai).

Can anybody telll me the purpose with great circle navigation idf the boat do not follow the coures set.

Looking forward to some good piece of advise in this matter.

Regards

ETXNEBE
Attachments
Hi etxnebe!
Great circle course is not a "straight" line as CC are!
Following a GC course forces you to change CC now and then.
Try to use the ruler and click along the May Transat rhumbline every 250Nm for example. You will find that you have different CC in most of the "boxes" created by each click!
Any help to You?
clash2
Hi!
Great circle nav is just so you can see the "bent" closest route over earth a flat earth and with the course tool pick the initial course.
Lust like in real life you have to alter course manually to follow the great circle.

Compass course is just a angle from magnetic north.

Yeah both remarks are correct.

Great circle nav will give you a indication how your track would be like if you optimize it to take in account the earths bend.

I can understand your confusion becouse it gives a bit the impression this will be the actual course. As said this will require constant adjustments allong the path.

Hope this helps to clear up, sorry to hear you mist the finnish by this.



--- Last Edited by Jeroen Tiel at 2008-06-03 12:03:15 ---
I am a ex-admin of SOL who joins in from time to time.
Hello!

Thanks for all the good explanations to my problem. Shall I conclude this matter by saying that if I set a strait cource to the finish line(no Great circel nav. on) the system will get me there but not on the shortest way. If I use Great circle navigation I will get the shortest way but I have to update the compass cource in regular intervalls to hit the target.

Very best regards

Etxnebe

Please login to post a reply.

Races

Next Race: 00d 00h 00m


Current Races:

Raja Muda Selangor 2025 - Pangkor to Penang

Welcome back on board your J-109 for our second online offshore race in cooperation with the Raja Muda Selangor International organisation – an 80nm trip from Pangkor north up the Malacca Strait to Penang.
Race #1962
INFO by brainaid.de
J-109 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: RMS - SYC
Race starts: Nov 17th 04:00 Registration Open!

▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Raja Muda Selangor 2025 - Port Klang to Pangkor

Sailonline is delighted to be able to offer online sailors an opportunity to once again compete in all three of the offshore races of the Raja Muda Selangor International race week, organised by the Royal Selangor Yacht Club in association with the RORC, and commencing with a 75nm trip from Port Klang to Pangkor. This year we will be racing this race, and the other two, which together will count towards our Sailonline Raja Muda Series (RMS), in J-109s.
Race #1961
INFO by brainaid.de
J-109 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: RMS - SYC
Race starts: Nov 15th 04:00 Registration Open!

▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Africa by Sea 2025 - Suez to Port Said


When Napoleon (briefly) occupied Egypt at the turn to the 19th C, he ordered his expedition’s Directeur des Ponts et Chaussées, Jacques-Marie Le Père, to evaluate the ancient, derelict, infilled course of a Ptolemaic canal connecting the Red Sea to the Nile via the Great Bitter Lake, versus a new canal to the Mediterranean directly. Neither were considered feasible – locks to climb a pauvre-surveyed 10m sea-level difference, or continuous dredging of the Nile, would both be equally financially prohibitive. Fifty years passed before the unlikeliness of Le Père’s survey finding was challenged and a French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez obtained a 99-year concession from the Khedive of Egypt, Said Pasha, to construct and operate a canal from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, much against the will of the Ottoman Sultan, Abdulmecid I (the Pasha’s nominal overlord), and the wishes of the (Irish) British prime minister, Lord Palmerston. The year was 1859, the very number of this race (planning, dear boy, planning!), which, despite the canal’s double-super-tanker gauge and lack of locks, is strictly prohibited to sailors IRL. But not SOLers! 85nm in Fareast 28Rs to complete your circumnavigation of Africa!
Race #1859
INFOby brainaid.de
Fareast 28R PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: SYC - ABS
RACE CLOSE: Tuesday,
November 18 at 2300 UTC.
Race starts: Nov 12th 17:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Round Hong Kong TIMED Race 2025

This month’s TIMED race takes us to the hectic, bustling sea lanes of the South China Sea for a 118 nm race beginning and ending in Hong Kong rounding several of the 260 nearby islands along the way. The boat for this race is the South African built Cape 31. This is a TIMEDrace so you may RE-REGISTER HEREto try again after finishing a run. You will have 13 days and 11 hours to test your skill and decision making after the race opens.
Race #1964
INFOby brainaid.de
Cape 31 Particulars
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking:
TRQ4 - TRCH - SUPSOL - SYC
RACE CLOSE: Saturday,
22 November at 23:00 UTC
Race starts: Nov 09th 12:00 Registration Open!
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Fernando de Noronha to Faroe 2025

The RWW Series concludes with a spectacular journey from Fernando de Noronha to the Faroe Islands, a legendary destination in the wild North Atlantic. Panning 4,100 nautical miles, this leg will be a true test of endurance, strategy, and sheer determination. Also the penultimate leg of the 2025 Ocean Championship, it’s your chance to prove your mettle against the sea, the wind, and yourself. We’ll be racing aboard the Ragamuffin 100, a vessel built for speed and challenge — demanding planning, precision and grit from every sailor on deck. Do you have what it takes to master the Northern Atlantic?.
PRIZE: SMPF
Race #1960
INFO by brainaid.de
Ragamuffin 100 PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: RWW - OCQ4 - OCCH - SUPSOL - SYC
RACE CLOSE: Monday,
November 24 at 2300 UTC.
Race starts: Nov 03rd 11:00 Registration Closed
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Sinbad by Balloon 2025 - Carnarvon to Dondra


From here, our home in Bharatavarṣa is now north west of us – said Sinbad to his fellow balloonists. Perhaps we can ride the wind first further north, and then catch the winds that every year bring the rain, perhaps not. It’s 2600nm and we could be aloft awhile, so, Master el-Quarters, victuals only, no sandbags, provisioning the giant hamper. It will be not a picnic!
Race #1886
INFOby brainaid.de
SOL Balloon PARTICULARS
WX Updates:
0430 / 1030 / 1630 / 2230
Ranking: SYC - SBB
Race starts: Oct 15th 11:00 Registration Closed
▶ Flash
GO TO RACE

Go to race archive

SYC Ranking

  1. Sailonline Yacht Club Member KaSToR
  2. Sailonline Yacht Club Member CriticalHippo
  3. Sailonline Yacht Club Member WRmirekd
  4. Sailonline Yacht Club Member vida
  5. Sailonline Yacht Club Member rafa
  6. Sailonline Yacht Club Member CollegeFund
  7. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Panpyc
  8. Sailonline Yacht Club Member brellis
  9. Sailonline Yacht Club Member BRENTGRAY
  10. Sailonline Yacht Club Member Sax747

View full list

Series

Mobile Client

SYC members have the benefit of access to our mobile/lightweight web client!

The mobile client