Re: [Leica] plastic verses metal (sextants)

[Jesse Hellman <palio@miata.net>]

Regarding what Alan Hull quoted regarding plastic sextants, here is my
two cents: for quite a number of years I had a cruising sailboat on the
Chesapeake and studied celestial navigation in preparation for an
offshore voyage. Yes, I had loran and GPS, but I wanted to learn
celestial. Obviously, the attitude of the Leica owner.

I looked into all kinds of sextants, finally buying the best of the
plastic ones. The metal sextants were very beautiful and quite
expensive. The nautical experts universally praised the plastic
sextants, and some thought them more accurate than the traditional ones.
They are every bit as easy to use (which is to say, they require a lot
of practise).

For what it's worth, Joshua Slocum (his book Sailing Alone Around The
World is a masterpiece) was the first person to complete a solo
circumnavigation, using a sextant and a wind-up tin clock instead of a
chronometer - an amazing feet in that longitude calculation depends
heavily on precise accuracy of time. Even a Rolex, the equivalent of our
Leicas, is not accurate enough, as an error of ten seconds can equal an
error of a mile.

Just as with the Leica, it's the person behind it that counts.

Jesse