Why do We Use a Compass?

Article by Chris Murphy

Here is an interesting article from a good Thistling friend Chris Murphy Thistle #3921 who recently crewed for Brent Barbehenn at the Oyster Roast regatta in Annapolis (which they won). They sailed Brent's brand new boat (like brand new-never in the water!) that was still pretty much in "kit form" even the morning of the regatta. One of the things missing, as Chris points out in his article below, was the compass. Many of us take the compass for granted when sailing up wind in shifty conditions. Here Chris describes what not having a compass meant for them and why "next time" they'll make sure they have one! A good and interesting read.... thanks Chris!

On Columbus Day weekend, my wife Jess and I took a break from sailing our own boat and crewed with Brent Barbehenn at the Thistle Oyster Roast in Annapolis.  This was the inaugural voyage for Brent's brand new Thistle, and in speaking to him before the regatta he let it be known that he was running out of time to get the rigging done and we might be without a few "luxury" items.  Well, when we arrived Saturday morning we found out that "luxury" items included hiking straps, an outhaul and a compass.  Luckily with some help from APS (and a no-wind postponement) we took care of most of the remaining rigging, but we couldn't conjure up a compass.  Since all three of us grew up as Lake sailors, we figured we could do without.

Turns out it was harder than we thought.  First of all, the wind out of the S/SE was right down the bay and made it very hard to get our bearings on shore.  Second, wind velocity was varied and there was some motorboat chop--that made it very hard to judge our angles vs. the competition.   It didn't help that the fleet frequently spread out, making relative angles even harder to pick out. 

As we were struggling to determine whether we were lifted or headed, it occurred to me that I had become increasingly dependent on the compass.  Thinking about why, I came up with three reasons.

1) "Hey, I don't have anything to do!" Jess said it in jest, but I realized that we had gotten to the point where she was reading the compass almost all the time, whether we were sailing on a small lake or a big bay.  It wasn't necessarily a conscious decision--it just happened as she got better reading the compass, I became more reliant on her input.  And the fact is that reading the compass is an important part of a forward crew's job.  A novice crew may not be able to provide much insight at first, but they can read the numbers, and in the process be more engaged in the dialog on the boat. (As time goes by, of course, they'll improve their compass reading skills). 

2) You can't argue with the numbers.  Multiple times during the Oyster Roast, at least one of our crew disagreed on whether we were lifted or headed.  If you are reading the compass, obviously that is non-issue.  That's not to say that the compass heading should dominate every decision--there are other factors to consider.  But the more confident you are about your relative angle, the better your decisions will be.  Even while sailing in big shifts on small lakes, there have been times where I'm sure we are headed only to have Jess say "Nope, we're still lifted".  (I usually tack anyway and then, when we lose boats, I admit maybe my intuition is less reliable than the compass.)

3) The compass keeps you centered.   Perhaps the most crucial skill of a good compass reader (and a good reason to practice using the compass all the time) is to figure out where the median heading is, and how it changes over time.  Even in a breeze that is oscillating, there are often swings in the median heading that persist for 5-10 minutes.  Without a compass, it is nearly impossible to figure out what is your median heading, which is crucial in deciding when to tack.

So what did we do without a compass?  Well, we did our best to use our heading relative to land and other boats to determine our angles.  Also, because the wind was light to medium, we also paid a lot of attention to wind velocity--which in lighter air can be more important than angles.  At the end of the day we did ok... but it would have been a lot easier if we had a compass!

Chris Murphy and Chris's wife Jess and Brent's Dad, Eddie as they sail in after Brent,
Jess and Chris won the Oyster Roast in Brent's new boat.