Navigation is a word which suggests serious study, rules learnt by heart to satisfy the examiner, and a standard of precision difficult to attain in a small dinghy. To find the way safely in a dinghy does not need a good deal of the same information, but there are legitimate simplifications which dinghy sailors usually discover for themselves, some of which perhaps justify an article which may interest those starting to cruise.

The dinghy sailor in coastal waters is ruled by the tides. Even more than the bigger cruiser, he is limited by them, and must know them before he sets out at all. The general theory can be read up: fortnightly springs and neaps, with every other cycle of tidal variation more extreme than the intermediate ones. Springs come at one time of day regularly — for instance, they are always around midday on the north-west coast. This means that if one chooses a tide which will let one get away early in the morning, it will be a neap tide. In a semi-landlocked cruising ground like many of the sea-lochs in the Inner Hebrides, this will be of little importance. In an estuary where spring tides rush up in a bore, it will be preferable to sail on a neap tide. In some estuaries the moorings barely float at neaps, giving very little time to launch and get away. These local peculiarities will soon be discovered, but the tide tables and Admiralty tidal atlas will give the basic facts.

Along the coast the tidal stream flows. Its direction and force are given in the tidal atlas. Remember that in light winds, a one knot tide against you, when the wind is contrary, may mean negative progress. Tides run up to four knots at springs in many places — eight knots in the extreme cases where special caution is needed. This means that a cruise has to be planned by tide table with great care, and you must expect to anchor somewhere during the contrary six hours unless you have unusual luck with fair winds. To make up for this, the favourable tide may well add 12 miles to your progress. (Engines make a difference, of course — but I am assuming that we are considering possibilities under sail and oars, and safe practice in any case).

Ports are often only attainable for about four hours at high water. This applies even to dinghies on the west coast, where tidal range is greater than in the east and south. Usually there is a bar with considerable surf, so that waiting for tide to enter can be uncomfortable.

Charts are essential aids in a dinghy or in any other cruising boat. Whatever chart you use, you should make yourself familiar with its symbols and abbreviations, whether in fathoms, feet or metres, how lights are indicated etc. The Admiralty charts are the most detailed except for those select areas covered by Stanfords Yachting charts. The Admiralty charts every coast, most on a suitable large scale — but there is a limitation. They do not chart unnavigable estuaries, many of which are of interest to dinghies. Sometimes estuaries have been charted many years ago, but it may not be worthwhile bringing the chart up to date. The Ordnance Survey photographic surveys of estuaries often give a more up to date general impression, though, of course, one is then on one’s own as regards depths and details of navigational hazards, lights (if any) etc.

Pilot guides are published by the Admiralty, giving information useful to commercial shipping, but also giving extremely detailed and accurate information about unusual tidal conditions. Yachting pilot guides are a great help where these exist — the Yachting Monthly has published good ones for the Thames Estuary and N. Wales & Anglesey, and one not quite so comprehensive for the south-west coast. The Clyde Cruising Club Guide to West Scottish Waters is very useful. Even these, however, leave out some places which are available for dinghies but not for deeper boats. With a sounding-pole (or boat-hook marked in feet) one feels one’s way into these gutters.

Navigational equipment can be kept simple. A compass is essential, of course, preferably two, one attached to the boat and one a pocket compass. I find a good modern walkers’ compass useful, and a Sestral Junior can be fitted to a bracket well away from metal parts. If obtainable, the ex-RAF P11 is unbeatable: it stays put in a solid wooden box, and its grid makes steering easy. However, these are now very hard to get.

One can’t install a chart table and plot a course. A good deal can be done by preparing at home, and working out probable courses. Once under way, charts must be kept dry, and one way is to fold them into plastic bags, to show the section needed. This does not make for smooth accurate laying of courses — but one can’t steer nearer than 5º in a dinghy anyway. I find that any handy straight edge serves me instead of parallel rulers. The Yachting World diary (which contains tide tables and other useful information in a handy form) is what I use most often for this purpose. This may seem slipshod to the experts, but it seems to work. Quite as essential in arriving at the right place is the guess one has to make at leeway, and the more informed calculation of how much to allow for the tide in the course of the passage. Again, much of this can be done at home.

Since progress is slow in a cruising dinghy, and the tides must be used to full advantage, one is bound to do some night sailing. Lights are less of a problem, legally, for a dinghy than for a small cruiser, since all one has to do is show a light in time to be seen — and keep out of everybody’s way. However, it is important not to use bright lights on the chart and compass, since one will then be blinded. A luminous grid is useful, or one can set one’s course by a star or other fixed visible light. Shore lights are a hazard, since they go out unexpectedly. They also cause confusion by appearing to flash and looking like the lights on buoys — which may be much less clearly visible. On the other hand, the mass of lights of each town one passes along the coast is a helpful guide to position — used with caution, of course. Many of the creeks a dinghy uses are quite unlit, and one may need to feel the way in by sounding along the edge of the channel. Care is needed here — study the chart carefully beforehand to avoid being carried into false channels by the tide. If in doubt, it is often a good idea to anchor and wait until you can see. Summer nights don’t last many hours.

Care must be taken not to lose track of your position, as in any boat, but these rough and ready methods are more likely to be followed in a dinghy than more sophisticated ones. I read of a couple in a small cruiser who went into the cabin to plot their position on a well set-up chart table. While doing this they ran onto the West Hoyle Bank, clearly visible in broad daylight. So use your eyes and your common sense.