THE RULES
A UNIQUE COMPETITION
Calculation of the geographical position taking as a reference the elevation of the stars
in an oceanic crossing from the Spanish Peninsula to the Canary Islands
Nautical miles
Sailboats
Days
On your marks....TOP!
Each sailboat determines the 2 official roles: skipper and navigator; the rest of the team is part of the crew.
It does't have to be necessarily the same person who always performs these functions. But one must be officially appointed *.
SKIPPER
Responsible of the sailboat and the crew.
In charge of the safety on board, maneuvers, and regulations.
Only person on board who will have access the the GPS.
NAVIGATOR*
Responsible for the astronavigation.
Must know how to use the sextant, calculate position, place the sailboat on a nautical chart and determine the course to follow.
CREW
Rest of the sailing team.
They help with maneuvers, astronavigation, night watches, and life on board.
Sextant
COMPETITION
ASTRONONOMICAL
POSITIONING
GPS
How do we compete?
Who wins?
Bearing or sextant?
We will position ourselves with the hand-bearing compass both at departure and arrival.
Once we lose sight of the coast, the sextant will be used throughout the crossing.
NAUTICAL CHART
We will draw the ideal orthodromic route according to the weather forecast. Every 100 miles approximately we will draw waypoints that will guide us in our navigation and course to follow.
Dead reckoning
The drift from the wind and the leeway of the current among others will be the difference between our dead reckoning which will be drawn on the nautical chart and our true geographical position calculated with the sextant.
True position
The navigator of each sailboat, after taking the sextant sight, will calculate their position and also write them down in the Stella Oceani logbook.
At the same time that the navigator calculated the position, the skipper obtained the GPS position to be able to compare them both.
NO GPS ALLOWED
The use of mobile applications which provide navigation assistance or positioning are not allowed, as well as GPS or any other tool that obtains the geographical position electronically.
Due to safety reasons, it is not mandatory to turn it off, we simply have to cover the screens in which the geographical position is displayed.
TRUST
There is a mutual commitment not to look at electronic navigation equipment. Beyond a competition between sailboats, it is a great personal challenge.
All participants choose to be part of this challenge by sailing in a unique competition. It is about enjoying traditional sailing, encouraging camaraderie, mutual trust and an oceanic adventure.
REMARKS
During the competition, only the calculated coordinates from these three moments in time will be taken into consideration:
DAWN
During the morning twilight, before sunrise.
When the sun is between 6º and 12º below the horizon, the first observation will be made.
MERIDIAN ALTITUDE
With the sun at its maximum height we will make an observation and next to another observation before or after the meridian, we will calculate our situation during the day.
DUSK
After sunset, during the evening nautical twilight.
Each sailboat is free to combine observations with the stars, the moon or any planet.
WHO WINS?
There will be a minimum of 18 sextant sights in Stella Oceani during the 6-day oceanic crossing.
The observations of each sailboat will be compared with the GPS position, and through a punctuation system, scores will be assigned to each sailboat depending on the accuracy of the calculation obtained.
The sailboat that accumulates the most points during the crossing will win.