The purpose of our four annual navigation contests is to improve coastal navigational skills by providing practical experience together with recognition and awards for skillful navigation. We seek to do this in a way that will enable participants to combine enjoyment with learning.

Rules and procedures for the navigation contests:

1. Each boat must display prominently the boat identification numbers provided by the committee and must stand by on the radio channel assigned for contest communications.

2. For the start of each of the four contests, the committee boat will give signals as follows:
–10-minute warning, raise a red flag and sound a horn,
–5-minute warning, lower red flag, raise a blue flag and sound a horn,
–Start of the contest, lower the blue flag and sound a horn.

3. The orders for each contest may be opened at the 5 minute warning for that contest, and NOT sooner.

4. Boats are permitted to cross the starting line early or late, though they must start timing the first leg at the starting horn, rather than the time of crossing the starting line. Each boat must pass between the committee boat and the marker both at the start and at the end of each contest.

5. The boat MUST run each leg for the stipulated time.

6. Except on the final leg, the boat speed may not exceed 9 knots nor be less than 4 knots.

7. Safety takes precedence. The prescribed course may be varied briefly to avoid collision or grounding.

8. No boat may use loran, radar, or GPS.

9. The boat obtaining the best time (i.e., the smallest error score) in each of the four contests will be announced to participants and later publicized in the squadron.

10. In order to assess over-all performance for the series of contests, the absolute values of each boat’s three best error scores will be added together.

11. There will be two annual awards based on over-all performance in the series of contests–one for the best over-all score and one for the best score by a boat in the Novice class.

12. A boat will be classified as “novice” if it has not participated in at least three contests in previous years.

         Return to Navigation Contests
         See 2003 Nav Contest Tabulated Results
         See 2003 Nav Contest Pics