Alfredo Contaldo · video

What this video covers

Navigation for the Italian nautical licence (patente nautica oltre le 12 miglia) requires plotting a vessel's position by converting compass, magnetic, and polar bearings into true bearings for use on a nautical chart.0:08 Compass bearings, taken with the boat's steering compass, must be corrected for both deviation—found in the boat's deviation table—and magnetic declination.5:23 Magnetic bearings, taken with a handheld compass held away from the hull to avoid deviation, require correction for declination only.15:04 Polar bearings, which measure the angular difference between a landmark and the vessel's bow, are calculated using the formula: true bearing equals true heading plus the polar bearing (if to starboard) or minus the polar bearing (if to port).18:13 While polar bearings are largely theoretical for modern recreational craft due to the obsolescence of the graphometer, they remain a standard examination requirement.20:37 Plotting the intersection of two or more true bearings on a chart identifies the vessel's position, accounting for the inevitable "triangle of uncertainty" caused by minor measurement errors.16:01

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