How Do GGR Sailors Navigate Without GPS? Sextant Explained 🎁 Watch until the end for a surprise!
August 26, 2026 · 3 min · 6K views
What this video covers
A GGR competitor explains the complete celestial navigation workflow used aboard a GPS-free, no-communications race boat. The sailor carries 29 numbered paper charts, switching them sequentially as the boat advances.0:09 Dead reckoning runs continuously: speed, course changes, and leeway are logged in a paper logbook and plotted on a Mercator chart, but accumulated error grows after roughly one to one-and-a-half days.Watch A sextant corrects that drift.1:02 The sailor shoots the sun — the only celestial body used — recording the sextant angle and the exact chronometer time, then works through a 30-minute calculation at the chart table using nautical almanac ephemerides and pre-printed calculation forms to produce a position line.0:47 The fix is then plotted on the Mercator chart to reset the dead-reckoning track.2:38 Conditions dictate pace: downwind in fair weather the process is quick; upwind in heavy weather it takes considerably longer.2:52 At the end, Violette d'Orange announces she will be godmother to Damien Guillou's boat for the Golden Globe Race, departing 6 September, with a boat-naming ceremony on 5 September.3:13 Rigorous, continuous logbook discipline is the foundation that makes sextant fixes meaningful.0:38
More from Golden Globe Race Official
From Golden Globe Race Official — see the channel’s boat, crew, and every analyzed video.
The Sailing Directory Newsletter
One email with the fleet's best finds — the moments, boats, and stories worth your watch time. Enter your own address to get your own copy.