Quote:
Originally Posted by irish1958
I never said Steve was wrong. I said that if you maintain a particular heading, you won't get to where you want to go. How would you model this in the game? The only (easy) way to do it, in my opinion, is to have the boat wander a bit and require periodic corrections. Otherwise you would need a supercomputer to crunch all the data.
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This is also 100% corect.
My reinforcement of Steve's comments was not intended to infer that those of Irish were wrong. They aren't. And accurate information is given in the post.
It is the inability of the Helmsman to hold an ordered Heading that is problematic and incorrect. Keeping a vessel on Course is an entirely different issue.
The OOD is responsible for keeping a vessel on Course.
He may change Heading many times in order to achieve this end.
F.eks., if the Helmsman is ordered to hold Heading 090 for an extended period of time, the vessel should, and will drift off Course. However, this is the OOD's concern, not the Helmsman's.
The constant changing of Heading required to stay on Course is solved by Waypoints.
The automated Heading changes ordered by the OOD, and carried out by the Helmsman works well.
When not using this automated system, the Helmsman had better be holding whatever Heading is ordered. If unable to do so, he must be replaced.