Location, Location, Location

Knowing where the mark is to make a rounding is an important factor in racing. Understanding how to read the mark location listed the NOR is necessary. In the recent Tipsy Turtle race confusion reigned over where the virtual rounding mark was located. Many racers voiced their thoughts and frustrations to the race committee. An email was sent out the following day to clarify the information the racers were given and where mistakes may have been made. A long-standing mystery may have been solved.

There was some post-race discussion about the announced position of the turning mark used in Sunday's inaugural Tipsy Turtle race.

The position of the mark was provided in the Notice of Race (NOR) using two different formats - Degrees, Minutes and Seconds (DMS) and Decimal Degrees (DD).

Round a virtual mark located at 26° 10′ 24.6″ N 80° 04′ 57.1″ W

(Decimal degrees: 26.1735 N, 80.0825 W)

These two provided formats represent the exact same physical location.

On race day, it was observed that many chart plotters require waypoints to be entered in a separate, third format - Degrees and Decimal minutes (DMM). As a courtesy, that additional format for the same waypoint was provided to competitors in a separate communication. This communication did not constitute any type of change or correction as it merely reiterated previously provided information. Anyone with the DMS position from the NOR could have performed this conversion themselves.

“ For anyone that needs today's tipsy turtle rounding mark location in degrees minutes and decimal minutes its 26° 10.410′ N, 80° 04.952′ W”

All three provided lat/lon formats represent the identical location.

It's important to understand what format your navigation system is using, and what format the position you're entering is provided in. DO NOT take a DMS position like 26° 10′ 24.6″ N 80° 04′ 57.1″ W and enter it directly into your chart plotter as a DMM position by just moving decimal points around, such as 26° 10.246' N 80° 04.571' W - you'll go to the wrong place. In this example, you'd find yourself almost .4NM from the actual correct mark.

To convert a DMS position to a DMM position, it is necessary to divide the "seconds" value by 60 and add that to the minutes (60 seconds in a minute). So in this example, 24.6 seconds divided by 60=.410 minutes. Therefore 26° 10′ 24.6″ = 26° 10.410′

Here's an online calculator to help you with this https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/conversions/convert-decimal-degrees-to-degrees-minutes-seconds.php

As always, please reach out to the race chairperson before the race if there are any questions about the Notice of Race.

We have also added a link to a location calculator to the home page.