Oh, I'm not under any illusions about the cardboard model being used for anything but learning how to use the real thing. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I just thought it'd be neat to learn how to build (and use) one. If I actually need one (for example, if I decide to learn how to sail and go for a cruise around the world) I'll probably buy the best one I can afford. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Plastic is probably better, although the romantic in me really wants one made of polished brass. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Incidentally, I got inspired to learn how to use one after reading Tami Oldham Ashcraft's "Red Sky in Mourning". Ashcraft and her fiance were ferrying a yacht from the South Pacific to California when they were caught by Hurricane Raymond; her fiance was swept overboard, the yacht was dismasted, and Ashcraft knocked unconscious for 27 hours. With all the fancy-shmancy high-tech electronic gear ruined, she was forced to rely on her ability to use a sextant to make her way to Hawaii - 41 days under a makeshift sail, at an average speed of 2 knots.