Can anyone recommend a good basic navigation book?

There is some advice in this thread: www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Sailing/General/Learning-Seamanship-and-Navigation/ but our SB friends got a bit carried away with celestial navigation. ;)

Small ships manual is apparently out of print and superseded by the Australian Boating Manual. Both have only one chapter on navigation. QLD commercial and fishing ships operation manual is downloadable here: www.msq.qld.gov.au/~/media/msqinternet/msqfiles/home/publications/boatsafe%20workbook%20v3/operational%20handbook%20ed2/comm_fish_op_handbook_ed2.pdf

I ended up getting RYA manual on Navigation (because it was easy to find and recommend by Boat Books guy) which is good but i thought they could have done better with some of the explanations. Practicing the skills is key (I'm still in need of more practice, largely due to not having installed a chart table yet).

Bought relevant paper charts, calipers, bi-roller (www.boatbooks-aust.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=24_33&products_id=30414&osCsid=ztxjdkicstdh), and Plan2Nav (which is crap because it crashes half way through a trip, so bought iSailor instead but many use Navionics (iNavX?). Your iPhone will give you GPS readings to plot with if you have nothing else on board. I think doing the chart work first then seeing if nav app agrees is a good way to go.

Have fun (that's a well-wish, not a reference to the SB member of the same name).

The standard today is RYA. Use their books and do some courses.
The RYA teach for European conditions with tough tide and tidal flows. It teaches the right way to navigate. Some schools are better than others so check around.
Practical experience with trained experienced navigators/skippers is invaluable. Be wary of those with experience but no theoretical background. You are just as likely to get bad habits as good practices.

Mary Blewitt's Coastal Navigation for Yachtsmen is or used to be the standard tome.

Coastal navigation is not rocket science. It IS applied junior high school trigonometry mixed with an understanding of tides,set and drift, a healthy dose of common sense and the understanding that True Virgins Make Dull Company.

Tools that are needed are eyeballs that see, assisted by binoculars, a quality compass with it's deviation card, a chart, a set of Captain Field's parallel rules, a set of dividers and compass, an HB pencil and a pencil sharpener.

None of it is any good, like piano lessons, unless you practice.

cisco said..
Mary Blewitt's Coastal Navigation for Yachtsmen is or used to be the standard tome.

Coastal navigation is not rocket science. It IS applied junior high school trigonometry mixed with an understanding of tides,set and drift, a healthy dose of common sense and the understanding that True Virgins Make Dull Company.

Tools that are needed are eyeballs that see, assisted by binoculars, a quality compass with it's deviation card, a chart, a set of Captain Field's parallel rules, a set of dividers and compass, an HB pencil and a pencil sharpener.

None of it is any good, like piano lessons, unless you practice.

I second Mary Blewitt's book. I used it when I was in the navy and studying SGCE nav. The navy text books were hopeless. I ended up with a distinction and put it down to Mary's book.