Dimitrios Dalakalis is an assistant professor at the World Maritime University who has written a book on electronic navigation equipment, and is currently preparing a proposal for us on maritime security.
Dimitrios no longer teaches at this level, but has done in this past. He sees this book as supplementary reading, and would like to see a series of primer books in the future, each one covering an aspect of maritime studies, all with a lecture notes and exam aid feel to them.
Likes:
- Simplicity and focused content
- Really enjoyed the integration of solved/unsolved problems
- Really liked the top-tips section.
- Style in general is strongly recommended for students by Dimitrios
- Likes the idea of a series of primers
Dislikes:
- Style not consistent
- Theory sometimes needs to be explained in more detail
Captain Robert Hone is a navigation lecturer at Plymouth University.
Robert uses Nav Basics, a Witherby title, for his courses. We've recently poached the author of Nav Basics - Abdul Khalique, so this is good news.
Bob wasn't as keen on this book as Dimitrios, and suggested that it may be worth adding 'examination' before primer in the title, something I'm putting to Phil at the moment. In spite of all his suggestions Bob would be happy to suggest this book as a supplementary text to his students, or as a primer for their exams.
Likes:
- Modern feel
- Plenty of examples
- Good as a primer but not as a core text
Dislikes:
- Diagrams need work
- Trig section overcomplicated (Phil is working on this at the moment)
- Old fashioned techniques in the age of GPS. However, these techniques are still a must-have for exams - student must show that they can navigate without modern equipment in case it's ever required at sea (i.e. power failure affecting certain parts of the ship but not others)
- Lots of books on navigation out there (this will be our first though and it's a big market)
Improvements required:
- List from Dimitrios - some very useful pointers here
- Simplify text in certain areas and work on the style - Phil is doing this and has a colleague lined up to look through the book once he's done.
- Generalise some of the questions so that they can be used several times (e.g. pick two ports, work out the distance between both of them and ...)
