We actually worked with MoBoards for a week or so in JROTC in high school. It seemed awfully low tech, but now I think of it as a "staple skill". I don't use them, but it sure seems like something every SWO or QM should be able to do in their sleep.
Captain,
Your post brought back many memories. I spent 3 on active duty; the last 18 months as NTDS officer on the USS Coontz (DLG-9 at the time). I spent many hours as CIC watch officer and as JOOD. This was in 1972-73, we had just come out of the yards after having NTDS installed.
Yes, the moboard can be your friend. NTDS could give you CPA on any skunks and bogies, but when maneuvering in formation, you still had to compute course and speed manually to take or change station.
Good times, good times.
I used the heck out of them for tic-tac drills back in the day. Today, in my Coast Guard Auxiliary duties, a program has taken over from the moboard for determining where to start searching on a SAR mission. Of course I bring some along in case the computer back at the SAR center decides to go on strike.
I began on an AOR and the Chief reinforced SWOS Basic, as well as my time on the bridge. Yes, we could do it in our sleep. Then to a new SPRUANCE....we used NTDS, but the CO mandated all tracks within 20K would be checked on MoBoard. It worked well, and the OSs knew when to call BS on the NTDS soulutions of a computer run too long without a reload. On NEXTSHIP, the OSs thought all that could do it was the NTDS and on more than on occasion, I had to tell them to break out a MB and double check, and btw, when was the last reload...good times.....
Anyone have pre-prepared battle problem solutions for REFTRA (since they never changed the problems)?
I remember the first time I stood JOOD underway on my Midn 1/C cruise. At school we'd learned how to work MOBOARD problems with the sharpest pencils possible and were docked points for solutions that were off more than 10% in range and 1/2 a degree in bearing. On the bridge I was confronted with a plexiglass MOBOARD and given a grease pencil. The CO told me for the initial course to station all he wanted was to get the ship headed in the right direction. His primary concern was to have the ship in a turn as soon as "Execute" was given. Thus I learned the difference between theory and practice.
Re: MELBOURNE/EVANS. I'd always understood that one of the contributing factors was that EVANS' CO was a screamer and the bridge team had decided to let him sleep because they'd figured that the maneuver would have much less "drama" with him in his rack.
Wow. I'm awake now. What a scintillating report. 
I just *knew* I picked the wrong designator! Why zorch around in the sky at 700 miles per hour, getting off the ship for a couple of hours a couple of times a day when I could have stood the bridge watch plotting things on a MOBoard and getting yelled at by the OOD!
Man...did I have you Shoes wrong!
These are pretty handy on merchant ships nowadays since many of the radars now have touch screens or other types of screens that no longer permit marking with grease pencils.
Pinch: Maybe someday you'll find the MoBoard handy on your yacht for the reasons Fred points out...
I do remember my Air Force navigator dad asking me why we didn't take more regular celestials, and having to remind him that at 15 knots we couldn't get that far off course in 4 or five hours. Probably not an issue with GPS, but in those days...
It'd been over 10 years since I've touched a moboard, but when my husband started having a hard time with his new computer game and plotting firing solutions, I was there to help. I printed off a moboard and tried plotting solutions. Turns out my 'perishable skills' aren't so perishable. I was still able to plot faster than the macro he downloaded.
I wonder...if I were to step on the bridge of a ship, would I still have all the accuracy I used to when I used my Seaman's Eye (when you can plot a moboard solution mentally when watching the actual ships out the bridge window)?
Commenting by HaloScan
