How to go Historic Rallying | Navigator

Before starting it is important to realise when a route is not specified in detail, the correct route is the shortest route by usable roads.

These will be coloured roads or whites, depending on the route instructions.

Unless stated otherwise all of the plotting information should be completed in the order specified.

A six-figure map reference defines a square 100m (metres) to the East and 100m to the North of the actual point. Fractions (i.e. ½, ¼) may be used to more accurately define the point but it still defines a square 100m to the east and 100m to the North of the actual point.

These may have directions of approach and departure that need to be adhered to.

The grid squares on the OS Landranger (1:50,000) maps are 1km x 1km. Both grid squares and grid lines are used for navigation.

Grid squares are identified by four figures, these are the horizontal and vertical gridlines that define on a particular box on the map. Grid lines are identified by two figures that may refer to either vertical or horizontal lines.

These are places that you MUST NOT visit on the event, often called blackspots. By defining which way you can’t go, it should leave only one possible correct route to take, or it’s the shortest route.

These can be portrayed in different methods, such as whole grid squares, parts of grid squares and circles around grid squares.

Jogularities provide you with all of the information required to complete the correct route, there is no need to use your map.

They will tell you where every junction is and which way to turn – either with written / descriptive instructions or using tulip diagrams.

Spot heights are small dots with an altitude above sea level alongside. Only focus on spot heights which have a dot on the road, all others can be ignored.

On a spot height section, you must pass through the spot heights listed and you should not pass through any other spot heights. Ignore spot heights close to, but not on, rally route and those indicated by the symbol for Triangulation Pillar, even if they appear to plot on a road.

Herringbones are a very simple method of defining the route, once you understand how they work. Imagine the rally route has been drawn on the map and, at each junction, an additional little bit of road leading away from the route has also been drawn in.

The main line of the herringbone (the spine) is the rally route that you want to take and all the additional lines up and down off the spine are the roads that you need to ignore or ‘leave alone’.

So, when you are given a herringbone, the route that you need to take appears as a straight line, showing the roads to miss on the left and right above and below the line.

The way to convert the herringbone to a route on your map is to describe to yourself what you see on the herringbone and transfer that to the map.

For example with the herringbone above, reading it from left to right, you say, in sequence, to yourself:

1. “Straight on at crossroads”. Easy! And then you mark that on your map.
2. “Ignore a left”. The next junction on the map is a T-junction so to ‘ignore a left’ you need to turn right at that T-junction. Again, mark that on the map before doing the next piece.
3. “Ignore a right”. The next junction is actually a road on the right so you need to go straight on.
4. “Ignore two roads on the left”. The next junction is a cross-roads. So to ignore two roads on the left you have to turn right at the cross-roads.
5. “Ignore a left”. This should now be clear; you keep straight on – but watch for occasions where you are on a major road the road on the left is actually the continuation of the major road and you have to actually turn off it to ‘keep straight on’.

These are points provided on a printed map beforehand which must be visited in a pre-set order, possibly with approaches and departs.

This style of marked map presentation was most commonly associated with the renowned London Rallies of the 1950s and 60s – hence the name.

These points may be provided on different types of maps, it's usually useful to copy the location of these onto your own map but always check which map you should be using to plot the correct map- theirs or yours!