So one of the things that constantly confuses me about this game is in regards to the turn dials. I am always manuvering in the opposite direction if a ship is not near me. I always assumed that a ship manuvers in relation to the way it is facing and from the rear of the ship but I notice that is not explictly stated in the rules. Is that a good assumption though? What I find is depending on the position of the ship, a left turn can be a right turn and vice versa. Does any of that make sense?

So one of the things that constantly confuses me about this game is in regards to the turn dials. I am always manuvering in the opposite direction if a ship is not near me. I always assumed that a ship manuvers in relation to the way it is facing and from the rear of the ship but I notice that is not explictly stated in the rules. Is that a good assumption though? What I find is depending on the position of the ship, a left turn can be a right turn and vice versa. Does any of that make sense?

^This

The movement direction is always made from the front face of the ship, so eg. if you've K-Turned back towards yourself a "left" turn would take the ship to your visual right.

I've always found a good trick is to hold the dial in the direction your ship is facing & it will give you a better idea of where you move is actually going to take you ie. if your ship is pointing towards you hold your dial upsidedown.

hope this helps

Officially, a maneuver's direction is always relative to the way the SHIP is facing, not the way the player is facing. I don't think this is very explicit in the rules, but it's the way everyone plays. To do otherwise would invite madness via ambiguity with ships that are facing sideways or at unusual angles.

Maneuvers have always been based on how the ship is facing. After all, to make a maneuver you place the guide between the nubs in the front of the ship to start the maneuver and in the nubs at the back of the ship to end the maneuver. While it may get confusing if you can only think in one orientation that is the way it has always been and there has never been any confusion as to which way a ship should perform a given maneuver.

If you think everything would be relative to your PoV sitting on one side of the table just how does stuff work when the ship is pointed left or right instead of toward or away from you? If you set a right hand turn on a ship it should move the same way regardless of how it is pointed on the board; if you think that just because it is pointed at you so you think right is left you should be allowed to perform the mirror maneuver then how does that work when the ship is not pointed right at you?

As mentioned, if you have trouble visualizing your maneuvers it really helps to hold the dial in the same orientation as the ship you are setting the maneuver for.