Measuring Boatspeed

[Graham Bridle]

What do people find the most effective device for measuring boatspeed, current, average, max, min - that kind of thing  ?

[roland_trim]

Before I got ill I was simply using the Speed Puck to give instant feedback on straight line changes (Tuning cunno/kicker/T-foil etc) This paid off for H&I and allowed us to loose by less of a distance to Croote.

It is very strange how some things that feel faster are actually very slow. However, we  are at the other end of the fleet and sailing on Chew the pointing/VMG thing is very hard to gauge as you need to be very near another boat to be in the same gust.

[Graham Bridle]

That looks good, but maybe I should have also put the word "cheap" in my post

[simon_jones]

I believe that there is a company called map my tracks which use a mobile gps signal. Just make sure the phone case is waterproof. I know they sponsored a Musto nationals at Whitstable a few years ago, it was good because they had real time mapping on a screen in the club for non sailors to watch the action also a great talking point in the bar after racing. On that note I wonder if we could interest them in our nats?

[Tim Noyce]

It is also possible to buy a cheap GPS tracker for about £35 which you can then just download the track to afterwards but this doesn't really tell you much about your live speed. Pretty sure some of the 14's have the full TackTick Race Masters which have water impellars and the like to give you accurate speeds through the water rather than just by your GPS track. Tad pricey though.

[JP233]

This is a constant source for discussion in the moth fleet.
Most Moth people go for the speed puck, or the prostart.
The speed puck is big so you can see the number easily. the pro start is a bit more fancy, you can peg in the committee boat and the pin buoy, it then tells you how far back you are from the line! It has a count down. but both are mainly used for speed readings.

Me personally, (being poor) i use a Garmin foretrex, very basic but it does the same as a speedpuck, bit is a bit smaller

[chrislewns]

Try a GT31, they very accurate and pretty cheap

[Clive Everest]

What do people find the most effective device for measuring boatspeed, current, average, max, min - that kind of thing  ?

Heaving the Log

http://www.thedearsurprise.com/?p=699

[roland_trim]

I think there is a techi cheap solutions comming shortly.

The ingredients appear to be pi/arduino, gps, wifi board and a battery/solar cell and a big display. Sealed in a unit it will also upload all the data when near enough to the club to hook into the open wifi. Need to get the boat in the water before this happens though.

[Will_Lee]

We use a garmin foretrex 201. Lots of customisability with the display.