Great. I look forward to hearing your results...
May you have the success your deserve.
May you have the success your deserve.
Best way to track wind shifts
- Thread starter danstanford
- Start date
Well, I downloaded the upgrade onto a new mSD card and it failed to read for some reason so I did it all again and finally connected my phone as a wifi hotspot and let it do its own update which worked fine. I saw no bugs but will have to do some experimenting with the features though the lay-line feature looks great. Though I have adjusted it several times, it looks like my windex is oriented at least a couple of degrees off and I need to get it properly adjusted before the laylines will be accurate. I did not find my boat in those have pre-done polars but I am using a B331 which seemed the closest till I figure out if I can provide my own polars to the software.
B&G has this on their Vulcan and Zeus MFDs, Great for starts in oscillating wind. Also helps you understand if shifts are persistent or oscillating.
Kind of wishing I had gone that way instead. I am a fairly brand loyal Guy and didn't even consider anything byt Raymarine since they had done my last few boats! I guess I can hope they will look at adding something like this but it sure looks like if it isn't about fishing it isn't very important!B&G has this on their Vulcan and Zeus MFDs, Great for starts in oscillating wind. Also helps you understand if shifts are persistent or oscillating.
So the new Raymarine updated sailing tools are a qualified success. The start line tool is very good and gave me exactly what I wanted with the time to burn function pretty easy to learn and use. It did not however prevent me from being there 15 seconds early and trapped. The course was set with an unusual windward mark so I did not get a good handle on the layline tool yet.
So far I am happy I did it.
So far I am happy I did it.
I have the B&G Vulcan display and I'll be happy to play with it a bit and try it out. I haven't calibrated the speed yet, and it is troublesome keeping the paddlewheel moving. So I haven't used these tools during a race. I haven't seen any prohibition in the race rules, but I can tell that nobody else in our fleet are using these tools. It seems to me like it is a bit like cheating in that sense. Perhaps my crew and I are better off learning some of these skills the old-school way.
I used to race regularly when I lived in SF one design only. One of our skippers was an electronics geek, another had one of the earliest Catalina 34s ever made, #8!!! (They ended up making 1,801 of 'em!) #8: No electronics.
The geek and #8 traded top finishes and yearly first places over and over again for years.
It ain't the instruments, Scott, it's the sailors. Dan's right.
I've seen guys with new instruments thinking they're now gonna smoke the fleet, and they end up further behind 'cuz they're f-ing around with the electronics instead of sailing the damn boat.
The geek and #8 traded top finishes and yearly first places over and over again for years.
It ain't the instruments, Scott, it's the sailors. Dan's right.
I've seen guys with new instruments thinking they're now gonna smoke the fleet, and they end up further behind 'cuz they're f-ing around with the electronics instead of sailing the damn boat.
Whoa! in no way was I thinking that. I was only looking for perspective on the topic of using these aids during a race. I thought that I had read somewhere that for some race rules, they are prohibited. I was thinking that if nobody else in the fleet was using these aids, that it might be looked at as unsportsmanlike. I agree, if the focus is on a chartplotter that you aren't familiar with, you'd be shooting yourself in the foot! That said, I am very interested in getting familiar with these tools.
While some smaller OD fleets will limit electronics, for PHRF fleets it is wide open. There is no shame in spending money to get around the track faster. The only risk is if they use data not available to other boats, then you might have an issue with RRS 41, outside help. But you can freely spend money on gear that makes commonly available data (like GPS signals) more useful. And of course all the sensor data you gather on your own boat.
The trick is how to use it while racing. Those B&G displays might be valuable to a dedicated tactician, but in a race where everyone has a real job, all your data need to be simple and on the mast, not buried in dense plotter display.
Also remember that mean wind is just a data point. It is not a hard rule. That’s why you KEEP YOUR HEAD OUTSIDE THE BOAT, and not buried in some plotter.
The trick is how to use it while racing. Those B&G displays might be valuable to a dedicated tactician, but in a race where everyone has a real job, all your data need to be simple and on the mast, not buried in dense plotter display.
Also remember that mean wind is just a data point. It is not a hard rule. That’s why you KEEP YOUR HEAD OUTSIDE THE BOAT, and not buried in some plotter.
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Congrats @danstanford on finding the positive solution to your challenge. 
May you enjoy a speedy chartered sail around the race course.
And follow Jackdaws suggestion to keep your eyes more on the water then on the plotter.
May you enjoy a speedy chartered sail around the race course.
And follow Jackdaws suggestion to keep your eyes more on the water then on the plotter.
So last week I was rooting around in my "sports room" among my sailing stuff and found a device I bought a few winters ago and forgot about. It is a Tacking Master wrist mounted recorder to track wind direction and shifts right on your wrist. Last night I used it and it was brilliant at letting me know if we were being lifted or knocked and it made the tactical decisions much easier. It completely answers the question I started this thread with and I already owned it!
Great story! I've used one for years, its a great memory aid, helping me remember mean wind, tacking angles, angle to windward and leeward marks etc. Before the race when sniffing at the wind, I find turning the dials increases my memory of the angles. Before the race these numbers get entered into our mast mounted RaceGeek D10, which then tracks them automatically. but even then I still use it for reciprocals, and when the wind goes crazy far onto one side.
Was watching the TP52's on YouTube and the on water analyst mentioned them pinging the start line which would undoubtedly be for some kind of start line tool to time the start. It is good to know I do something just the same way they do it since my Raymarine tool uses the same term, pinging the line.
I agree with Jackdaw. You can track you want, but your competitors can have all the same information. Your tacks and jibes all depend on your orientation to 1) the course and 2) your competitors. If you're leading by a lot, you can play the shifts and try to outsmart your competitors. If it's close, you need to not only play the shifts, but protect your position. We all know our competitors and who owes time. The shifts are part of it, but you need to know where you are on the course and what that means. A track can only show you where you sailed. It doesn't show you where your competitors sailed.
Bottom line, instruments cannot compensate for bad strategy. They don't take competitors into account.
Bottom line, instruments cannot compensate for bad strategy. They don't take competitors into account.