How much do you use your knot meter?

[Prime Time]

It's a must have for racing.
It's a good back up navigation tool.

 

[Ken13559]

With hassle of cleaning foul from knot meter means I plug it in only when necessary during races and so far I've not plug it in in all the races I participated. Its not high up on list of needs or wants.

 

[Ron20324]

My knot meter tracks my ship's mileage. Nice to know total usage.

 

[YVRguy]

What knot meter? I use GPS. Don't like holes in the bottom of my boat, and I don't have to worry about a knot meter wheel getting damaged putting the boat on the trailer.

I don't need to know VMG when I'm pulling away from you.....

Don

:dance::dance: Welcome to the dark side Don. I think we're in the minority though

 

[YVRguy]

It's not encouraging for instance to be on a close reach in 25kt wind and observe my SOG say displaying only 4.0 kts. But my knot meter which might be showing 7.2kts speed through the water makes me feel a bit better. If one sailed only on a lake with no currents, then perhaps the GPS is enough.

Funny, I get the opposite feeling. I hate looking at my knot meter and seeing a really high speed only to see my GPS and realize that I'm going much slower.

I think the difference is that I am generally sailing to a destination so I'm always interested in what kind of time I'm making vs my estimates. For example, some of my destinations involve sailing across the Georgia Strait and through a pass with strong tidal currents. I need to time my arrival for roughly slack tide and therefore I could care less what my knot meter says. I need to know my actual progress towards my destination.

 

[Benny17441]

Not much since it doesn't work. Got tired of cleaning it.