Instruments

Posted By: Joe McCary, Aeolus II-Catalina 27, West River, MD
Date: 2/29/08 9:08p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: blowin' in the wind (joefusa)

I used to race on a big (33') boat. Back in early 90s it had all the best money could buy. We had Ockam system that measured the basics of wind speed/direction, boat speed. Then it uses the computer to compute true wind, VMG, true boat speed, polars, etc (everything imaginable and some that is not). At first it was great fun to "fly by wire" but after a while we only used the instruments for information, not as a primary source. Today on my own Catalina 27 I have a wind vane at masthead, telltales on the shrouds and on the luff of the Genoa and leach of the main and a GPS chart plotter. I also have a $65 wind speed gage that I can mount on the stern rail for a look at wind speed. I am a very happy camper instrument wise. What the wind vane and telltales collectively don't give I can flush from the GPS as over the bottom speed. I occasionally mount the wind speed to relative, general wind speed going up or down. But, I don't race and knowing an accurate accounting of what the boat is doing in real time numbers just isn't important.