It is fascinating for me watching this instrumentation thingee beginning to happen. I remember very clearly the first " flight directors " appearing in the gliders I used to fly and then GPS navigation becoming integrated into that " flight direction ".

It was truely amazing the very short time it took for the users to adopt the technology and an even more amazing,the short time for the instrumentation to become better than the pilot to " direct the flight". One thing for sure guys it is going to happen considering the size of the market and one thing for sure it will enhance our sailing experiance, what it will not do though is make the poorer sailor better than the best sailor, it simply moves the goal posts equally for everyone.

The one odd thing for me has always been why has it taken so long considering the development of big boat instrumentation over the last ten years.

I like having a foretrex on my wrist to see what my speed is, but if I feel the boat is sluggish then the speed usually matches. I can usually judge by feel if I am "in the groove" or not. The fun of trying to see just how fast you were going is undeniable... but that is just for screwing around. I find it helpful to judge some shifts I suppose if you keep an eye on your heading.

As far as VMG and whatnot... I think the only thing that will reliably tell you whether you are truly pointing as well as you can is if there is another person close to you trying to do the same thing. Helps too if they are an expert.
but... then again... boat set up and weight can certainly alter your pointing ability.