Looks like that Garmin would be easy to mount on your boom? Is that how you had it or on your wrist? I know I usually lose my watches off my wrist when racing, unless I tape them on! They always get hung up on -something- during a tack/gybe and end up in the water.
By animation I mean can it show your boat moving through the course? This looks like it shows a static picture of your course. Maybe I missed a button or something.
I did a lot of looking at my individual speedpuck tracks and saw flaws in tacking, etc. but when you bring other boats into the picture, you really see where you can improve relative to the boats that sailed better than you.
Well I've already got an Etrex Legend, looks just like that one you have, I wonder if it will work with the Kattack. I usually tape it to the boom or tie it to one of the hiking straps at the back of the tramp, out of harms way. I've seen as fast at 17.6 knts. going downwind solo, with the kite.
I know I've gone faster on a blast reach with my (195 lb.) son on the wire, we didn't have the GPS on board that day but it was scary fast, it felt like a windsurfer skipping over the waves.
All GPS units (Garmin, Velocitek) will generate a "breadcrumb" log file of their tracks. They don't have to be mounted anywhere, they just do it as long as they're turned on and stay on.
There are a number of software solutions to pull the information off the units and put it in a format to go into tracking replay software. (Some of the retrieval and playback software is combined.)
The one that I've always played with is GPS Action Replay. It's a free download. Just Google it.
Kattack uses Garmin eTrex units for no other reason than they're cheap and durable. At the end of the day, they're gathered up by the Kattack employee who then dumps the tracks to their software. The tracks are trimmed to eliminate the in-between race parts and time synchronized. The wind direction and location of the marks are inserted manually (inferred by the tracks), as are the boat labels. The whole process takes about an hour, depending on the number of units.
Yes, GPS Action Replay (GPSar) works well and its free. It works will all units if the user has the technical ability to pull off the data and load it. Not hard for some, but a real challenge for others. Also, it does not give you race statistics across all competitors as far as I know.
Velecitek has made getting the data off the unit easy, but it only runs in their software or the free GPSAR. It will show you an animation of all competitors in the race, but not sure if it provides much in the way of race statistics. I haven't downloaded the most recent software, so I don't know.
I think Kattack's niche is your have a techie (their employee or a capable member of your club) pull the data off inexpensive units and load it. It gives you animations of all competitors. Plus it give your race metrics and the ability to distribute the animations via the web. Their metrics are pretty user friendly as well.
With the metrics and the visual animations, you can really figure out what you did versus your competitors.
Blade F16 USA 725
Re: tradewinds wind
[Re: TEH]
#227343 01/24/1105:55 AM01/24/1105:55 AM
Since I bought a new iphone my old 3G is gathering dust on the shelf, any ideas on how to convert this into a sailing computer? I'm thing of using it after every race to see where we got the most gains (good shifts, accelerations etc). (There is an F18 meeting in a few weeks where there will be a vote on allowing GPS devices while racing).
I have an app called "Tracks" for my android phone. Works great. Lays down your track right over a google map. Give you top speed average speed and all that other crap. Not sure if it is avalible for Iphone but I would think they would have something like it. Also very nice knowing I have the ability to call for help if needed.
Pete, back to your original question. I will preface this by saying we were nowhere near the front of the fleet, so I'm sure some of this is counterproductive. In addition this was our first time sailing together, and our first time sailing an F18...
I spent a bit of time as crew (aka "waste of space on a boat") that weekend looking backward at our track while sailing. Very easy to notice when we were lifted and headed. Also good to see if any other boats were being affected. Most importantly, it was so I wouldn't second-guess the driver (who was very competent in her own right).
Not having to worry about the driving, it was easier for me to figure out where we were on the course, what the other boats were doing, and what our sail trim was. Driving takes up a lot of brain to figure out strategy.
My "boat" work was primarily maximizing the speed for any given position, so I had some brain power to figure out stuff for the driver.
I noticed a header preceeded each pressure patch, and things did go slightly right each day (Friday more noticable than the others). I also noticed that the other boats could sail a bit higher than us, so we chose not to pinch up to them but rather just sail fast and hope we choose the right lift/header combination.
There always seemed a bit more pressure near A, and having usually overstood when we hit the right, it was a bit of a close reach to get back to the layline (which helped us drive over a few boats trying to slam the door on us).
I also noticed that the right side (left as you're going downhill) paid a little better with the spinnaker up, and gave you stb rights coming into the gate.
We got a decent start once or twice near the pin, which put us at the mercy of all the boats behind us before we could tack over on port and get right. But, getting a good start with clean air was huge.
When we got a second-row start, we just worked on boatspeed and followed the leader. No use for us in taking wild risks (we weren't in contention for any pickle-dishes). Making fewer mistakes (sail handling, transitions) than the next guy was our strategy.
But weekends like that are what made me want to sail in the first place!
