When you can only see 20 metres and you have absolutely no idea which direction you're sailing, you use anything you can! We knew we'd sailed under the Forth Road Bridge because we heard the traffic above us...

Of course you do, but you dont use it for racing usually, do you..

Now, "haar", would that be gaelic for fog, or is it even more arcane?

Definately not!

"Haar" is Scots rather than Gaelic. But it does mean fog, particularly a sea fog that rolls in from the North Sea during a spell of hot weather in the summer. Those of us on the East coast use it rather a lot some years...

Then you have scots, gaelic, english and some pictish(?) to choose between when it's time to bring forth the strong language?

Where and when did scots come from? Pre-roman? The word "haar" rolls very nicely when I try to pronounce it without having any idea about how to do it..

Norse as well! Which is where my dictionary says "haar" probably came from originally!

Scots probably developed from an ancient form of English. It's certainly very similar. I don't consider myself a Scots speaker but I do use Scots words. There are a huge number of regional variations, both in terms of pronunciation and of vocabularly. As you've discovered with "haar" they can sound wonderful and can be much more expressive than their English equivalents. Try "dreich" - a dreich day is one of those grey, wet and generally unpleasant ones (Scottish Tourist Board mode on - not that we get many of those....). The Scots Language Society has an interesting website, written in Scots - see how you get on! www.lallans.co.uk

Yea, It's quite understandable when you speak it in a strong Scottish accent
The Irish Gaelic word for fog is "Ceo" - seems very tame

Jalani, T.Rex's Bang a Gong was one of my personal favorites, back in high school! (1973-77) I'll swap you a Neil Young for that T.Rex CD. I'm also looking for an old Kinks CD if you have one, I wanna fly like Superman, or Lola, La la la la Lola...

I take it you mean "Get it on" ?

I'll see what I can track down for you Tim. I'll PM you sometime soon.

I apologize for resurrecting this old post but I have been trying to find a model number for the Suunto compass pictured in this thread. I was wondering if John Alani would be willing to give me the model number as I don’t seem to see it on the Suunto website.

Thank you,

Bob Klein

Bob,

My compass is a Suunto B95-SAIL. Here is a link to Layline who stock the B95 in both versions. The one shown is the B95-Power (white with white card). The sail compass is black with a sector card:

Layline compass B95

I would like to revisit this a couple of years on.

Ended up going for a t60 tacktick micro compass, they have come down to about $450 AUD new now.

looks like plenty of f18's are using the t008 bracket now, mounting the compass just behind the bridal. This means you cant use the count down feature because its too far away to get at.

the t004 bracket is just stupidly priced for a plate with 6 holes in it. the t008 isn't that bad for what it is.

Does anyone have a better idea for mounting a micro compass on the pole near the bridal?

You should have 2 holes drilled in your front beam on the Port side which have been plugged with rivets. These were to secure an L shapped aluminium bracked which the T004 was rivetted to.

This is a much better place to put the compass as it is very easy to reach and easy to see.

I notice on one of Goodall's Capricorns that he made a simular style bracket (which I copied) but cable tied it to the tramp.

I have the holes in the beam, I am just not convinced it is the best spot.

bundy/ashby and booth have theirs mounted up the front.

It is all personal preferance. Not as easy though to walk up a bow to set the 5 min. You will feel pretty stupid if you fall in, even more if you smash a solid snuffer (Tornaoes).

Just don't attach it to the mast like I saw one Tiger sailor do. ........ Will work pretty well though if you do not plan to rotate your mast.

I have always wanted to put some type of compass on my cat as I'm sure I miss quite a lot of shifts without one. The problem is being able to read it from the wire.

The Tactics seem to have very small screens. At the last Gulfport local race there was a guy (Pete I think) on an A cat with one of those Velocitec units. https://store.catsailor.com/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=27169

He had it mounted on a swivel, on a base plate, at the front and bottom of his mast. When he would tack, the swivel (with bungi cords tied to front beam I think) would rotate the unit around to the other side of the mast so he could read it on either tack, and the numbers are twice as big as the tactic's so he said he had no problem reading it from out there. It reads out speed as well.

I would love to put something like that on mine, I don't really need a coundown timer as I use my watch, and really, with under 20 seconds, I'm only looking at the rest of the fleet anyway, not my watch.

His setup might not work with the self tacking jib though, only on a Uni setup, and even then, I would worry about the spin sheet getting wrapped around it somehow, and flicking it off into the ocean. I've seen that done with the tactic's mounted on the pole. Very expensive to replace!

Another option would be to buy two units, mount one to each side of the boom...also very expensive put they probably won't get tangled and lost.

I went with the Foretrex 201. That puts your digital compass on your wrist for less than $200.

I heard it has issues with the strap? Something about the pin coming out and losing it overboard? Have you solved that issue?

I haven't lost one yet although I have found it dangling by one pin. My sub-artic sailing often requires my wearing one of:
A Drysuit
B Wetsuit
C Spray jacket.
So, when wearing one of these I have the cuff pulled over half the unit. I also wear the unit on the thinner portion axis of the ,wrist. Wearing it on the wider axis, ala wristwatch, does tend to expose it to pressures from a bent back hand.
I have fancied taking some neoprene, sewing it into a tube, cutting a window, and wearing it over top. The other option is gluing it down to the strap, although you would have to watch the buildup, as the charger needs to clip on over this.

currently using velocitek mounted by velcro to the forward beam starbord side but this is not ideal since see it well only on 1 tack and then for port, i have to rely on my foretrex, the velocitex though is pretty handy for basing vmg. not sure if anyone has seen a bracket or better mounting site.

On the Velocitec, can you change the display so that the compass heading is the big numbers and the speed is in the little box?