Originally Posted by waterbug_wpb
I thought Paul Cayard made some really great calls on the water regarding wind shifts and potential strategies. Keep that guy!

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The agonizing discussion of how VMG works was hard to listen to, but the graphics were very well done and should explain to the non-sailor how it works... The leader bar and separation distance were easy enough for my 11 year old to figure out. The football yardage lines kind of helped, as did the boat tracks.

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I remember thinking, "Jesus Ken, do you even know what VMG is?"...and then back to one of my favorite Einstein quotes (which is a very introvert type thing) ... something along the lines of, "if you can't explain it in simple terms, you don't understand it well enough".

When I was on the steeper end of the learning to sail curve, I kept hearing that VMG is not a very useful data point for some reason - I'm not sure if it was the guys that were just not happy with, or didn't understand, the up and coming GPS tech at the time. Thanks to that, I rarely ever sailed with a VMG number on display anywhere (somewhat regrettably because I think it might have shortened my learning curve a little) but I do race with a running VMG estimate in my head and balance that against where I am on the course and what's happening around me.



Jake Kohl