To All,



I bought a Knotmeter for my I-17. It always bugged me about boat speed,..and the effects of adjustments on speed.



IT WORKED GREAT!!



It is a SpeedMate with a trailing log. It is self-contained w/ a small battery in the case. The numbers are large.



After awhile, I decided to mount it on the starboard side of the boom, just ahead of the d-boards. I used contact cement on the boom to hold the 3-M 2 part tape,..led the wire ( for the log) to my tramp bag and then led about 5 feet of the log end in front of the front beam and fashioned a 'loop' of plastic ties for it to go thru at the lower dolphin striker assembly.



This way I can keep the trailing section up on the tramp until I clear shore , then throw it 'out' front so it trails under the tramp.



Well, I found out that I could not ascertain the difference between 8 kts and 10 kts of boat speed by just 'feel'....the unit is so responsive,...I started adjusting things one at a time,....watching the speed go up and or down,...now I really know what effect things have on boat speed.



I resoned that if I just had it on the starboard side ( ..it is a countdown timer too) that I would not look at it that much anyway,....WRONG,...when I tacked,......you guessed, I was looking for the Speedo and felt a little lost without it.



Some boat adjustments did nothing or very little,.....some were HUGE,...for example, downwind,.....opening up the mast rotation to max.... increased speed 30-40%....no kidding.



So, my report is this,..definately NOT a toy,......one of those rare things that EXCEED your expectations...





Bruce



St. Croix

I'm looking forward to the same benefits from my new GPS!



Sea ya,



Tim

Tim,



GPS is great technology,....but isn't it still 'speed over the surface of the Earth'?,...no accounts for water movement like currents, tides and such,....yes?



Bruce



St. Croix

oh... I assumed speedmate was a mechanical paddlewheel type knotmeter. It's gps?

Doh.

You are 100% correctomundo,.......it is a paddle - type wheel,...mine is on a trailerable log configuration..



The guts is electonic,....strictly a on-board, 'in real time' instrument.



Bruce

I used my GPS to track speed and was excited to see the max speed at 30 MPH then when going down wind in more wind W/spi did not break this record and later realized that I was traveling with the current up wind and against it down wind. The GPS should be good to do adjustments in the same direction of travel but lacks the ability to give information about different tacks. However I can set mine to tell me speed toward a mark if I set it to nav to the point the first time I round it. neat feature for downwind tacking with currents.

Marc,



Cool info!



I believe it is time for Beach Cats to have a line of simple, affordable instruments......it makes a differnce!



Bruce