Following on from my B&G Network thread ....

[Refueler]

When I've sailed on boats with Wind displays .. I've usually only taken info from the main 360 deg display .. if boat has a Tack display - I've generally ignored and gone by eye / feel of the sail / tiller.

My B&G has both main and Tack displays .. and I'm just wondering about the real worth of the Tack display - given that it basically only covers that close haul segment ..

Views / comments ?

 

[jlavery]

It's all a matter of personal preference. Some helmspeople prefer the tack display because they maybe don't have the feel.

I prefer having true wind direction (i.e. compass direction, not true off bow/stern) - this gives a view of the general trend/position.

I occasionally flip to the close hauled display if I'm tuning sail trim. But even then, I tend to do that by feel and boatspeed readout.

 

[Boathook]

I've only got the 360 degree display and set to apparent wind. A tack display for me is a waste of time as my boat doesn't point up enough.

I use the apparent wind for deciding when to reef. When I fill in the log book I use true wind.

 

[Refueler]

I have this season to decide what to do ... remove the whole B&G network ... sell on eBay ... or replace part ?

I am quite happy with App wind and 360 display ... as I am quite adept at mentally estimating true .... and given that at end of day App is what you end up sailing to ...

 

[flaming]

It really depends on what you're trying to do.

If your goal is to sail from a to b generally having a nice time, then really any instruments over compass, depth and log are "nice to have" rather than important.

If you get seriously into racing then having, and just as importantly calibrating, good instruments becomes extremely important. Especially if there are not plenty of other identical boats to tune up with.

I have 4 mast mounted displays, all digital, and they display speed, TWA, TWS and depth. There's another cockpit mounted on that displays TWD and then a MFD that we cycle through a few options depending on what we're doing. Mostly it does BTW/COG etc.

When we go out in the morning and put some sails up we have a set of polars that tell us what speed and TWA we should be getting going upwind for a given TWS. So we start running through our trim loops until we're satisfied that we're on target. To do that TWA is obviously a crucial piece of data as we know from experience that if our polars say 7.3kts at 40 for 12kts TWS (which they do) then if we're only getting 42 we're not going to be able to hold our lane off the start line. So we need to keep playing with the trim to find that angle.

In a pre-digital time you needed the tack display to be able to see the difference between 40 and 42 degrees.

 

[B27]

The close-hauled display may also read 'gybe angle' or whatever you choose to call it down wind.

On a cruising boat, it's useful at night, or when the tell tales are not easy to see, if you're not in the right place to look up at the windex etc.

It's also easier for two people to discuss a meter readout than a windex. Numbers being easier than needle positions.
Likewise for recording tuning info, numbers were invented for a reason.