I've had no desire for a digital compass. The similarly expensive binnacle card compass suits me better, since I can look down and see my current course and my planned next course (after two rounds of neurosurgeons* digging in my head, I've been left a bit directionally challenged).
arrrgh Timonel.....changes changes changes...I say leave the boat alone...one design so that we compete as sailors on a level platform not as who has more money for different blades, spars, sails, etc. So, a compass is a good thing. I do not mind digital compass...it is still giving you the magnetic heading but...when that little thing starts giving you time to the start, distance to the start, lifts and headers indications...then I think it negates (is that a word?) the dinghy sailor's skills in lieu of technology. What are you then?, a piece of the machine that tacks on command in response to the indication. Yeah but you do better in the race results right?!!..so what Are we in this game to follow the indications of a machine or do we sail for a higher purpose of bettering our skills, getting more in tune with nature, sharing our cammaraderie in learning and competing as plain folks reaching for true glory and fun? I choose free will (from the band aptly named RUSH) Off the soap box now. Antolin standard rig 155456 CHEESECAKE aka Jolene
I don't sail a Laser, and I don't even race, but there is bigtime marketing and peer pressure even in the world of casual sailing to have the latest electronic gimcrackery (did you know they make digital gimcrackers, now?).
You can easily spend more on that stuff than you do on sails.
My boat has electronic windpoint readout, but it is the instrument of the devil. It's way too easy to stare at it and let it start making decisions that I should be making by watching the water, the telltales, and the sails.
My drysuit was 3x the cost of the compass, should that be banned too? A compass is simply a tool to help us understand which way the boat is pointed; anyone who is sailing simply looking at the compass will generally find themselves at the back of the fleet.
5 comments:
Laser class rules?
I've had no desire for a digital compass. The similarly expensive binnacle card compass suits me better, since I can look down and see my current course and my planned next course (after two rounds of neurosurgeons* digging in my head, I've been left a bit directionally challenged).
Steve in Baltimore
*not at RI Hospital, luckily.
arrrgh Timonel.....changes changes changes...I say leave the boat alone...one design so that we compete as sailors on a level platform not as who has more money for different blades, spars, sails, etc. So, a compass is a good thing. I do not mind digital compass...it is still giving you the magnetic heading but...when that little thing starts giving you time to the start, distance to the start, lifts and headers indications...then I think it negates (is that a word?) the dinghy sailor's skills in lieu of technology. What are you then?, a piece of the machine that tacks on command in response to the indication. Yeah but you do better in the race results right?!!..so what Are we in this game to follow the indications of a machine or do we sail for a higher purpose of bettering our skills, getting more in tune with nature, sharing our cammaraderie in learning and competing as plain folks reaching for true glory and fun?
I choose free will (from the band aptly named RUSH)
Off the soap box now.
Antolin
standard rig 155456
CHEESECAKE aka Jolene
What Antolin said.
I don't sail a Laser, and I don't even race, but there is bigtime marketing and peer pressure even in the world of casual sailing to have the latest electronic gimcrackery (did you know they make digital gimcrackers, now?).
You can easily spend more on that stuff than you do on sails.
My boat has electronic windpoint readout, but it is the instrument of the devil. It's way too easy to stare at it and let it start making decisions that I should be making by watching the water, the telltales, and the sails.
Nicely written post.
Not allowed on our boat either if it has stored information and is anything more than a plain old compass.
My drysuit was 3x the cost of the compass, should that be banned too?
A compass is simply a tool to help us understand which way the boat is pointed; anyone who is sailing simply looking at the compass will generally find themselves at the back of the fleet.
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