sailquik said..geoITA said..
It seems to me the thingsee may be interesting for those in need of compliance with GPSSS rules for record attempts, much less so for normal use by normal sailors. The 1 c 0Hz thing is ridiculous. The accuracy data, who cares. Micro SD is great. Wireless and Bluetooth, what for. Phone card even less so. Screen as big as the GT -31, very good. IPX7 not nearly enough. Long battery life, obviously! And, 250 USD sounds just crazy (assuming one is any concerned with money), much more so considering the very poor waterproofing (same as GT-31 means it will die as soon as the bag will happen to have the usual tiny crack). The Canmore makes much more sense to me, pity the tiny screen.
What is a 'normal' sailor? One who is interested in accuracy, not fantasy?
Ridiculous is trying to run a competition or ranking where there is no way to know if the numbers you are posting are real or not. Without accuracy data, or at
least corroborating trackpoint data, (neither available in the Canmore) it is just luck and hope. Remember the first rankings and competitions with the Garmin 205 GPS? We now know that any ranking of 20 sailors within a few knots of each other was highly likely to be purely random. The error was so great it could easily cover many sailors. The Canmore maintains the same possibility, despite it being 'potentially' more accurate. You will just never know. Fantasy or fact?
The GT-11 and GT-31 introduced progressively higher accuracy confidence to the point where we could have meaningful competitions and rankings. Being able to have even more confidence in the accuracy and ranking can't be anything but great!
Wireless and Bluetooth have the potential to allow cable free downloads, something that many people have been asking for for years! Bluetooth also has potential for wireless waterproof headphones telling you your speed as you sail, or a screen on your boom showing you your speed as you sail. What about a BT Heads up display in your goggles?
Wireless and Phone connection provides the possibility of real time results sent to your computer or to a timekeeper in a competition. That would be revolutionary, and could make televising World Cup races and major speed events so much more interesting to viewers and sponsors. But would also make local events so much easier to organise and much more interesting. The possibilities just increased out of sight.
10hz has the potential to make the Alpha category much more accurate to the point where the rankings in GPS-SS and GPSTC will actually be real and not almost random. Why is having more of something good ridiculous? Heres a thing: What about the ability to see your Alpha run results at the end of every run! Not only that, it might be possible to program the display to tell you how much you missed the poximity circle by (if you did)! How much fun would that be?
How about the ability to see all the category results at the end of every run? Are at least program the device to show you the ones you are interested in, not just the top speed and 10 sec average.
Yes, waterproofing is not ideal, but that is something that can be built later. At least it won't die so readily if your waterproofing solution develops a leak. Remember that you have to carry the device in something anyhow. We have plenty of workable solutions for that already.
The cost figure mooted is in Euro. 200-250. Every rider I have spoken to at Lake George this year has expressed the opinion that they would be quite happy to pay that or more for the capabilities of this device. Remember that all have a quite significant investment in their chosen pastime. They have taken weeks off work and have driven from 7 to 25 hours to get here and will have spent up to 2 times that on fuel alone before they get home. Every one of them would have many thousands of $ worth of gear, cars, tents, caravans etc. Many sailors think nothing of spending A$1200 on a carbon boom, or A$1800 on a sail. they buy A$300 fins in bulk like they are disposable toys (and many are;-)). Why so hung up on the modest cost of the part of your equipment that is actually the great enabler to get you into this wonderful lifestyle and community of fun?
About one thing we agree, probably: "normal" is what one thinks normal is.
Ah no here is another: "Ridiculous is trying to run a competition or ranking where there is no way to know if the numbers you are posting are real or not", agree 100% of course.
And another one here: "Wireless and Phone connection ... could make televising World Cup races and major speed events so much more interesting to viewers and sponsors. But would also make local events so much easier to organise and much more interesting". Not my case, anyhow.
Probably my ideas are based on my old school engineering education. I tend to think that anything beyond what I actually need is better not to have. I have to admit that some things may come for free; such is the 10Hz capability (I guess one can still use it at 1Hz and save battery and memory) or the accuracy datas. But as for the bluetooth, the wireless, the phone card ... OK I understand we are practicing different sports, let's just say that personally I wouldn't need that, but if one has glasses with incorporated HUD at hand to use, who am I to discuss that.
The waterproofing thing, sorry no, I do not agree with you at all. My GT-31 died when the Aquapac developed a very tiny crack and let in just a few water drops. In my view IPX7 (or better say, "IPX7 same as the GT-31") is NOT NEARLY enough anyhow.
As for the cost. I see things there are OK and most sailors spend sums that are usually justified by PWA racing. Here is different, people often buy used sails and fins, let alone boards. I remember I was surprised to hear a friend, who is a very strong FW and slalom senior racer here and sail repair man, considering fuel costs in his choice about sailing spots (when there were significant differences in sailing conditions in given weather conditions). Throwing the same money that would get one a decent used carbon Zeta or CA fin for an instrument that one day will allow him to use "wireless waterproof headphones telling you your speed as you sail" and in the meantime will die when the Aquapac will start to think it's time to have some rest, well no, I don't think it will have that much success here.
Anyhow, there's no problem at all (I hope) in having different opinions. If I am lucky, one day I will see something like a Foretrex with effective screen waterproofing, GPS chip and antenna same as in the Canmore (it's smaller, so must fit) and a nice strap to wear it on my arm with no bag. Will easily do with the 'cradle' and cable download if that makes for easier or better waterproofing, as that reflects my priority order. At this moment my best choice is having a GT-31 or a Canmore in a Paqua bag. The Thingsee would do OK too, but it's not worth the cost for me; the only thing I would miss is the large screen actually.
Remind me to never get into a technical argument with you
