Another PB. Well done Kean.

Roo, congratulations on distance PB!

OK, I convinced RD to join the team, your turn. Tell the French sailor he can't train with you unless he gets a GPS and joins The West Coast Speedsters .

Just to be clear, the numbers you posted are WINDFOILING numbers only, including the distance? If so, double wow on the PB, and yes, you have made a windfoiling speed breakthrough!!

I was going to use my new-found elementary GPSResults skills to look at your tracks but I see you are not using KA72.... 

I meant to say I didn't post the windfoil testing numbers, they are need to know only!

Ah, OK. Makes sense...

Now that I am retired, I keep forgetting about the commercial aspects of the sport - except for what equipment is costing me . 

I got the French sailor setup with a phone and GPSLogit. Sadly he wont be able to post the numbers here as the numbers aren't allowed and I'm sure the other USA team would protest, especially when we beat them! Managed to increase his speed by over 2 knots today by tuning his equipment and running him through some on water training drills, I'm sure he will get faster!

Barton I post on GPSSS rather than KA72 and then use their link to post the data here, it does all the processing and calculates the numbers. Happy to send you the file for amusement and just posted it om KA72 if you want to download from there.

I'll be 3d printing prototype windfoils today based on what we learnt yesterday evening. Some very interesting developments on the way.

Bummer on not having the French sailor on the team  but at least he gets the benefits of Chatty Cathy (Bitchin' Betty) instructing him while he sails. Guess we are somewhat on thin ice with RD as he is using the Canmore GP102 and is definitely earning team jelly beans , and his best speed prior to joining the team is 35 knots. He may upgrade to a GW-60 at some point in time although part of my recruitment pitch that this whole GPSTC thing is for fun and commaraderie and not to be taken that seriously (taken from the GPSTC website). I had been pushing Rolfe's father to join and was thinking the phone/GPSLogit would be a great entry solution for him as he gets the instruction benefit (which might still be acceptable as he sails similar to me). 

Pretty sure, from what I have read, that GPSSS uses GPSResults to process the data before posting. I might download your tracks from KA72 and compare your jibe details to my jibing, just so I can have a good cry .

Have fun with the 3D printing! I suspect RD will be very interested. At Floras, the wind had to be pretty strong before he would get off the windfoil and windsurf for a while... (He has the Slingshot setup BTW).

We're using the GPSLogit/Phone as a training aid for Le Defi Wind event, it's already improved his speeds. He's first in his class in the Gorge Cup and seventh overall at the moment so it should also help his racing there.

 Just hope he can survive the training Roogimen I have planned!

I enjoy your ability to "Roo"ize standard words .

Roo, I know you and I are in full agreement regarding GPS devices used for GPSTC, that said, I still feel the need to vent, so here goes...

Today I used GPSResults to analyze my last sailing session. For this session I was wearing the phone/GPSLogit, the GW52 and, the GW60. The phone and GW52 were worn on my arms/biceps. The GW60 on my wrist. Let's assume the GW52 is the 'gold standard'. The outputs of GPSResults for the phone and GW60 varied +- about 0.2 knots around the GW-52. The variation between the GW52 and GW60 were many times significantly larger than the GW52 and the phone. Obviously, since I'm never going to be pushing the speed envelope, I could easily be satisfied with data acquired only from the phone. My conclusion on this is that only numbers that varies more than + - 0,2 knots should even start to be considered statistically significantly different. For any value less than 0.2 knots difference one is just kidding themselves that the difference is real. 

Seems like we like to assume a precision and accuracy to 3 decimal places for data that is only valid to barely one decimal place....

Barton, this is the reason 5 x 10 seconds was adopted as a main discipline. It really does average out lots of discrepancies. 

One more thing worth mentioning is that I used two GT-31 units in Luderitz and they both recorded within hundreds of a knot compared to video timing on 500 meters run. GT-31 was always tiny bity faster compared to the video timing. This makes sense becaouse video timing is actualy 501 meters. Now this is pretty accurate, don't you think?

For GW-60, set it on 1hz and wear it with antenna pointing up and it should be good. Mine is proving to be very accurate compared to GT-31.

I agree that hundreds or thousands of a knot determining the winner is questionable, but that is the technology we have and it has to be acepted. It is what it is. There are many variables in different types of racing, like true early starts in slalom for example, but at the end it is race director has the last word. Or take NBA basketball officiating, not exactly perfect.

And yesterday I saw one kite foiling fellow using this GPS speedometer on his board. It looked super nice. Screen is huge, easy to see speeds while sailing.

https://www.velocitek.com/products/speedpuck#tech-specs

Boro, thank your for the reply regarding GPSs.

I should have re-read my 'vent' before posting because I didn't clearly make the point that motivated me to write the post. 

Underlying my 'vent' is my issue with recruiting new sailors into the GPSTC. I am clearly not a fast sailor compared to you, Roo, Denis, Al and most of the USA team that sail regularly. That said, being a GPSTC member, getting tips from Roo, and using the phone/GPSLogit solution has improved my sailing. The Alpha catagory is one I pay a lot of attention to as a way of monitorying by basic sailing improvement ...

Sometimes I am asked about the phone on my arm, which starts the conversation about GPSTC. Unfortunately, numerous times the conversation stops when I say that if they are serious about joining, they will need to purchase a dedicated $250 GPS. It really seems like we need a very low cost entry level solution that people can try in order to see if they really want to get involved, and a solution that can be repurposed if they find GPSTC does not fit their needs. We do have the technology solution (phone/GPSLogit) which is a minimal $ outlay and the phone can become a very good MP3 audio or video player if it isn't going to be used as a GPS. The Canmore solutions are more expensive than the phone and are dedicated solutions. For a lot of people, the phone/GPSLogit solution might be all they ever need or want. If they become avid speedsailors, the speed addiction will probably be sufficient to push them into purchasing the 'approved' GPSs :) .

From my perspective, if we want windsurfing to continue as a viable sport, we need to do things to make it fun with a low barrier to entry. 

As an aside, last week I was talking to a fellow from northern California that has been spending his vacation time windsurfing at Floras lake since around 2003. When he first started going to Floras, the lake and launch area were so crowded with windsurfers that it was difficult to sail. Now, on a good day there are maybe 3-4 windsurfers and 10-12 kiters on the lake. He said it has been kind of sad watching windsurfing die...

All of this ties back to my original 'vent' in that if the GW-52 on the arm is the gold standard, the GW-60 (worn on the wrist but sailed in overhand grip) was no closer to the GW-52 values than the phone(Alcatel OneTouch Evolve2)/GPSLogit.

Boris, Your posting is very accurate - I agree 100% and I should stop 'selling' to those that didn't initiate the GPS conversation or show real interest in GPS sailing.  

A team of 3 - 4 sailors that are interested is better than a team of 30 where only 4-6 are somewhat actively involved, in my opinion...

Regarding the phone, part of the reason for them not being approved is that there are too many hardware models out there to realistically test test them alll - so the decision was made to test none of them. I like the phone for a couple of reasons. #1 - is the on the water realtime speed feedback. #2 - having some 'tunes' playing in the background while sailing is enjoyable for me, especially since my old body requires more rest periods (I use waterproof BlueTooth earbuds to connect to the phone)...  That said, I don't use the phone .sbp data as I have a GW-52 and a GW-60.

Thank you for your insight on this topic.

Barton