What's your favorite bit of sailing tech?

T

The Q

Super Anarchist
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Norfolk. The original one
Since it's coming up to Winter.... Warm gloves, I can feel ropes with.. Being Diabetic really causes me to feel the cold..

Followed of course by warm boots..

 
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kent_island_sailor

kent_island_sailor

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Kent Island!
fastyacht

fastyacht

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kent_island_sailor said:
Roller Furling. I doubt I would sail 10% as much as I do if every trip involved folding and bagging sails.
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I agree. As a kid we always jadvto feed the main onto the boom. Then rnd of sail dad would get us all folding the sails.

Now I just roll them up. :D

 
Santanasailor

Santanasailor

Charter Member. Scow Mafia
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North Louisiana
I’m old enough to remember when Moses used to call me sir when he was a little boy.  So, while basic technology as cam cleats, roller furling, GPS chartplotters are really fine additions to sailing but my favorite(s) goes a bit further back.  

First, Dacron.  My aunt and uncle were struggling in their c-boat fleet.  They had sold their old woodie (Friday) which was a very competitive boat in the fleet (when I was very young I watched my father and uncle sweep the fleet two weeks in a row in that boat) and purchased a new fiberglass hull.  She was a dog.  But, they were still using their old cotton sail which had to be very tired.  After a couple of years of loosing and arguing, they sold the fiberglass hull and purchased Gale III, a 1962 wooden Melges hull.  They also purchased a new, sail made of that miracle cloth, Dacron.  It took a bit to get her dialed in but I was aboard as a third crew when she got squared away and finished at the top of the fleet for the first time.  It was a happy time.    

Dacron; Brenda and I still sail with those sails.  We own and use sails of high tech materials, but day in and day out, the sail(s) we put on our boat to enjoy a sail on Caney Creek Lake is made of Dacron

Second, Boom Vang.  How many times, I have used vang sheeting when the wind pipes up.  Yep, you can see photos of my father and uncle sailing thier old E Scow downwind and the the boom is all but pointing skyward.  But for me, sailing downwind makes a vang good, sailing short handed in a breeze makes a vang all but indispensable.

Third, Preventors.  May not be new but sure gives piece of mind.  Sailing downwind in a breeze when the angle is just not right is never a worry.  (Thanks to my little custom made preventer.) 

 
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danstanford

danstanford

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Lake Ontario
The_Cunning_Ham said:
Difficult to find much information on this, I see a new version is to be released soon. How might you compare it to the ProStart from Velocitek?
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I haven't used the ProStart so I cannot compare. The good thing about the Atlas is that it does almost everything you need from compass to tacking angles to tracking shifts plus the exported tracks that it is more than a starting tool. It even tracks heel angle which, when it is this easy, can be a good tool for the helmsman and the main trimmer to keep you going fast. 

I am so sad that the new version was announced right after I got mine that I haven't even looked to see what it does that mine doesn't. 

I heartily endorse the unit and would answer any questions you might have.

Dan 

 
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