Instruments

[davidreich]

Has anyone ever had any experience with the NovaSail instruments??

[AussieMick]

David

I have both a Nova-Sail NS360+ and a Velocitek Prostart GPS instrument that I am using at the same time to find which one I like the best.

I find both are left wanting a bit more.

The Velocitek cannot help work out true wind direction before the start by going head to wind, as no forward movement equals no GPS track.
The Nova-Sail has this covered with the fluxgate compass.

I am unhappy with the Velociteks start line positioning, it is very in accurate.
I am unhappy with the Velociteks max speed recording, on light days I invariably always get a 21.4 knot max speed,  the 10 second average seems more accurate.

The Nova-Sail is not as easy for the forward hand to use as it has lots more options and these options have to be navigated to, which is not always easy.
It is is not possible to download a track from the NS360+ for post race investigation like is possible with the Velocitek (I really do like that feature).

The Nova-Sail does a few things that the Velocitek doesn't but the forward hand hardly ever gets time to dick with any of the settings as the skipper (me) doesn't let him in from hiking long enough to scroll through the menus.   I think having both units on board allows for the NS360+ to be set up so it displays other information that the Velocitek can't, but the NS360+ needs more setup before a race to make the information it can display accurate.
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[/size]Overall it is hard to recommend one over the the other!  If the Velocitek was more accurate in start line positioning and top speed I think it would be my personal preference, but I would need to put an old fashioned magnetic compass on the boat. 
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[/size]Mick