Hi Guys
sorry if this sounds like a newbie question thats been asked before but I am sure someone can advise quickly on which GPS watch to get and where to get it from.
I want to know how far I 'travel' in the water and what my max speed is...
can someone reccomend which watch to get and where to get it from ? ebay australia has the forerunner for about $350 i think... any good?

Thanks

I,ll Bite...Navi

Forerunner is for joggers. It doesn't have speed in knots or any of the function that are handy for sailors but is good for laps etc.

The one for windsurfing is the ForeTREX. BUT please be aware that these units have serious limitations. 1) despite claims of waterproofness , their 1m immersion standard just doesn't cut it for windsurfing. Any fall at planning speed will greatly exceed these pressures and water will get in and the unit will die. Most of the posters here have killed a foretrex (some quite a few) wearing it as a watch.
2) The strap pins don't hold in a stack. Again a few here have lost units. Now I know the new ForeRUNNER has a wrap around design giving a cleaner profile than the old Forerunner and the still non-updated ForeTREX. However this new design whilst cleaner and less likely to be lost is designed to give the gps chip a better sky view when jogging ie forearms straight out , thumbs up, unfortunately when windsurfing it has the opposite effect if you wear it so you can see the display.
3) The accuracy of the Forerunner/trex is many times worse than newer & cheaper units when reviewing the data.

Unfortunately, if you want a gps for sailing you will need an Aquapac to protect it. Virtually everyone wears their Aqua pac on there upperarm wear the display is easy to read and the gps gets a good sky view.

Fortunately, there is now a GPS that has been designed for speedsailing that has functions that mean you don't have to touch or adjust it once in the Aquapac but will automatically show your last run (resets automatically when you get up to a speed you have set). It has about 10X more positional accuracy (20cm to 2.4m grid) and hence 10X the speed accuracy. It has infinitely more storage data of tracks. 10 months of 1 second data if you want instead of about 5.5 hours of 2 second data for the Foretrex. Best of all it is less than 1/2 the cost of the Foretrex. About $150 at windsurfing shops ( Windforce in Perth has them at this price ) and even less from Tom at mtbest.net who has done lots of software mods and has set-up instructions on his website.

The Locosys GT-11 (or often referred to under it's previous name..Navigps or just Navi ) is the one to get. The forerunner would be ok if you just wanted to look at display speed if you don't mind that it may die anytime , only displays Km/h and cost hundreds more.

hi mates, if you go the navi way and need a pack to use for it specially custom fit and h20 sealed for it please contact nebbian i sent him a couple for his navi..indeed all does need some added form of protection not from the water mostly but i guess from the pressure when stacked....cheers

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jp747 said...

hi mates, if you go the navi way and need a pack to use for it specially custom fit and h20 sealed for it please contact nebbian i sent him a couple for his navi..indeed all does need some added form of protection not from the water mostly but i guess from the pressure when stacked....cheers

What he is saying (jp747) is he has designed and built a new water seal pack like the aqua, but more suited to the NAVi shape at a good price. From what I hear, they are a top unit, and considering the run out on the current aqua (limited supply) reckon Johno's pack will be what most will go for.

and it comes in yellow,blue,black and red for now...there are 2parts to it the pouch and the overlay or the one that covers that rolled material by velcro so when you do try to order you can have it done say yellow for the pouch and blue for the overlay....cheers

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jp747 said...

and it comes in yellow,blue,black and red for now...there are 2parts to it the pouch and the overlay or the one that covers that rolled material by velcro so when you do try to order you can have it done say yellow for the pouch and blue for the overlay....cheers

any pics available? There are a few of us making custom pack, eg: Kato has already put up some pics of his designs.

hi mathew, pls. check a sample pic on my profile under my username...i earlier posted a few months back as 15us$ but that was the cost to make it only and being new at exporting i didn't put into acct. the added % to at least make a little bit of profit..now i have made for a couple of them for forum guys for navi gt2 and forerunner201 and foretrex 201 for myself...if you're interested pls. email me on these forum and will discuss what you want..in exact dimensions....regards