The 5 practical tools to use for faster passages
TOBY HEPPELL got his first boat aged four and grew up sailing on the East Coast. He has been a sailing journalist for over 15 years
‘Last summer I took a few weeks out and went cruising with my family in Brittany and met a customer who had a lot of expensive gear on board but was not using much of the available functionality because he “had got manuals coming out of his ears and hadn’t had the time to study them all”.’ So says Matt Eeles of B&G and I’m sure it is a familiar story for many sailors. For all the improvements sailing tech and software has made over the years, there have been times when it feels like a lot of hassle for limited reward.
It is certainly true that the amount of functionality available with even some of the most basic systems can seem overwhelming, particularly when you are faced with an incredibly dense manual. It is also true that not all of us require every bit of functionality built into a device, but this should not stop us getting the most out of a bit of kit that you have usually paid a great deal of money for.
There is no avoiding the fact that setting up instrumentation is something of a chore, but if we want to take advantage of the kit we have on board then it is something of
