J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Velocitek

Anyone used a Velocitek RC-1? How about some feedback?

Bob Rude

Never on the J/30, but quite a bit on the Melges 24.

Our initial concern was that the speed would not update enough to be relevant as a tool for getting feedback on trim changes, but it actually updates pretty fast so that has not been as big of a concern. It seems to be very accurate and sensitive, and the delay is minimal (much better than you get on a Garmin handheld, which was our only point of reference).

We find the compass to be less useful as a lift/knock indicator since its a "current GPA heading" indicator, not a boat angle indicator. So current or leeway is of course factored in. So its definitely not a replacement for a magnetic compass, but does provide an interesting contrast to the magnetic (i.e.: boat is pointing 120deg, but heading 5 degrees lower...must be sliding quite a bit...) although we dont always know what to do with this information...When tide is at play, it can be even more interesting.

Starting Line Proximity - have played with it, but really do not use it much. Seems like you get it setup, then RC decides to true up the line, and its not convenient to reset, etc.... If we raced in big fleets with long start lines, this might be more relevant to address "line sag", but would probably need to have a designated person to mess with the SC-1 so the tactician and helm dont have to think about it.

VMG to wind - primarily used the device on a lake with very shifty conditions. Since you "set" the wind angle and have to reset it if it changes, we find VMG to wind to be useless. Maybe better where your air is more steady. I've never been excited about any VMG to wind indicator that did not have a wind sensor incorporated.

Other thoughts:

-it (like all GPS based guages), can be detached and held by a person on the rail, which is nice

-when used in conjunction with a water-speed indicator, can be nice detector of current

-in that same situation, it can be distracting (why is GPS saying we are half a knot slower than the TackTick does, when just a sec ago it was saying we were faster, and there is no current?). It seems to generate a lot of pointless conversation on the boat.

-the design (electronics in a pelican case, basically) is nice. really easy to pop open for new batteries even while racing.

Although I have not used one yet, i think the SpeedPuck is a better buy. You get the features you will actually end up using, w/o the features that at least we didnt fine useful.

The RC-1 was recently sold and replaced with the RockBox unit:

http://www.rockcitymarine.com/

Have not gotten a chance to really use it much it is definitely "neater".


Thats all i know - Dan

Vic bought one and brought it onboard Rhapsody during a few races. I've got a full TackTick suite, so it was an interesting comparison. Personally, I did not find the Speed Puck useful. The head/lift indicator, because it isn't getting wind data is marginally useful. SOG is useful with currents, but I did not find it any more or less useful then the Garmin GPS, and with my TackTick network I can put SOG on the display I want, when I want.

Perhaps Vic will chime in since he may have more experience with it now.

Speed Puck
like it for: GPS track/GPS Speed -- big digits, fast response, eliminated need to swing out GPS on arm into cockpit, can velcro anywhere or crewperson can hang around neck.

But: Head lift indicator is often too fast to follow on any kind of sea considering the amount of time to tack. [don't tack as much as on a smaller boat.]
We have a tendency to wait a bit for shifts to steady.

I can't find an option to "smooth" out the head/lift response. nor length of time on new tack before it starts to do head/lift.

my opinion J30 is just a bit too big to make this worthwhile unless you have a kid on board who has used it a lot in smaller boat. I would go for garmin hand held if there is no other gps mounted in cockpit.