To qualify you must send Hardie a fax. That's it
The hardest part is figuring out which team you want to be a part of. There are a number of teams in WA. Have you seen anyone else at your local spot who wears a GPS? If so then ask them which team they're in, and join that team... it's always nice sailing with team-mates rather than the opposition.http://gpsteamchallenge.com.au/rules.php
I think most people sailing in the challenge are competitive otherwise they would not buy a GPS and compete either against their mates or the big nobs on GPS-SS.
But like Roo says lots of guys just like to strap on the GPS be it whatever make and go for a fang. I hardly ever download my stuff due to different aspects (hope to change soon) but at the end of the day I still want to see if Ive gone faster than the other guys I sail with and against. This is garnering interest from your average back and forth sailor. they probably wont ever get a GPS or compete but its another aspect of windsurfing that holds there interest.
Ive been around windsurfing long enough to have the seen the rise and fall over the years and I sincerely hope we dont go down that path again.
Make it about dollars, high tech or elitism and we will go back down that path.
My 2 bob's worth from a punters perspective.
When I'm within 1 knot of Slowie I will do the right thing and change to a GT11 so as he doesn't start whingeing.
For the rest of this week I'll stick with my Garmin, that's complicated enough for me!
See you all on Saturday, hope it's windy!
Some of my team mates are so fast that we would still win if they had egg timers strapped to their arms!
Look I'm 100% behind Garmins being in the challenge. All I'm saying is that since we know they are inaccurate - they give an inflated reading for the two second peak - once we know how much they are inflated by, lets just lop that off the 2 second peak for Garmin users, and then we're all square. If the website can do that automatically, all the better.
I think if the Garmin owners put the display speed down in the 2 sec category things would be OK. The Navi 2 sec and Garmin display are both Doppler readings of 2 seconds duration (Navi) and around 2 seconds (Garmin).
The garmin software 2 second is too unreliable to even be consided by anyone who is interested in what speed they actually achieved (as opposed to getting the highest speed they can vaguely justify).
In all other categories the difference is not significant.
In the 2 and a half years I have had my Garmin I have had no display spikes but quite a few trackpoint spikes... well that was untill I went to distance recording then I got no spikes at all even after a dunking but to stay on 2 seconds when doing 40 I had to put it on 75 feet. Makes the gybes a bit angular so it would hurt the alphas.
Agree with the yoyo solution 100%.
very effective - good thinking!
The navi and garmin display speeds are always in alignment and the navi display is always the upper end of the 2 sec average.
Simple solution.
Given that the GPS TC now has individual rankings etc that are quite important to a range of individuals including sponsored pros to aspiring juniors looking to pick some sort of manufacturer / distributor support I think it is imperative that the 2 sec is apples with apples - not apples with watermelons!!
I think you guys are taking the WA 2 second ranking far to seriously. It has been demonstrated over and over that the 2 sec speeds, even in Doppler are subject to the maximum amount of error. They should only be used for fun as they can't be relied on for any serious rankings.
IMHO, for a top speed ranking you should be looking at at least 6 seconds (roughly 100m) or even better, 10 seconds. At these time intervals the error is decreasing a lot and it should be quite possible to apply a correction factor based on error. That error can be based on theoretical specification values from the manufacturer or on statistical comparisons. Lots of work has been done in this area already because many of the GPS-SS tech group saw this as the fairest way to compare speeds from different GPS types. The downside of this is that the error correction factor for the Garmins works out to be quite large and many Garmin users are upset that they will have what they see as a large handicap imposed on them. I can see their point because a lot of the time the Garmins will give speeds that are not that far out, but then many other times they can be out by quite a lot. Since we have no way of knowing the error of individual session results we must apply the max error correction to all.
Of course, this must be done for the Doppler results from a GT-11 as well but the max error is very much smaller.
A quote from Manfred F uchs' statistical analysis of the error from GT-11(Doppler):
Probability distribution from integration of the measured deviations from 524 500m-runs.
It can be seen from this curve that for example after subtraction of 0.115 knots from the measured Doppler-speed, the true speed was equal or larger than this corrected speed with a probability of 99%.
Here are the figures for Garmin Foretrex (Trackpoint)
It can be seen from this graph that the same 99% probability reliability would require a speed deduction of about 0.725 knots.
Notice that the 90% confidence level is approx. 10 times more error for the Foretrex trackpoints v's the GT-11 Doppler.
Note also that these figures are for the 500m distance. It is my understanding that the error variation is greater for shorter distances/time periods. The correction figures for the 5 x 10 sec are also relatively less than for one 10 sec run.
And I thought we were trying to make it simple. Error corrections, claimed speeds, 99% probabilities! We're back in the early 90's all over again making something that's inherently simple, i.e. speedsailing, overly complicated and difficult to understand unless you have a bachelors in math! Even though the techies may dislike the screen speed, the majority of sailors out for a bit of fun with their mates rely on it for bragging rights. It's simple and that's what they relate to. Give them what they want and the sport grows. I can give you a 10 hz post processed, cm accurate gps sytem but there is very little market for it and the price is high. If I offered a simple plug and play gps system, big screen numbers, large single reset button and instant download results it would be an instant hit. Understand your market and listen to what they want, ignore them at your own peril. The Team Challenge is a great example, 200 registered participants but very few post with the GPS SS, Hardie and Nebbian listened and gave people what they want, success is the proof.