Hi John, I would definitely consider it / most likely get it. I use a combination of Sail Racer app on my phone and the layline function / Tack "A" vs tack "B" on my (still killer) B&G Zeus2 Touch charplotter. Sail Racer is really cool to have for starting line tactics and the B&G does give you nice insights on one tack vs the other and how quick you're getting to the mark.
Like anything else in racing any vehicle, short of outright cheating there are no silver bullets. The VMG on mark and VMG on wind / time to mark are just more data points that you include in the (complex) overall picture / pick your best course. I'm a bit of a data nerd (I do the stuff for a living) but to me, having the extra data - info is really cool and useful. As David mentioned, there are limitations. The wind shifts and current / tide effect should be issues if the system is sophisticated enough to understand drift which the B&G and most charplotters / racing computers do. It's also very sophisticated in optimizing the course as it precisely knows your heading / your over the water and SOG speed / the true / apparent wind speed and wind direction. All that is gathered via GPS, the paddle wheel, and wind vane on the mast which are all networked together and very precise. On the other hand sometimes my recommended layline is 300 yards in the woods :-) It knows where I am but the layline function doesn't seem to know the terrain. So you have to take it with a grain of salt. I'll never forget on one race I was about 10 boat lengths behind my group / everybody was doing a long tack to get to the windward mark. I checked the plotter and it recommended doing a couple short tacks. I followed the advice / ended-up 10 boat lengths ahead of everyone on the other side of the marker / won the race by a good margin.. Your actual mileage may vary. As for me, I'm getting a wifi bridge for my NMEA 2000 network so I can get even more cool metrics via the phone / tablet app networked to all of the above over the wifi :-) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! -Francois Rivard 1990 34+ "Take Five" Lake Lanier
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