tracking Sunfish sailing with a Garmin GPS watch

[tag]

I recently purchased a Garmin Forerunner 55 GPS watch (I previously had an Apple 3 watch), and tested it out a weekend or two back while sailing my Sunfish. I did have my cellphone with me while sailing (in a little dry bag), but you technically would not need to have it with you as the Garmin watch alone will record your sailing.

The Forerunner 55 doesn't have a "sailing" option per se, but you can select "Other" as your activity with just a few clicks of the watch buttons and start your sailing, save the activity after you are complete, and then sync the watch the with the Garmin Connect app on your phone. Once the activity is saved and synced with the Garmin Connect app, you can then go in and edit the activity, changing from "Other" to "Sailing", and then the activity will update to show nautical miles traveled and average speed traveled in knots. Pretty clever!

Here's my (short) example - I took my 7-yr old son with me that afternoon, and had the sail set up a bit higher than I'd like but it makes it easier to tack with a passenger on board. Well, the wind speeds were a bit more than my son liked - he wasn't loving the tippiness of the boat as the strong wind puffs hit the sail. He sat down in the cockpit and held onto my legs. I could tell he wasn't thrilled with it, and could see dark clouds on the horizon, so luckily turned and headed downwind and back to the loading ramp. Although not on the forecast, a quick little rainstorm came flying through, and the winds picked up a lot - so I'm glad we had cut our little trip short. But it couldn't have been all bad - I got a picture of him smiling and enjoying it! Only like a 25 minute total sailing trip, but oh well.

Here is what the result looks like on the Garmin Connect app:
(you'll notice that I didn't "start" the app right away, so the route starts out in the middle of the lake)

 

[NCWindRunner]

I do the same thing with my Garmin 235 (on my Zuma and kiteboarding as well)...

 

[Weston]

Very cool. I’ve been using GPS-X app on my iPhone and putting the iPhone in a float box tethered to a stainless steel eye I’ve glued to the inside of my Sunfish cubby. The watch looks much easier.

 

[JeffStineSailing]

If you want sailing performance data as well as your recorded track from your Garmin watch that's available now using an app on the Garmin App Store.
The Forerunner 55 and 235 won't run the app but the Forerunner 245 and many other models will.

 

[bhm]

Do any of these devices track your route and data in some format that can then be downloaded directly into a PC through a USB port, without use of a smart-phone at any stage? I have resisted getting a smart-phone this far, and I don't want to give in now, just because I've started sailing.

I got a stand-alone GPS real-time speedometer that I can carry on the boat for $30, but it doesn't record route information, which it would also be nice to know, either at the time or later. Maybe something with a real-time screen display, like the old Tomtom GPS devices to carry in your car, but geared to spatial geography on a lake surface, not to roads and street addresses? Maybe they make something like this for hikers, that would also work for sailing?

 

[JeffStineSailing]

The Garmin GPS watches can record a track and transfer it via USB to a PC with no smart phone involved at any point in the process.
The older hiking and sailing GPSs by Garmin never required a smart phone.
They use a USB connection to a PC and either HomePort or Basecamp software from Garmin to transfer tracks and routes and waypoints to and from the device. I'm not familiar with other brands. If you want real time speed, tacking angles, VMG upwind and downwind along with navigation around a course if you have lat/lon for marks, along with recording your track, the Garmin watches that can run load apps from their app store can add a lot to your sailing.
I wrote an app that does all of that that you can check out here.
No smart phone is required at any point.
You can plug the watch into your PC with a USB chord to transfer the tracks out.
Garmin's Connect web site lets you look at the tracks and download them in several formats for use with other software.

 

[bhm]

The Garmin GPS watches can record a track and transfer it via USB to a PC with no smart phone involved at any point in the process.
The older hiking and sailing GPSs by Garmin never required a smart phone.
They use a USB connection to a PC and either HomePort or Basecamp software from Garmin to transfer tracks and routes and waypoints to and from the device. I'm not familiar with other brands. If you want real time speed, tacking angles, VMG upwind and downwind along with navigation around a course if you have lat/lon for marks, along with recording your track, the Garmin watches that can run load apps from their app store can add a lot to your sailing.
I wrote an app that does all of that that you can check out here.
No smart phone is required at any point.
You can plug the watch into your PC with a USB chord to transfer the tracks out.
Garmin's Connect web site lets you look at the tracks and download them in several formats for use with other software.

OK thanks.

Do you have to buy one new in order to license and download the relevant software or access the Garmin website, or will any Garmin watch or GPS device I can find second-hand or on E-bay do most or all of these things, as long as I can power it onboard appropriately?

 

[JeffStineSailing]

Garmin HomePort and BaseCamp are free with no license required.
Just Google Garmin HomePort Download and Garmin BaseCamp Download and off you go.
HomePort has been retired by Garmin but I did a quick check and found that it can still be downloaded.
I use it a lot.
Second-hand devices are just fine.
Happy shopping