Choices in Electronics

By Dave and Jaja

When I first began cruising with my parents in the early 1970's, aboard our Cal-25, the MARTINI, we did not have any electronics. Without trepidation we sailed the length and breadth of Puget Sound during weekends, and spent our summer vacations in the San Juan Islands. No biggie.

It seems impossible now. How did we manage? Without a knotmeter we did not know how fast we were sailing. Without a depth meter we did not know how deep the water was. And without a Radio Direction Finder the only indication of our true position was by line-of-sight guessing. Incredibly, we always arrived on time, we never ran aground, and we never got lost.

I remember the summer of '75 when we got the knotmeter--it was disappointing to discover how slow we were actually sailing: "Better get some new sails!" I remember the summer of '78 when we added the depth meter--we kept our eye's glue to it and panicked every time the depth began decreasing: "We're going to run aground!" The Radio Direction Finder was the final blow. Suddenly, it was always foggy when we went sailing and without it we would have been lost for sure. "Good thing we have the RDF!"

Unless my childhood memories are full of reality-bending, golden nostalgia, it seems as if life was less stressful when we sailed by the 'seat of our pants'. Our minds were focused on sailing, the weather, and the lay-of-the-land, rather than on electronically relayed information.

These days, electronics are so common in catalogs and in marine stores the notion of NOT buying them is beyond comprehension. I think all first time sailors should spend a season on the water without electronics. You should become aware of the environment for what it really is: water, sky, and wind. Then, and only then, when you understand the natural workings of nature, you can add the computer chip derived sensations.

Realistically, on board electronics make life easier and safer, but I'm not sure if they make life better, per se. On DRIVER we have a Sylva knot meter and depth sounder, a Furuno 24 mile radar, a built-in Trimble GPS, a handheld Magellan GPS, a Horizon VHF, a handheld Icom VHF, an Auto Helm 1000 auto pilot, and we have an ancient Kenwood 1000 single side band radio receiver for weather updates. Gluttony. This is a far cry from the 1970's aboard the MARTINI. Then again, the peaceful and uncrowded San Juan Islands I remember no longer exist, either. I guess it all fits.

We've been asked to explain what we would chose for electronics if we were replacing everything today with new gear. This is a difficult question for us to answer without sounding trite, or hypocritical. Our fantasy is to chuck all the gadgets overboard and 'get back to nature'. Something is missing these days with our dire dependence on reliable, electronic input. Sailing is a thinking sport. Oh, there are moments of action, such as when you are barfing over the rail in a rough seaway, but even then your mind is still working. "Get me off the boat!"

If there was just one electronic item we could bring, what would it be? That's easy: a depth sounder. It helps with coastal piloting and it helps you to anchor safely. GPS is the next most valuable item. It makes knot meters obsolete, and if you have GPS you really don't need radar. Radar is a luxury item. It is handy for spotting other vessels, or for defining narrow harbor entrances in moments of poor visibility, but you can get by without it and still be safe. Radios I could also do without and an auto pilot only encourages poor watch keeping.

So. Are we going to throw all of DRIVER'S magic boxes away next time we go to sea? Are you kidding? They'll all break soon enough.