Accurately measuring leeway is arguably the holy grail of performance sailing analysis, but Airmar thinks it’s found the solution in a solid-state electromagnetic technology already used to monitor commercial fishing trawls. The DX900+ Multilog can purportedly determine both longitudinal and transverse speed through the water with nearly 0.1 knot accuracy, and thus can deliver precise real-time leeway speed and angle numbers. The retractable-for-cleaning MultiLog also contains a fast water temperature sensor, a depth sensor good to about 200 feet, and a combination of three-axis accelerometer and gyroscope that output heel and trim. When it ships in early 2017 for about $1,400, the DX900+ will come with an interface box that uses either NMEA 0183 or 2000 protocols to send this wealth of data to a boat’s instrument systems. But either box also notably includes Bluetooth 4.0 so that the transducer can be directly calibrated, configured, and updated with an included MultiLog phone or tablet app. The app may also be useful for monitoring the leeway speed and angle measurements since even many racing instrument systems will have to updated to best display and utilize these once mysterious values.
$NA. Airmar, airmartechnology.com
February 2017
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