Well, a knot meter is going to tell you how fast you are moving through the water, or more accurately, how fast the water is moving over the hull of your boat (which, for a hull with lots of curve, will slightly be faster than your boat is actually moving through the water as a whole). A GPS will tell you what your "speed made good" is, as in your ground speed. Unless you know exactly how fast the water is moving current wise, and exactly which direction it's moving at every given moment (and record that data), in order to do the trig, a GPS is only going to give you pretty much "ball park" data anyway. In my experience, anywhere there's current, it's rarely constant through time and space (meaning for any given moment and from one location to the next, current varies). My whole point is simply that it seems that knot meters and GPS units are different criters, and give different data. A GPS is great for course and track, but less than perfectly accurate for speed over water. JMHO. Mitch _____________________________________________ | | CoyoteCo Performance Sea Kayaking | Instruction & Video Production | www.CoyoteCo.Net | 360 896-2151 |_____________________________________________ > -----Original Message----- > From: Peter Rattenbury > Subject: [Paddlewise] Fastest Recorded Speeds > > Hi guys and gals.. thanks to all who responded to this thread. There are > some > serious speed merchants out there!!! > Kirk mentioned that he uses a knotmeter which led me to muse about the > comparative accuracy of a GPS receiver versus a knotmeter in measuring > speed > across the ground. <snip> > Has anyone tried comparing a knotmeter with GPS readings simultaneously? > Cheers, PeterR, Wollongong, Australia. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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