[deano]

I have seen some of the great work that some of you have done with your kayaks and I need some of those inventive minds to help give me ideas for how to mount my Eagle (Lawrence) speed sensor.

I can do it as a permanent fixture (which would be the ultimate aim) but I am also prepared to do it as a removable device.

You can see from the photo that the sensor has a flat plate designed to fit straight onto the flat transom of a powerboat. My Hobie Outfitter Fish obviously doesn't have a flat transom so I will need to make some modifications or come up with a brilliant idea (this is where those inventive types come in).

I have a couple of ideas:

The first (and worst idea) is simple to hold the sensor in my hand and dangle it over the side as required. Not very practical!

The second idea (and the one I am favouring at the moment) is to design some sort of mount that will attach to the rear of the kayak to the side of the rudder which will allow for the shape of the yak and also allow for the sensor to be mounted in the direction of travel (see pathetic diagram below).

The third idea is to have a removable/temporary mounting system that sits over the side (we can call this the outrigger design) - it could be designed to fit into the drink holder or one of the other compartments.

OK - over to the creative people out there - what are your thoughts and recommendations?

 

[Dodge]

And, truth be told - the SOG (Speed Over Ground) info you get from the GPS is much more useful info than SOW (Speed Over Water) you get from the paddle wheel.

If you think about it - the paddle wheel could be telling you that you are going 5 knots, but if you are running against a 2 knot current you would really only be gaining 3 knots over ground. Does this make any sense?

Deano having in the past competed in log events, agree totally with kraleys advice, they are useless and in the main wildly inaccurate

 

[deano]

No - you guys are right. Over ground is more important for navigation - the other reason I wanted a more accurante speed measurment is so I can keep the best trolling speed (to maximise lure action) - but I can get an approximation with the Hobie gauge which should be enough.

 

[JD]

gps--much easier. But I think you'd have the only kayak with a speedo. That can't be bad.