Things have changed a lot since the days when the first nav priority was to have three accurate watches for timing celestial sights. Obviously today everybody carries several GPS units, and has forgotten how to work a sight anyway.

And if the boat is fiberglass, one of these portable GPS units needs so be in some sort of a metal container, to hopefully protect it if a lightning strike occurs. (Remember those gray steel petty cash boxes? One of these would be perfect!)

Next is a depth finder. No need for sailing instruments, yet you can tell which way the wind is blowing with a bit of yarn, and looking at the water will give you a much better feeling for true wind speed than most sophisticated sailing instruments.

The tougher questions come in the realm of weather data and radar. Which do you spend money on first? And where does electronic charting come into the equation?

We used to think that radar was first and foremost a navigation tool. If celestial or DR could get us within radar range, we’d then have a target on the screen to guide us the rest of the way. This logic no longer holds true, so radar drops back into the watchkeeping and weather lookout category (some radars work great for sizing up squalls, and spotting approaching frontal boundaries by their rain bands).

But for the type of sailing we usually do, access to good weather data is also high on our list. Understanding weather, and making use of the many sources of weather now available make it easier to avoid conditions that are unpleasant (or worse) and make faster passages.

So, if I had to make a choice between weather and radar, I think I would go with a good weather system first.

On BEOWULF we’ve used a dedicated Furuno weather fax-similar to what we had on board SUNDEER. Paper faxes are very nice, but if budget were limited, today I’d chose an SSB radio and Pactor modem-which gets us faxes, e-mail, and the ability to discuss the weather (and what everybody is having for dinner) with our friends scattered around the ocean. Of course this means a computer too, but these are now so inexpensive, and perform so many functions, that a simple system with all the ingredients (computer, SSB, modem, and software) is not significantly more costly than the dedicated fax-and you probably have a portable computer at home anyway.

Next comes radar. It is our feeling that unless the radar has reasonable ability to pick out targets in rain and sea clutter, it is probably better to do without. If you “lose” your targets, then you have a false sense of security-which is much worse than having no radar, being worried, and keeping a careful watch. Good target definition in inclement conditions starts with the quality of the set-so far Furuno seems to have the best target definition-and then goes to antenna size. A 24″ antenna is an absolute minimum-36″ or more is even better.

And now let’s come back to sailing instruments. We’ve done lots of miles without any, and we’ve done lots with sophisticated B and G performance computers. If it were not for the design information we extract from the B and G stuff-to be used in the “next boat”-we would probably do without at this point. The low-cost systems are typically pretty inaccurate at deducing true wind angle and true wind speed-and even the good stuff has to be carefully calibrated, and re-calibrated periodically, for the data to relate to reality-at which point looking at the water is probably a better bet. The one function in all this fancy stuff that we do like is the magnetic true wind direction-and the trend in that direction. This is a great tool for weather forecasting-and something that is hard to decipher by just looking at the water.

I’ve left off VHF radios because everyone has one. If space, weight, or budget were tight, I’d go with a portable first, connected to a masthead antenna. You can take this with you in the dink, or use it on deck or in the life raft in an emergency. Otherwise, a fixed unit and a portable make a pretty good package.