Frustrated with laylines on B&G plotter

[StarWarsLegend]

I appreciate all the help here, thanks all, so I've been wrestling with setting up polars and targets on my B&G chartplotter. I have had no luck and laylines are all over the place. My boat came with Elvstrøm SPS sails instead of the Quantum AC5, and there's zero data online. The dealer has been totally useless, what do I do?

 

[coconut milk]

Ooh no, that's really frustrating... If the dealer is no help at all, you'd better try reaching out directly to Elvstrøm. There are times the sailmaker can give you custom polars based on your setup.

 

[Zoro Warrior]

If you're relying on a dealer to sort out your B&G setup or expecting accurate polars from factory sails like Elvstrøm SPS, you're already a few tacks behind. Most production sails are optimized for price, not performance, and without custom polars, your laylines will always be guesswork.

It is time to start logging your own data or switch to sails and support that actually come with performance numbers.

 

[grtl1987]

I appreciate all the help here, thanks all, so I've been wrestling with setting up polars and targets on my B&G chartplotter. I have had no luck and laylines are all over the place. My boat came with Elvstrøm SPS sails instead of the Quantum AC5, and there's zero data online. The dealer has been totally useless, what do I do?

I agree with @Zoro Warrior that your best option is to create your own polar file. Start by sailing in a variety of wind speeds and points of sail, and manually recording your boat speed and true wind angle or apparent wind angle. Log this data for a few different wind speeds to build a basic performance profile. You can then use a program like Expedition or a similar tool to convert this data into a polar file that can be loaded onto your B&G system. It's a bit of work upfront, but it's the only way to get accurate data for your specific boat and sails, and it's a skill that will be useful for future sail changes as well.

 

[MiHans3r]

I appreciate all the help here, thanks all, so I've been wrestling with setting up polars and targets on my B&G chartplotter. I have had no luck and laylines are all over the place. My boat came with Elvstrøm SPS sails instead of the Quantum AC5, and there's zero data online. The dealer has been totally useless, what do I do?

I second @grtl1987's suggestion! I agree that the best option for you is just to generate your own polar data. Ideally you'd do this on a day with stable wind. Sail on a close reach, a beam reach, and a broad reach in a few different wind speeds, say, 8, 12, and 16 knots of true wind. On each point of sail, you need to find the best speed for the given wind. Then use the B&G web server to download this logged data. You'll get a CSV file that you can use to manually input the polar data into your chart plotter.

I know it's a bit of a process but it's worth the effort as your laylines and performance metrics will be spot on once you're done!

 

[ReefRunner]

That's a great approach, creating your own data helps guarantee accuracy for your boat rather than depending on standard polars.