How/Why is GPS speed control supposedly better? I love paddlewheel.

[trayson]

For me I didn't have to drill another big hole under the water line - no existing paddle to tap into. PerfectPass Stargazer was a simple install and maintenance free for the last 7 years.

I don't really care if the GPS speed is spot on to actual speed as long as it is consistent and maintains whatever it's set at. Are we surfing at 10.1 or 10.7? Don't really care as long as the wave looks good and it's reproducible. Same with wake boarding. But it seems to me that we are adjusting speed a little rider by rider anyway with different abilities and who is sitting where when they get back in the boat.

We have yet to experience the loss of signal under a bridge and taking off. I'll have to give that one a try.

Strong river currents will cause you to change surf speeds to accommodate going up or down stream as discussed a couple dozen times before, but not a big deal in my book.

Well, I can't figure that one out either. I had to put in 3 big thru-hulls when I gutted and upgraded my ballast system. They haven't leaked a drop. I had to drill 3 holes to put in a temp sensor for my depth gauge that has that functionality. So what. I think that the 3m 5200 will live longer than I will. It's like people that won't mount a front license plate because they don't want to drill a hole in their bumper that they'll never see because it's covered by the front plate! LOLOL

so for you it's like when cell phones "upgrade" and you just accept it because it's what you're forced to swallow and it's not that big of pill? Like when I-phones get rid of headphone jacks or when phones change to different charging plugs or when phones stop having removable batteries? It's an "upgrade" because they say so.

And who's to say that a paddlewheel install wouldn't have been maint free? I have yet to hear of a paddlewheel problem being posted on this forum. But yeah, I can get that on a NEW install, not having to run wires into the bilge would be easier. I still haven't heard an usability argument where GPS works BETTER. Just that GPS isn't "that bad" or GPS isn't "that hard" to constantly adjust.

That said, go surfing in downtown portland under the various bridges. pretty much every time we've rode with GPS it loses signal. And trust me, it's awesome to set the Perfect pass at 10.0 and not care about where we are, what direction we're going, or any of that. You sound like you're adjusting your speed all the time. I rarely if ever adjust mine.