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Personally I splurged this winter and replaced my 10-year-old Speed/Depth and AWI after my crew cracked the speed/depth readout last season. I went with Speed/Depth/AWI & Compass with GPS interface from Nexus.

If I wanted to go with the minimum instrumentation, I would install a wind vane, telltales, a Garmin GPS, a Depth meter for less than $350 (depth meter optional $200). The GPS gives me boatspeed and also provides compass headings while under way. But it provides much more than a compass can; direction to the next race mark and it tracks/plots the boats course. With the shareware software I have found on the web, I am able to download the GPS after the races and get much better analysis as to how the boat actually sailed, upwind vs downwind, port vs starboard. Fantastic technology!