Whether you’re chasing the podium or your next escape, Garmin can help with sailing technology engineered for your helm. Their award-winning products include chartplotters, sailing instruments, autopilots, radars, stereos and more — with a wide selection of sizes and setups to work with any vessel.

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A naked wrist is a lousy excuse for a bad start. Now, there are watches good for sailing and watches purpose-built for sailing, but the Garmin quatix 5 ($540 retail) is a watch for sailing and living. Two button presses get you to its sailing functions, and press three more to ping the line using the internal GPS (it’ll get your distance-to-line close, but don’t depend on it). It’s simple to sync, change minutes and restart a new sequence. After the start, find tacking angles, speed over ground, course over ground and more. Bluetooth to a Garmin instrument package and open a trove of options.

While I’ve yet to tap its arsenal of sailing tools, the quatix 5 has also made me a believer in the fitness-tracker fad. Pages show my heart rate, my steps, the weather and my stress level. It even tells me to get up and move if I’m idle at my desk for too long. I can log my races, runs, bike rides and ocean swims and analyze the heck out of them using the app on my phone.

There’s a library of free apps to load to it, but those that come with it are good to keep me honest, active and peeling off the starting line on time. You can stop searching for the best sailing watch because this is the one.

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Long after the races are over, and the medals are won, Garmin’s VIRB action camera can put you right back in the race to re-live every intense detail in HD.

The VIRB Ultra 30 shoots video in 4k at 30fps. But the video alone isn’t the most amazing feature the VIRB has to offer. On par with Garmin’s other products, the G-Metrix allows athletes to overlay gauges and graphs with race data, allow sailors to analyze angle, speed, boat drift, water depth, wind speed and acceleration.

With the VIRB taking high-action video is easier than ever. “Look ma! No hands!” the Garmin VIRB boasts a 1.75 inch display, and voice controls to start and stop recording or even take a picture. Without taking hands off the sheets or tiller, the VIRB does its thing while you do yours.

Show off real time stats by having VIRB livestream your race or practice data to YouTube, for coaches, spectators and fans to stay in the moment.
The VIRB has a range of accessories do you can mount the camera virtually anywhere, including on a drone. It is compatible with a variety of Garmin watches and GPS devices to maximize data input. Garmin also offers a 360 camera if you want to take your capture to the next level.

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The 7-inch GNX 120 and 10-inch GNX 130 have high-precision glass-bonded monochrome ultra-glow LCD displays that show over 50 marine and vessel parameters, including depth, speed, wind, and navigational data. With fully customizable user profiles, the GNX 120 and GNX 130 allow the screen layout to be configured to the user’s preferred setting. Five display configurations are available, including single, dual and triple functions, plus Gauge and Graph mode.

Easy to set up, calibrate and use thanks to the on-unit capacitive touch buttons, the GNX 120 and GNX 130 are also NMEA 2000® certified and can seamlessly share sailing data between other NMEA 2000-enabled Garmin devices. The ultra-glow anti-fog displays on the GNX 120 and GNX 130 overlay white or color digits on a black background, providing high contrast and visibility no matter the environment. If a different backlight color is desired, the display can be tailored by choosing from seven different pre-set colors, or hundreds of custom colors can be created.

Designed to be mounted at the base of the mast or above the companionway, the GNX 120 and GNX 130 instruments are the thinnest and lightest displays available in the market today. Both units can be flush mounted, and for a unique glass mast look, the GNX 120 can be flat mounted with an optional carbon fiber mast bracket. The GNX 120 and GNX 130 can be controlled from a distance using the new GNX Keypad, an optional accessory that features four different buttons dedicated to preset configurations. The GNX keypad allows sailors to adjust background lighting of all displays from the touch of a button. Another benefit of both the GNX 120 and GNX 130 is power consumption. Only .36 watts is consumed during the day with no backlight, while .4 watts is used at night when only a mid-level backlight is required. This allows for more time on the water without running the boat motor or generator for extended periods of time.

The GNX 120, expected to be available in February 2015, will have a suggested retail price of $899.99, and the GNX 130, expected to be available in May 2015, will have a suggested retail of price of $1499.99. For more information, visit www.garmin.com/marine.

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