Feet or metres, knots or kilometres?

[Remote River Man]

Just wondered what most of you use as the default for your measurements (and why), like on your fish sounders when you're measuring depth, speed, distance travelled, etc. I spent the first half of my life in Yankeeland and the second half here in Oz, so I'm equally okay with depth in feet or metres, although I'll admit I probably find feet easier to 'visualise' for depth (I'm often mentally converting metres into feet anyway...). Of course paper charts here are in metres, while many electronics let you choose your preference. And while I realise knots are somewhat the default standard for both distance and speed at sea, I imagine many of us still tend to think in terms of kilometres travelled and kms per hour rather than knots. I guess it all comes down to what you're used to and most comfortable with, but I just wondered what Fishraiders on here mostly use for their measurement defaults, and their reasons for doing so, if anyone would care to share.   

[noelm]

Nautical miles are used for true navigation, they have to be (kind of) one minute of latitude is equal to one nautical mile, simple hey? but as far as just knowing how deep it is, how fast you are going, it's up to you.

Edited August 6, 2021 by noelm
Typo

[Green Hornet]

I always had my sounders set to feet. I was an estuary boater, rarely fished depths of over 30 foot and felt feet were easier to read as a whole number rather add a decimal place as I would have for metres. A 1 foot increment was accurate enough for me. 

I had my GPS set up to Kmph, as from driving that gave me a better indication how fast I was really going and if needed, dividing that speed by 2 was a close enough conversion to knots. 

I grew up in the days of imperial measurements and it wasn't until I started work that the metric system was introduced, so either way it doesn't matter too much to me.

 

[noelm]

I always refer to metres for depth, unless it's really deep, then it fathoms, kind of weird, but it's just something I do, speed and stuff, use metric because it relates to everything else in life, I have done lots of coastal navigation, and nautical miles and knots just "fit" for that kind of thing.

[Hoods]

Feet for freshwater and tidal rivers, metres out at sea. This is due to previous generation using feet in freshwater so that it what I was tought & adopted. And most lures give a depth range in feet.

[wrxhoon1]

4 hours ago, noelm said:

Nautical miles are used for true navigation, they have to be (kind of) one minute of latitude is equal to one nautical mile, simple hey? 

Same here, nautical miles for speed and metres for depth. 

[Rebel]

I stick to old school, which I grew up with. If not sure I use a calculator

Cheers.

[Berleyguts]

I use metres for depth, nautical miles for distance and knots for speed.

[rickmarlin62]

Gps lat n long  naut miles  im old school after workin in pro ind for years its fthms for me  most game fishers use fthms cause shelf is 100 fthm   estuary and impoundment guys like feet because of shallower depths   boils down to personal choice     they are all the same depth just different ways of readin it

[Welster]

I am all over the shop with this.  Feet or meters for depth, speed knots, miles or km is fine.  Temperature always Celsius.    As a builder, timber, building products or room sizes metric or imperial is fine, but for calculations metric.     For my car I generally use mpg for fuel consumption.    I was born in the 70s so we were taught the metric system, that was until I got into the garage with my dad or a building site with my Uncle when I started work.

Edited August 7, 2021 by Welster

[JonD]

When I was younger living in the UK it was kt, fathom, ft, lbs and gallons but since moving out here its all metric for me the days. Funny enough my daughter has now gone over to kts, fathoms and feet now she's skippering fishing charters. Some commercial skippers I work with are using metric.

Does anyone know why boat speedo's are mph and kmh not kts. Also prop calculators and propeller sellers tend to work in mph not kts, as do most of the US boating magazines. 

[Rummers]

Knots for speed as I feel it’s nautical 😂
Meters for depth as it’s easier to visualise in reference to football fields. 
KM for distance because it’s what I know 
LBS for weight as that’s what I use a lot at work. 

[noelm]

11 hours ago, JonD said:

When I was younger living in the UK it was kt, fathom, ft, lbs and gallons but since moving out here its all metric for me the days. Funny enough my daughter has now gone over to kts, fathoms and feet now she's skippering fishing charters. Some commercial skippers I work with are using metric.

Does anyone know why boat speedo's are mph and kmh not kts. Also prop calculators and propeller sellers tend to work in mph not kts, as do most of the US boating magazines. 

Probably because a speedo is a useless instrument, and most wouldn't care what it read, and cars (in the US) are in MPH, so that being the biggest world market, everything is made to suit them, they measure all weight in pounds, even if it's multiple thousands, they never convert to the next unit, tons, why? because that's the way they are.

[Renegade460]

Km/h's for speed and distance, M for depth.

Just need to remember speed limits are in knots and times by 1.5 to get km/h.

[savit]

39 minutes ago, Renegade460 said:

Km/h's for speed and distance, M for depth.

Just need to remember speed limits are in knots and times by 1.5 to get km/h.

Actually, it is 1.85.

[Pickles]

Previously knots for speed, meters for depth, Celsius for temp.

I purchased an electric downrigger from US (delivered in 7 days for less than 1/2 price available in Oz) so swapped to ft on my sounder so I can coordinate Sounder to my downrigger - this is significant for me as I mostly target kingfish and putting the livie in the feeding range is important. I have speed set to knots to be consistent with 4 & 8 knot speed signs and Celsius because this is national standard.

[Renegade460]

1 hour ago, savit said:

Actually, it is 1.85.

There you go, always though it was around 1.5.

Just means I can go faster in designated zones  😜

Edited August 8, 2021 by Renegade460

[savit]

27 minutes ago, Renegade460 said:

There you go, always though it was around 1.5.

Just means I can go faster in designated zones  😜

Well,  I multiply knots to kmh by 2 for BOM wind forecast - to be on a safe side and for easier conversion, still hit and miss 🤣.

[Renegade460]

1 hour ago, savit said:

Well,  I multiply knots to kmh by 2 for BOM wind forecast - to be on a safe side and for easier conversion, still hit and miss 🤣.

Knots for wind, as someone who has done a lot sailing over the years.