marine instrumentation I don't have a clue

[March]

I respectfully disagree. We have Tacktic wireless wind indicator on the boat and find it pretty helpful: of course I can tell that the wind is blowing hard and it comes from NE, so it's time to furl sails, but it is much more helpful to know how hard it blows. Makes a difference if it's 10 knots peaking at 15 or 15 knots peaking at 23.
Allegedly, the Tacktick unit is very expensive because it is wireless. The sensor at the top of the mast failed us once in 5 years (Raymarine who had acquired tacktick graciously serviced the unit which was still under warranty)
The biggest hassle is to attach the sensor to the top of the mast before launching (I don't trailer with the sensor in place, though I wish I could...) I have a ladder specifically for that purpose, though we've been known to scramble on top of the trailering SUV moved temporarily behind the boat...
Don't care about inputting wind data into the AP, but such as it is, we felt the difference when the unit was inoperative.
In plain words, it sucked.

[Baha]

I think it all boils down to what you are comfortable with. I probably have more accidental gybes than if I used a wind instrument, but am working on my feel for the wind. I see it as a challenge. I do think I would have a wind instrument on a larger boat, though....

[mastreb]

When racing I'm 100% using telltales and windex. There's just not really time to cogitate the instruments or even focus your eyes on the screen most of the time in buoy or random leg racing.

Instrumentation is really only important in long-term cruising IMHO. Distance cruising is where autopilots and expensive chart-plotters really come into their own.

I'm a huge gadget nerd and I've outfitted my boats, but if you're not going to integrate an autopilot there's little point in doing anything beyond a $500 chart-plotter/sounder.

[BOAT]

My garmin chartplotter is not a touchscreen but I sort of got touch screen "installed" on my chartplotter now - Garmin Helm program makes the chartplotter show up on my ipad and iphone so I can see and control the chartplotter from my pocket now or sit in the cabin and see the chartplotter on the ipad. The Garmin Helm program was free.