[Sail-devel] Re: Welcome to the "Sail-devel" mailing list

[David M. <dm...@ya...>]

I've just joined the list and I'm wondering how active it is?
I'm a sailer and boat owner in Melbourne, Australia.

I don't currently use a computer on the boat, but do take the palm pilot aboard.

I'm not sure if I can see a great deal of benefit in a floating laptop
as opposed to my chart plotter gps, but I'd be interested to see what
others think.

One thing I think might be interesting is a low power embedded linux
machine, to monitor the operations of the boat. The PC would be taken
home and plugged into a PC at home to assist in analysing the
information gathered on speed and course, in comparison to wind
speed/direction, fuel usage, and anything else that could be measured.

This could then be used as part of a technical boat log, to access the
efficiency of sails, engine, crew skill and whatever else might change
over time?

Comments?

Oh, I've also used palm applications to predict tides and plot courses
across multiple charts by plotting a mid point along a straight line
course.

Very convenient on the palm, but could be useful on my linux box too?