Rosalie B. wrote:
John Nagy wrote:

I'm looking for advice on laptop computers/configurations that
seem to work for folks. We will be doing some blue water cruising
and want to use it for weatherfax and charting as well as email.

This is probably not going to be much help, but I find laptops
aren't very reliable. I use them, but I keep adding new ones.

I'm not sure that I wouldn't recommend a chart plotter for
navigation for blue-water.

I guess my luck has been a little better than Rosalie's. I put a Toshiba on
in 1993 and it lasted until about 2000. I finally replaced it since it was
just too slow for charting, etc. Next I put on an Inspiron 7500 which has
done pretty well since about May 2000.

Typically these boxes are used for coastal cruising. In cases where I do a
couple nights offshore, I tend to load a route from the computer into one of
the GPS units and stow the computer. There's not much to see on the
offshore chart, and this procedure seems like a good way to keep the salt
out of the electronics. In any case, the GPS unit and a radar watch are a
reasonable combination for keeping on top of things offshore, and they both
take to salt air better than any laptop.

BTW, I don't think there are any realistic choices other than laptops. I
know folks who have used desktops, but the power and space requirements are
excessive on smaller yachts. Also, I wouldn't waste $ on "marinized"
computers. They are in general not as powerful as a regular off-the-shelf
box dollar for dollar, and there is usually no reason to keep a laptop on
deck anyway.
--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.tripod.com