Mike Slinn



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Practical Sailor

MarNav – Open Source Software

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The review of marine heads I wrote for the January 2008 issue of Practical Sailor has received more comments than any other article I have published in that magazine. Readers were generous in their desire to share experiences and suggestions.
As part of the follow-up that I usually do after an article is published, I [...]

NavPak Pro provides the most complete set of features for dead reckoning, however I didn’t recommend it for most sailors in this Practical Sailor review.

I confess that sometimes I sit down on the job. In this case, it was to gather real-world experience with several marine toilets for an article that just appeared in Practical Sailor.

Towels and facecloths get pretty stinky on board after two or three days. I read in a recent issue of PS about facecloths and towels that would not get stinky. We need that on our boat, so I ordered some. When the cloths arrived, some marketing information was included that talked briefly about Polartec [...]

I’ve just returned home after 8 weeks on board my sailboat. Half of that time was spent preparing for a trip from Vancouver to the north end of Vancouver Island; the other half was spent en route. I spent quite a bit of time testing products for various upcoming Practical Sailor reviews. [...]

To help me test navigation software for an upcoming Practical Sailor review, I wanted a way to simulate NMEA 0183 data streams from a GPS and a wind sensor.
I discovered NemaTalker (29 euros) and the free open source com0com. This software combination allows me to simulate sailing through any area of the world, in [...]

I am preparing a review of high speed NMEA 0183 multiplexers for Practical Sailor Magazine. Your chartplotter can act as your boat’s ‘nerve center’, but only if all your instruments can connect to it. NMEA 0183 is the most common standard for connecting marine instruments together, and a NMEA multiplexer is necessary to connect many [...]

Maptech masters the art of making sense; at 15 years old, The Cap’n charts a new course.
I sold another feature article to Practical Sailor Magazine; my editor (Darrell Nicholsen) also put a lot of time into this monster review. Of all the articles I have written, this one took the longest to research by [...]

I just sold an article to Practical Sailor Magazine, which will be reprinted in Power Boat Reports. In the article I explore different types of computers for onboard use, and offer a new alternative – a miniature, rugged, full-power computer which can be customized to suit your installation requirements.
Check it out!
June 30/06: A reader [...]