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> There is no real need to know the boat's
> position to an accuracy of 30 metres or less.

I must disagree.  History is filled with the bones of those who said
"there is no need to do X".

In 30 seconds of invention, I can come up with an example application
for high accuracy: superior anchor alarms.  If you have reliable
accuracy, it is trivial to write a computer program that will first
infer the swing circle, then detect dragging without being affected
the swing.  With 1-meter accuracy, it should be possible to detect a
2-meter drag, which is much better than what most people can do right
now.  It should be only slightly more complex to alert the owner to
wind changes that are worthy of more careful attention.

(Yes, an experienced sailor won't need the crutch of the alarm, and
will awaken himself on wind shifts.  Not all of us have that
experience.)

Other examples of the application of high accuracy would be for
fishing and diving, where precise location within an unmarked area can
be critical to success.
--
    Geoff Kuenning   geoff@cs.hmc.edu   http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~geoff/

There are some Perl programs that look like nothing so much as line noise.
                -- Margaret Fleck

   

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