Product Design

[Productdesigner]

Hey,

I am a product design student studying at the University of Plymouth - I am currently on a project to produce a product based around the America's Cup or sailing. I have decided to target people who sail for a hobby and create a watch which is purpose built for sailing and may even provide data on wind direction and wind speed. As you are a community of sailors I was hoping you could provide some feedback on my idea and whether you feel it would be useful or any flaws that could be solved.

Any information on how whether you personally use watches to aid sailing or any other equipment you feel could be improved would be appreciated.

I have already undertaken some research and one of my interviewees thought the idea would be particularly handy when he's out on his boat due to the fact that the average sailor may not have a full crew and whilst doing other jobs around the boat he could quickly and easily check the wind direction and speed by looking at his watch instead of returning to the main dials.

Any feedback would be great.

Thanks.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Productdesigner

(...) a project to produce a product based around the America's Cup or (sic!) sailing (...)

Exactly!

I am so glad even non-sailing people finally noticed that AC has nothing to do with sailing!

;-)
b.

[James S]

I'm not sure wind speed/direction sensors on a watch when actualy sailing, would be very useful...I can see having the watch receive/display that data from remote sensors.

Other possible gadgets that I may find useful.
GPS with speed over ground.
Barometer.
Video display from mast mounted video camera, at least forward looking, better if it can be tilt and pan.
E chart display.
MOB sender.
Compass.
Telephone/radio with the mic. built into the watch band, and the speaker is a wireless chip super glued to the fingernail of my index finger that I can stick in my ear...at the same time using my other fingers to shield back ground noise.
AIS alarm.
Watch.