Some of your answer may be answered by the Iridium or PredictWind websites which both have pages on the IridiumGo.

In the Newport Bermuda Race last year the Safety Regs seemed to exclude the IridiumGo as a cosideration:

3.11 Satellite Phone: A yacht shall carry a satellite telephone that
3.11.1 is programmed to operate with a satellite communications provider of continuous, uninterrupted signals for two-way voice communications on the Western North Atlantic Ocean;
3.11.2 is powered or recharged by the yacht’s electrical system;
3.11.3 is operable below deck using a mounted external antenna;
3.11.4 shall remain “on” and ready to accept incoming voice calls, except when making necessary intermittent data connections while underway; and
3.11.5 shall have a telephone number that is provided to the BROC via the race website before close of Newport Check-in.

So you might want to check the requirements (especially external antenna) of the races you have in mind before deciding.  On the boat I navigated last year we went with a Fleet Broadband 150 with an ethernet cable between the laptop and the FBB unit.  Worked great using all of the NOAA choices and the YB downloads without compression or optimizers.

Thanks Nick, will give XGate a go.

Hi Ernie, no problem with comms as we also have a separate SatPhone for compliance.  It's just the Iridium GO has proven to be a useful bit of kit and for some reason better at data than our Iridium Extreme (both with external antennas).