GRaines
Certainly agree w the dilemma about Expedition being complicated so it stays the Navvy's black art ...that is a problem .... I'm happy for people to look, but no touching i.e. changing variables.  Too hard to figure out the audit trail if it gord wrong!

One has many aspirations and resource limitations with amateur crews which mitigate against meaningful sharing.  We briefly experimented w 2 navvys so one was always awake, this in a crew of 13.  It didn't work, for a whole set of asymmetric skills reasons - in a crew of 13 you definitely don't have 2 FT navvys, so the other-order skillset like pit or mast becomes important, even critical, and takes over from the navvy skillset as primary focus.
Additionally, navigation is now so extraordinarily complex (instruments, boat electronics, PC maintenance, calibrations, weather models, performance diagnosis etc) that it becomes a calling to stay on top of it.

willoxley wrote:

Thanks for the kind words about the book. When I find some spare time I intend writing a second edition to reflect updates to Expedtion.
...
I'd welcome other ideas.
 

I would suggest a French edition of the book.

I have been fooling around on Expedition for a couple of years--its a fun hobby--but I totally agree that there has to be something between what's taught in the North Sail school  and the Help system.   Will's book is a huge help, but i find that there are so many simple things that make the "gentle introduction" challenging.  
Before I make any suggestions I have to praise Nick for his amazing support after the sale--but he cant answer everything for everyone when he sells as many copies as he should.

Here is a short list.
 
--I agree with the other folks there is a desperate need for a well written "gentle introduction".
--A chapter on hardware would be useful (how do I drive a 19v laptop off 12 volts) (if I buy a desktop replacement what are my choices for a monitor) (B&G vs Raymarine vs ?? ) (GPS units --how many is too many), (do you really need an inverter to feed power to the computer) 
---Boxes--geez there are soooooo many choices.  How about suggesting a handful of starter sets.
---NMEA --what do i do if the transducer data are not showing up in the right boxes, or the boxes you expect them in. 

Some YouTube videos illustrating common issues would be really helpful
 
Peter

willoxley wrote:

Thanks for the kind words about the book. When I find some spare time I intend writing a second edition to reflect updates to Expedtion.
Thoughts on new chapters include:
A gentle introduction to Expedition.
A bit more on paper vs electronic charts after recent incidents
A bit more on weather and accessing gribs
A chapter on Ensemble routing
Perhaps some specific chapters about the big races... Bermuda, Transpac, Fastnet, transatlantic,
More on Sailing Performance software.



I'd welcome other ideas. Perhaps we should start a thread on this if sufficient interest.


 

My suggestion would be a bit on installation, selection of charts (raster/enc etc) and ensemble routing. The material that Peter Isler has is good but too distributed and focus on the americas. The other idea would be the use of qlik, or similar for race analysis. Have some 101 notes that I'm happy to contribute.