to keep track of boat maintenance, to do lists and the status of stuff that was broken. A few other sailors I knew liked it so I gave them a copy. I used the laptop for my navigation as well but it was such a power hog that I eventually switched to an iPad. No more laptop and no more boat status program on board so I tried to write a few experimental iOs Apps for my iPad. Well a couple of years later Boat Minder was the result and some of my fellow sailors suggested I put it out there for everybody. And here it is.
Around 1981 or so, being a typical boater in love with the latest gadgets, I bought the first Apple computer when it came on the market. I got this thing home and when it was all set up and turned on, it didn't do anything but sit there
and blink…
and blink…
and blink.
I expected it to give me all the information I would ever need, or want to have and it just sat there and blinked. You need software the guy at the store told me. Software ? What's software? So I learned how to program because I wanted to keep some records, play with graphics and do a few other things. Over the years I would write a few programs here and there (they were called programs back then) for my own use. I wrote one for Windows that I used on my onboard laptop
It’s a work in progress.
There’s always room for improvement and Boat Minder will be updated with improvements and new features in the future.
In the works:
File sharing and data backup in this version is accomplished with iTunes. Future versions will use the cloud, email or your phone’s message capabilities.
A Mac and Windows companion program to make data entry less challenging using a regular keyboard instead of your thumbs or as in my case, one finger.