September 13, 2006 01:45
Hello
it's true that these bulky cases ( http://www.pelican.com/ or http://www.otterbox.com/products/pda_cases/2600/ ) are bulky but do save your equipment, if weather conditions are hard and you don't use the electronic accessories.
I'm happy to have had my otterboxes (see link above) for both my Psion 5mx Pro (pocket computer) and Zaurus PDA during a storm. Because everything got thrown around in the boat and my devices did stay intact.
These hard cases are great to store away your equipement and protects them from humidity if you put some silicagel bags in the boxes.
The main problem is not humidity but humidity which comes from salted sea water: it corrodes the motherboard.
The presenter of MaxSea last year suggested to either use a marine PC, that is these small case PCs that are in some way humidity safe.
But these are expensive and aren't portable. And I haven't seen a "marine" Mac mini yet.
The other suggestion he gave was to switch on the laptop in your car or 1 hour before you enter the boat the first time.
This way the laptop is warmed up and humidity won't settle on the motherboard. During your first day on boat the air and humidity will change. Turn on the computer at least 15 minutes before you go on journey, if possible outside the boat, so that humidity won't have a chance to enter the laptop. If you don't use the laptop put it away in a hard case which protects it from shocks and humidity.
Another possibility would be to buy a low budget ibook G4 12" via ebay, just for the sailing season. This won't protect your from incidents on board, but you won't loose your expensive Mac laptop and important data it has inside.
But until now I never had real problems with my iBook G4 12" during sailing journeys.
But I know of different sailors who already killed 3 PC laptops: one was drowned by rain, another killed it's HD with a headcrash (in fact thd HD was excahnged 3 times during a world sailing tour in 3 years) and the third was corroded by salted humidity (sea water).
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Manou
it's true that these bulky cases ( http://www.pelican.com/ or http://www.otterbox.com/products/pda_cases/2600/ ) are bulky but do save your equipment, if weather conditions are hard and you don't use the electronic accessories.
I'm happy to have had my otterboxes (see link above) for both my Psion 5mx Pro (pocket computer) and Zaurus PDA during a storm. Because everything got thrown around in the boat and my devices did stay intact.
These hard cases are great to store away your equipement and protects them from humidity if you put some silicagel bags in the boxes.
The main problem is not humidity but humidity which comes from salted sea water: it corrodes the motherboard.
The presenter of MaxSea last year suggested to either use a marine PC, that is these small case PCs that are in some way humidity safe.
But these are expensive and aren't portable. And I haven't seen a "marine" Mac mini yet.
The other suggestion he gave was to switch on the laptop in your car or 1 hour before you enter the boat the first time.
This way the laptop is warmed up and humidity won't settle on the motherboard. During your first day on boat the air and humidity will change. Turn on the computer at least 15 minutes before you go on journey, if possible outside the boat, so that humidity won't have a chance to enter the laptop. If you don't use the laptop put it away in a hard case which protects it from shocks and humidity.
Another possibility would be to buy a low budget ibook G4 12" via ebay, just for the sailing season. This won't protect your from incidents on board, but you won't loose your expensive Mac laptop and important data it has inside.
But until now I never had real problems with my iBook G4 12" during sailing journeys.
But I know of different sailors who already killed 3 PC laptops: one was drowned by rain, another killed it's HD with a headcrash (in fact thd HD was excahnged 3 times during a world sailing tour in 3 years) and the third was corroded by salted humidity (sea water).
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Manou