Finnish manufacturer Suunto has launched a new generation of wrist-top sailing computers

The first of a new generation of wrist-top sailing computers, the M9, was unveiled at METS yesterday by Finnish compass maker Suunto. This personal sailing instrument, which has been tested by Grant Dalton, skipper of Amer Sports One in the Volvo Ocean Race, provides detailed navigational information and has a PC interface so that users can upload navigational and chart information and download race or voyage data.

The M9 marks an important step in instrument miniaturisation. It contains a new six-layer circuit board, an atomic clock and what’s claimed to be the world’s smallest and lowest-power GPS. For racing yachtsmen it provides a powerful analytical tool that will give him positional, speed, wind direction and sailing track information so that he can make tactical decisions in the midst of action, even while out on the rail. It also allows him to add waypoints and note events in real time.

The instrument will be available world-wide next spring at a price Euro700. Although Suunto’s initial marketing effort is focused on the yacht racing market, Eljas Saastamoinen, product manager, new business development, sees far wider potential for the M9. Cruising sailors are also likely to be interested in the instrument which “will allow them to acquire a deeper understanding of sailing. The are 80 million sailors in the world, many of whom will want one,” he said.