SoftSailor ReadMe ================= Softsailor is a software toolbox for sailing. It contains a simulator, sailor, controller and optimizer. The simulator contains a model of a boat's performance. Provided with a sailor's input (heading, sailchoice) and environmental conditions (wind, current) it updates the boats speed and position over time. The sailor is an entity that converts routing data into an actual input (heading, sails) for the boat. It can be ordered to follow a route according to certain rules, like sailing with an optimal vmg, avoiding land, not tacking within a specified amount of time after a previous tack, or staying within a certain 'lane'. The controller is a generic interface to control a sailing boat, whether it be a virtual, a model, or a real full scale sailing boat. Implementations for virtual sailboats are provided for Virtual Regatta and SailOnLine. The optimizer is a route planning tool that attempt to find an optimal route using the simulator with predictions of environmental conditions. This part is the main purpose of this project and the main development goal. Eventually this can become very complex when e.g. risc management based on uncertainty of the predicted environmental data is taken into account. The current code only attempts to find the fastest route assuming the predictions are 100% accurate.