We did indeed - we tried two types. One that was a GPS receiver with a cellular transmitter that didn't work very well. The cellular signal was pulsed on fixed intervals - if you were in a wave trough when it pulsed, you didn't get a position. Turns out there were a lot of troughs out here.

The second unit was installed halfway up the coast. It was a GPS transceiver and it worked great, even well off shore where they were NEVER SUPPOSED to sail () but did anyway. It used a patch antenna and had a smaller battery than the first unit (about the size of six or eight D cells). It was rugged and reliable, but relatively expensive for the two weeks. Prices have dropped precipitously since then, both for tracking service and for the hardware. I was surprised it never caught on.

The units aboard the Sydney-Hobart boats are a whole different ball game. More telemetry. And the web interface using Google must have cost a fortune with pop-up photos, descriptions and real-time data for EVERY boat, even last place (I checked). This whole deal is a geek's wet dream.