If orientation/heading of the boat is an issue, how about setting it as a constant to 0deg? After all, it is the tracks which relate the real information.
Watch a Tacticat race and you'll understand, we're talking show-business here. We would want the ability to see the cat, not a dot. How it tacks, how is oriented in pre-start...
You estimate 16 hours of development time (which sounds very reasonable to me, as a former programmer), what do you charge pr. hour? This is a function that would be useful at other timesthan just the coming event.
I think it is not relevant. The estimate makes assumptions that, I'm afraid, are difficult to validate. Validation would cost much more than the actual coding. We're in the same spot we were when designing Tacticat: the code is easy, cheap. The difficult thing is to know what to do to get something that can be used and enjoyed.
How would you build the interface allowing for upload of all these files?
Where to upload? You mean internet server?. Current tacticat users have in their own computers a client application that 'uploads' boats status or commands. Users give commands for tack, for gybe,... the same interface would be used to upload location/speed info.
