Evidence, Diagnostics and Tuning Confidence

Blackbox Module

When something unusual happens, blackbox data turns guesswork into evidence.

Why We Call It Blackbox

You can think of this as the sailboat equivalent of an aircraft black box. The goal is the same: preserve enough evidence to understand what the system was doing, what the boat was experiencing, and why an event unfolded the way it did.

The module uses two-channel logging. One channel is a detailed digital trace of control states, sensor values, commands, alarms and recovery logic. The other is a human log focused on the practical side: conditions, maneuver context, skipper observations and other notes that matter during review.

What Is Captured

Detailed digital logging of control-state transitions, key mode events and command flow.
Relevant sensor context around anomalies, retries, recovery actions and failover causes.
Human-log entries describing what happened, what the conditions were and how the situation developed on board.
Evidence that is useful when comparing behavior before and after software changes.

Operational Use

Fast post-incident review offshore.
A clearer picture of how the full system is actually working.
Safer tuning between passages.
Better collaboration between skipper and developer.

**Recent Event Timeline**
Timestamped events around a maneuver or anomaly.

Related across the suite

Current page focus: Traceability and replay for decisions and incidents.

Control-state traces around maneuvers and anomalies.

Human log context for conditions and skipper observations.

Recovery counters and reason traces for diagnostics.

SD-card evidence that stays with the boat.

Server history for longer passage context.

Same-condition comparison after tuning changes.

Feedback And Comments

This project is still in progress, and I would genuinely like feedback on what is missing, what feels unclear, and what would be most useful offshore. The first sea trial is planned for the 2026 sailing season, and every comment is reviewed by me before it appears publicly.

No public comments yet. You can be the first to add feedback.

Built For Singlehanded Offshore Reality

These public pages focus on what the suite actually delivers offshore: steadier steering, fail-safe automation, and practical offshore support that reduces workload without taking control away from the skipper.