Hacker News Reader

Comment by obloid | Hacker News Reader

I've been looking forward to marine starlink with the thought of being able to work remotely while sailing. Then I saw the pricing! I guess they're aiming for the megayacht crowd not average shmoes on small boats.

Interestingly it does look like people are putting starlink on sailboats with ok results: https://www.reddit.com/r/SailboatCruising/comments/vovaxs/st...

View on HN

I worked remote while sailing. my personal advice.... cruising is relatively cheap once you leave the dock. turn off your computer and go sail a while and plan on taking contracts during extended periods in port.

Also having packed a few offshore miles at this point... I have never had much luck being productive doing "work" while actually on passage. The ocean has a funny way of sticking to its own agenda anyway, despite our best plans.

Most of your time cruising is hanging on the anchor anyway. Depending on where you are there is pretty decent cell coverage a lot of places, or hotel wifis you can get from your anchorage.

I'm doing it an a mono-hull right now. I have not tried to work on passage, but I think it would be totally doable on a cat where you could sit relatively stable and keep a watch while working.

I’ve been doing the same, and I was personally hoping it would follow the same standard price + $30 that the RV crowd has gotten. I’m pretty disappointed with the cost, and I would fear that they’ll use geolocation to force you to maritime billing if they detect you’re on a boat.

It looks like my sailboat remote life is still on hold for the time being.

Depending on the type of sailing you do, probably can get away with using the RV service. If you're sailing within their current maritime coverage map https://api.starlink.com/public-files/maritime-coverage-map.... you're just using the direct CPE-Starlink-Uplink Station connection. Provided you're still in that coverage cell, there is really no difference to the entire system if you're 10 miles from shore inland or at sea.

Requiring an unobstructed view of the sky is pretty incompatible with sailboats anyways, unless you stick it at the top of the mast (where I expect it won't last long).

Then there's also the power requirements, which I haven't seen yet, but they'll probably be exceedingly difficult to meet for your average sailboat.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com