Never mind that it's tucked inside a wooden box, stashed among the books on the top shelf in the teak-veneered main dining area, and that its chances of being used in the Newport-Bermuda Race are, oh, about the same as Robert Mulderig bouncing a cheque.

Like most of the 161 other boats who lined up for the biennial classic, Starr Trail 's high-tech navigational gear has rendered sextants, pencils and charts candidates for the Smithsonian.

Aboard Mulderig's new 72-foot Farr, for instance, LED read-outs, detailing water depths and wind information, are located in every room. GPS, radar and navigational charts are fed into a central computer. Satellite images and meteorological conditions can be accessed with the click of a mouse. Outside, the helmsman has instant information via a colour, touch-screen computer.

"It's really come alive in the last five years,'' Phil Wilson, Mulderig's long-time sailing buddy and veteran of four Newport-Bermuda races, says of the electronic gizmos that now dominate the sport.

Mulderig and Wilson finished second in the double-handed Newport-Bermuda Race two years ago on the old Starr Trail . That Freedom 44 has now been replaced with the $2 million high-performance cruiser -- and little was left to chance.

"We were lucky in that the boat was new and we were able to start out with the latest electronics,'' said Wilson, looking after the ground arrangements for this year's trip. When the 16-person crew left for Bermuda, they not only had all the comforts of home -- they had all the information of NASA.

Not all of it, however, is allowed in the race, notably the Satcom link, which could otherwise supply internet and satellite weather feeds.

"The rule is, if it's not available to everybody, you can't use it,'' said Blair Simmons, the boat's full-time captain (although handed over the wheel to Mulderig for the race).

In a race such as Newport, where there is seldom any tacking, some of the information may be unnecessary. Conversely, when it comes to finding, crossing and searching out eddies in the Gulf Stream -- probably the key part of the 635-mile ocean crossing -- it's invaluable.

"You've got loads of information coming in; all you do is just read it,'' said Simmons. And that information, Wilson adds, is "more accurate and more immediate,'' than ever before.

At 26, Simmons, son of former world IOD champion Penny, is from the new school of sailing, as comfortable with the 6.5 gigabyte computer as he is with the jib. Need to raise the sail? Press the button on one four hydraulic winches.

Know where you are going? Put it on auto-pilot. Two people, Simmons says, could comfortably sail Starr Trail .

BLAIR SIMMONS -- Starr Trail boat captain needs to know just as much about computers as he does sailing.