I share the surprise at that statement. My take on that comment...

It might be okay for a dingy sailor who is driving an around the buoys racer. Essentially you really aren't the captain (except in name), your like a race car driver that expected to "drive" the car as fast as possible around the track -- without breaking it. They have a whole "team" that really manages the race.

It might be okay he were describing how to fix an electronic "black box" of printed circuits, etc. -- or similar devices or components of devices.

It might be okay if he was talking about how to OPTIMIZE the multitude of choices and manipulate the really sophisticated software.

BUT, ultimately, for a boat offshore on passage? We all know that just doesn't work.

By the way, our Nobeltec (same as MaxSea) Trident software has a complicated and amazing bit of route planning planning/weather interface with GRIB data. It doens't distiguish between running over rocks, islands, or any other features. It is interesting, it is like a computerized chess player, it is useful for considering what-if scenarios, it has a lot features which I don't yet understand because I've only used it a bit. However, ullmately it doesn't really resolve some critical issues: First, avoiding obstructions -- large and small. Secondly, while it solves for speed, it doesn't deal with the issues of sea state well -- it would be fine with bouncing into the wind and square waves generated by offshore swells, shallow water, etc.. And finally, it uses the wind and general wave projections like they what you'll experience -- we all know that reality is oftenvvery different on sail boats.