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sailshade

In a separate thread I was asking a few questions about the ITC-5, heading sensors, i70s and possibly an AXIOM7 that I plan to aquire specificaly to display, log and review race sailing performance.

I was reading accross the forum about informations concerning LH3 AST which features apparently will include:
Advanced sailing tools
-Laylines and polars
-Race course quick entry
-Race timers and start line assistant

Looking forward to see all that coming I will be preparing the boat over winter time and as such would like to ask some information:

Q1: What hardware (sensors, nmea messages) will be required to make use of the AST during the race (minimal, full)?
Currently I am using raceQS watchapp and although it is only fed with very limited information (GPS) it can provide wind lifts on the watch and the phone app also logs heel info and somehow is able to even "estimate" leeway based on some model and the phone accelerometer, compass and GPS.
Will the AST be able to compute and display all that information in real time and what sensors will be needed (is heel angle measurement usefull for instance)?
(I understand from the faq below that a heading compass is mendatory)
http://forum.raymarine.com/showthread.php?tid=987

Q2: I don't really have a good polar plot for my sailboat and I never was able to make one since I had no digital windvane/speed nor logger installed.
I suppose that with a few good nmea logs, signal processing skills and some time to smooth the data I'd be able to extract some preliminary curves and refine on them.
Any further hint except asking the boat maker? Would a polar be a prerequist to operate the AST?
Will I be able to log, save and export via wifi all the sensors nmea messages on the AXIOM7?

Thank you in advance for your time and answers.