Sailboat Data Comparison Tool

A Python CLI tool for comparing sailboat specifications scraped from sailboatdata.com.

Features

• 🔍 Scrape sailboat specifications from sailboatdata.com
• 🔎 Intelligent boat name search with automatic variations (number-word conversions, spacing, etc.)
• 📊 Compare multiple boats side-by-side
• 🎨 Beautiful table output with Rich library
• 📄 PDF export with professional formatting
• 🔧 Nix flake for reproducible development environment
• 📋 JSON export option
• 🧹 Filtered output (excludes UI elements like forum topics)
• ⚖️ Automatic attribution to sailboatdata.com in all outputs

Prerequisites

Choose one of the following installation methods:

• Nix with flakes enabled (recommended)
• Python 3.13+ with pip
• Conda/Mamba
• uv (fast Python package installer)

Installation & Setup

Using Nix (Recommended)

1. Enable Nix flakes (if not already enabled):

# Add to ~/.config/nix/nix.conf or /etc/nix/nix.conf
experimental-features = nix-command flakes

2. Enter the development environment:

nix develop

Or use direnv for automatic environment loading:

direnv allow

Using pip

pip install -r requirements.txt

Using Conda

conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate sailboat-compare

Using uv

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
uv pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

Compare two or more sailboats:

python sailboat_compare.py "Catalina 30" "Hunter 33"

Compare multiple boats:

python sailboat_compare.py "J/24" "J/80" "J/70"

Export to JSON:

python sailboat_compare.py "Catalina 30" "Hunter 33" --format json

Export to PDF:

python sailboat_compare.py "Catalina 30" "Hunter 33" --pdf comparison.pdf

Combine table output and PDF export:

python sailboat_compare.py "J/24" "J/80" "J/70" --pdf boats.pdf

Get help:

python sailboat_compare.py --help

How It Works

1. The tool normalizes boat names to URL-friendly format
2. If a boat is not found, automatically tries common variations:
   • Number-word conversions (e.g., "30" ↔ "thirty")
   • Spacing variations (e.g., "Catalina30" ↔ "Catalina 30")
   • Decimal handling (e.g., "40.1" → "401")
   • Brand/model reordering (e.g., "Beneteau Oceanis 40.1" → "Oceanis 401 Beneteau")
3. Fetches boat pages from sailboatdata.com using pattern: /sailboat/{normalized-name}
4. Parses HTML to extract specifications using BeautifulSoup with lxml parser
5. Filters out unwanted UI elements (forum topics, navigation links)
6. Displays results in a formatted comparison table using Rich

Example Output

CLI Table Output

PDF Export Example

View PDF Example

Development

Project Structure

.
├── flake.nix              # Nix flake configuration
├── sailboat_compare.py    # Main CLI application
├── README.md              # This file
├── .gitignore            # Git ignore patterns
└── .envrc                # Direnv configuration

Nix Development Shell

The flake provides a complete Python development environment with all dependencies:

• Python 3.13
• requests (HTTP client)
• beautifulsoup4 (HTML parsing)
• click (CLI framework)
• rich (terminal formatting)
• lxml (fast XML/HTML parser)
• reportlab (PDF generation)

Notes

• The tool uses appropriate User-Agent headers
• Intelligent name search tries multiple variations automatically
• Provides feedback when boats are found under alternative names
• Specifications extracted depend on the HTML structure of sailboatdata.com
• Handles multiple HTML parsing strategies (tables, definition lists, divs)

License

MIT

⚠️ IMPORTANT LEGAL DISCLAIMER

YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION BEFORE USING THIS TOOL

This tool performs automated data collection from sailboatdata.com, which violates their Terms of Service without explicit written permission.

Terms of Service Violations

Sailboatdata.com's Terms of Service (Section 6) explicitly prohibit:

• "systematic or automated data collection activities"
• Use of automated tools that are "not a web browser"

Required Actions Before Use

1. Request Permission: Contact sailboatdata.com at https://sailboatdata.com/contact/
2. Obtain Written Authorization: Get explicit permission for automated access
3. Comply with Their Terms: Follow any rate limits, attribution requirements, or other conditions they specify

Legal Risk

Using this tool without permission may:

• Violate sailboatdata.com's Terms of Service
• Infringe on their intellectual property rights
• Result in legal action or IP blocking

Recommended Use

This repository is provided for educational purposes only to demonstrate web scraping techniques. The maintainers:

• Do NOT endorse unauthorized use
• Are NOT responsible for any legal consequences
• Recommend obtaining proper authorization or using official APIs when available

See permission_request_email.md for a template to request access from sailboatdata.com.