I have a couple of ipad2. I bought one to use on my sailboat and liked it so much I bought another for home.
Lots of sailing apps available. Active captain is one I use a lot. Couple of nav programs. Tides-windfinderd programs, anchor watch. All kinds of stuff.
I have the garmin marine network on the boat so my iPad talks to my chart plotter. so I can create routes on the iPad at home and when I get on the boat they upload to the chart plotter.
I keep all the manuals for the boat on it as PDFs.
With iCloud everything on the iPads and my iPhone stay up to date.
I don't use my laptop much anymore, just for work.
You should get one. You'll like it.