Sounds like these things will make each individual reduction easier, but I don't see how they can lessen the amount of time it takes to get 3 or more shots to reduce, to make a fix. Tamaya made a neat little nav computer (and really good sextants), which I still have, though the almanac is way out dated.
For the race there will be nothing allowed aboard the boats that wasn't available in the year of the original race, 1968-1969, so that leaves out all fancy electronics, period. No IPod or mp3 players; Cassettes or 8 track only, ugh!
I don't remember ever having a problem with the eye piece of any sextant I used for navigation, as the horizon is almost always the same distance away, day to day on each vessel. However, to be fair, the nav sextant was not a public toy and no one else aboard ever touched the box, let alone the instrument itself. If someone wanted to learn celestial, they could buy a Davis Instruments sextant or whatever. I had/have a Carl Zeiss sextant, a gift from an owner, and it did cause considerable trouble when traveling into the US by plane. East German optics were arguably the best on earth at the time, but East German products were hardly welcome in the US, by the US Customs Service.
Upon arrival at any port with a marine instrument service company, the Zeiss went in for a check up, just like we had our compasses swung regularly. The mirrors often needed resilvering, as I had to take sights no matter the weather, and the salt water played hell with them.
I'm really glad I got to sail with celestial as my nav system, but I'd no more go back to it, in earnest, than I would cross the continent in a covered wagon, fighting off the 'red devils' with my Winchester 73, again. lol