From one who was once skeptical of technology creeping into race starts: There’s an acceptance that the benefits are real. Mike Ingham takes a look at starting systems that are changing the game.
Spotting the starting line by eye is a practice that has remained unchanged for generations. For small fleets, a simple look down the line works well, but as the line gets stretched out to accommodate a big fleet, calling the line by sight is an impossible task for even the most seasoned and eagle-eyed spotter. And bigger fleets are usually more aggressive, which compounds the problem. General recalls are no fun, unless you like starting practice, and black flags are real buzz killers.
Rumor has it that the black flag was invented on the fly with a skull and crossbones flag back in the day out of a race committee’s frustration at a J/24 Midwinters in Miami. I once sailed a world championship that had 14 black-flag starts in 10 races, and besides the significant time squandered, I found the results to be unfair, with the regatta ultimately decided by who was best at staying hidden.
This is frustrating to competitors, race committees and organizers, nobody is happy in the end. Maybe we’ve become so accustomed to this punitive approach to managing our starts that we didn’t realize our sport had a starting problem and we couldn’t imagine a better solution.
That was until RaceSense by Vakaros showed us that there is a way forward. Using its GPS-position sensor-based technology, the Vakaros system “sees” all who are over and those who are covered, or not, and it is, as the cliche goes, a game-changer. Developed initially with the M32 catamaran fleet as a beta of sorts and then put to use with other one-design classes on a smaller scale, the recent J/70 Worlds in Spain was Vakaros’ biggest and most ambitious application yet.
We’re talking about 95 boats, most of them with top-shelf pros who know how to push the line, get covered, and get away with it. Now we know, with RaceSense at least, there’s no arguing after the fact. – Full report
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DemirHindiSG 05 Mart 2025-01:09
