Tech makes sailing more fun and engaging

I was pleased to contribute to a nice sport-technology story published in Mirage News, “Oracle Applies Cutting-Edge Tech to Enhance Fan Experiences.” My part begins like this:

Racing space-age yachts in San Francisco Bay (or anywhere) presents its own set of technological and athletic hurdles. SailGP catamarans are the fastest boats in the world, capable of reaching speeds of up to 50 knots (or 60 mph on land), said Sir Russell Coutts, CEO of SailGP and five-time Americas Cup Winner.

Hans Henken, flight controller for the USA SailGP Team, described the experience for those who’ve never raced:

“It’s like driving your car down the freeway with the top down in the pouring rain. The exit is coming up fast, you change lanes and find your traction controls are off, you slam on the brakes and the brakes are out. You have to make quick decisions in a lot of spray, and it’s very, very noisy.”

In SailGP races, all of the boats are built to the same specifications, meaning that any edge the crew can get from 1,200 embedded sensors could be the difference between victory and defeat.

Sensor data is sent to the Oracle cloud in 200 msec, less time than the time it takes to blink, said Edwin Upson, Oracle group vice president of Enterprise Cloud Architects. Then it is returned to the crew for analysis in near-real-time.

Mirage News is published in Australia: “As a non-aligned, independent online media platform operating out of Wollongong NSW, Mirage News provides real-time coverage of newsworthy developments firsthand from primary and authoritative sources, with the main focus on media & public releases to deliver the news as it is with no comment or interpretation (This is particularly important in the era of fake news and media manipulation).”

I hope you enjoy the story. I certainly enjoyed hanging out with the SailGP folks.