DeltaLloyd regatta - ISAF World Cup

Like last year, we are both involved in the DeltaLloyd regatta, which is one of the ISAF World Cup regattas for Olympic and Paralympic classes. With several World Championships in the Olympic classes just having finished, some as late as last week, and the final ISAF World Cup event starting at the Olympic venue, Weymouth, in 2 weeks time, the entry is very much down on last year. But it still is an exciting buzz to be here. Lyn runs the logistics of the press office, including getting the photographers allocated to boats on the racecourses, I am again the 'speaker', on the PA system, keeping everyone on shore up to date on what happens on the racecourses.
What is really interesting this year is the use of IT in race management, results processing and tracking. In effect, the races are managed and recorded by computers. Each boat carries a GPS tracking device which sends its position to the computer on shore at a rate of several times per second. That gives an accuracy of less than a metre. From 5 minutes before the start until after all boats have finished, one can see the entire fleet on screens, but also on the Internet. Look on www.deltalloydregatta.org and click on 2D or on 3D tracking! But the computers also log the mark roundings and the finish of the boats. This way, the results are posted on the Internet automatically some 15 seconds after the last boat has finished. The race officer can of course override the computer's 'decisions', but so far, after up to 8 races on 6 courses each, this has not yet happened! In addition, there is hardly any paperwork. No finish lists in triplicate.....

The whole thing is a worlds' first and there is a whole back office staff of the company that does this, Swiss Timing, to make improvements and new functionality as the regatta goes on. In 65 days, at the Olympics, the same technology will be used and we are some of the guineapigs helping developing it!





Back office staff






Tracking screen. Green for boats, orange for marks etc.






Race management. What is the race status for every class on every course.

It was a great and very pleasant surprise to us to see these people here in Medemblik again:





From left to right, Roger Hudson, Asenathi Jim and Dave Hudson. Asenathi and Roger just last week managed to get a very coveted Olympic qualification. There are only a limited number of countries that can qualify to send a crew to the games in each sailing class. In the men's 470 class, it is 28. The battle for these places is fierce, and only one year after starting to sail 470's competitively, Asenathi and Roger gained such a place. We now all hope that SASCOC, the South African Olympic committee, will allow them to go. It appears that the South African contingent is 'oversubscribed' and it would be an enormous disappointment if the fact that money is channelled into parties for officials instead of spending it on athletes ends these guys' Olympic dream!

Location:Vooroever,Medemblik,The Netherlands