Exciting times at Vakaros: the Foiling era
As we enter the second half of the month, Vakaros is gearing up for a series of fast events. But first, do we all remember the incredible show the SailGP Inspire armada put up in Halifax? Our partnership with SailGP Inspire is extremely enriching, offering participants the opportunity to get behind the scenes, meet the world’s best sailing athletes, and take part in a racing program on the F50 racecourse in front of massive crowds.
At these events, we bring the Atlas 2 instrumentation with RaceSense technology, which includes automatic OCS detection, distance-to-line, and timing, to the Inspire Waszp fleet. This provides a glimpse of F50-style racing for the strongest youth sailors around the globe. SailGP Inspire is the latest in a series of organizations to adopt RaceSense as a key race management tool. We recently had a great event with them in Halifax last month.
Irene McNeill, International Race Officer in Canada, shared her experience:
"I first heard about the Vakaros system a number of years ago. I was skeptical about the technology as advertised but that changed when I saw the system in action during the SailGP Inspire program.
I found the system to be intuitive. You can add competitors easily. The hull design for the Atlas 2 system is configured from schematics supplied by the boat manufacturer. There is no need for competitors to ‘ping’ the line as the start/finish line is defined for them by readings taken from the Atlas 2 devices placed on the pin mark and signal boat. The start/finish line established by the Vakaros system is fluid (not static as with pinging), meaning it moves with the water and wind.
Prior to the race, the race officer can confirm when all boats are in the racing area as their Atlas 2 device checks in with RaceSense when it is in range. Once started, the start sequence is automatically activated in each competitor’s device. At the start, the system lists the OCS boats and indicates when each boat has started correctly. The system may decrease the need for penalty flags, which permits boats to ‘dip start’ with confidence under flag P. I suspect that the number of general recalls of large fleets would be reduced with this system.
I am hoping the use of new technologies to conduct races, such as the Vakaros system, will attract younger individuals to become race officers. Overall, the technology improves the quality and fairness of racing. I don’t think it will ever replace the race officer and the entire team but is certainly a good tool to use."
After the SailGP Inspire event, we will be back at Foiling Week. Last year, we attended the premier event for all-foiling classes, and we are thrilled to be part of it again. We Are Foiling and Foiling Week are at the forefront of sailing technology, a value we both share. This year, not only are we partners with the event, which will be held in Lake Garda's majestic waters from June 24th to 30th, but we will also be running RaceSense for the Switch class, the Birdyfish class and the 6.9 Waszp class.
Drew Follett Customer Success Manager: “We are so excited to be back in Garda, the best sailing venue in the world, and to be running RaceSense with multiple Foiling classes.”
What can we say, stay tuned for more updates!
