Tales from the 49er/49er FX and Nacra 17 Junior Worlds

Sailing fans watching 49ers race on the waters of Marseille this week may notice a trend: tons of general recalls, redress hearings, and an overall messy starting situation. We get it: calling a start line with the best skiff sailors in the sport is impossible for a human. RaceSense is here to help: in mid July, we brought our starting technology to the 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 Junior World Championships in Spain. What came? No general recalls in a single RaceSense race, fairer starts, and the ability to run a new reaching format for Nacra racing.

The regatta venue in Galicia nailed it, providing almost perfect conditions daily, setting the ground for an extraordinary series of races. The talent level was huge and the sailors pushed the line hard. RaceSense made the racing more fair and opened the door to the future for Olympic Classes racing.

Athletes who used RaceSense saw significant benefits. Kwinten Borghijs, the Nacra 17 winner, said: "What I really liked about RaceSense is the elimination of the stress if you are over the line or not with a U-flag. It gave you immediate feedback and also ensured that all the boats you were racing didn’t have an unfair start advantage and that no u-flagged boats could influence the racing."

Anna Barth, SailGP Germany star and fifth-place finisher in the 49er FX fleet, also sang her praises to the system: "Personally, I believe that using the Vakaros can bring a lot of benefits to our racing. For the boats that are over the line at the start, the Vakaros is giving signals and they have to stop racing. That way they don’t cause any trouble around the course and the racing ends up being more fair. Also, it was great to have the exact time from the race committee."

Dutch sailor Robbert Huisman initially had reservations but was convinced of the system's value: "At first I was quite skeptical about the system, like most of the fleet , I was wondering if it would really benefit the quality of sailing. But it is fair to say it did not disappoint. In fact I think we should be able to give it a little more practice in smaller regattas where the line sometimes will be pushed harder to really test the accuracy. Vakaros has huge potential if we can develop the system together with the committees."

Mattias Coutts from New Zealand found RaceSense to be a game-changer: “It was a fantastic tool as it made the racing much more efficient because it allows for no general recalls as all the sailors know if they are over the starting line or not.”

Looking ahead, we can’t wait to collaborate more with these incredible classes and athletes!