With the decision taken to cover the seocnd days flights of the Womens Match Racing a rapid setup was followed by a wait as rough weather at Weymouth delayed the start of the racing and lead to postponements and cancellations during the day. This affected everybody including Race-Trax but all the flights that were completed were tracked and the race files are available for download. The combination of very rough weather, with the crews flying about the Elliot 6’s and sporadic internet conditions has affected the quality of the data, however, Race Files are available by navigating to the Sail for Gold section within 'Events' tab, above.

Unfortunately due to continued adverse weather conditions it looks doubtful that any Match Racing will take place today Wed 16^th September although we are continually hopeful.

We will keep you posted of any tracking as soon as racing starts.

 

EireTech of France and Alterstone Ltd based in the UK have today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement, under which Alterstone Ltd will be given exclusive worldwide rights to market and sell the Race-Trax suite of products.

This agreement will provide consumers with the benefit of a highly experienced management team from both companies with extensive industry knowledge in GPS military and leisure tracking technology gained by EireTech through their military product Nav-Trax. This powerful new combination of proven skill sets enables EireTech to focus primarily on product research and development and Alterstone Ltd  to market and sell the Race-Trax solution worldwide. Together, EireTech and Alterstone Ltd will build on the existing strong platform with further innovation within the mobile GPS Tracking market place.

Alterstone Ltd was founded by Michael Anderson-Brown to focus exclusively on sales and marketing of Race-Trax. Mike has a wealth of expertise drawn from extensive sales and marketing experience of high technology products and services in a large variety industries and geographies and has run companies in the USA, UK, Germany and China. Additionally Mike has been involved in sailing for many years at a grass roots level including a stint as Commodore for his local club where he regularly races his own boat. Mike fully understands the huge potential that Race-Trax has to turn sailing into a spectator sport and the vision and desire there is within the sailing community to make this happen.

Alterstone Ltd managed the tracking of the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) in St Moritz which leads straight into the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta followed closely by another WMRT event; the Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda where Race-Trax technology will be showing exactly what makes it stand out from the crowd.  One example of new technology that will be available at WMRT Bermuda is Race-Viewer which enables low latency (typically 1 sec) data to be delivered, LIVE!, to a multitude of end users via media broadcast and web.  The Match Racing module of Race-Viewer has been conceived and produced in conjunction with WMRT and provides real-time LIVE! or post event race data to any computer in the world through use of the dedicated Race-Link and Race-Server technology.

Both companies have a proven strong commitment to provide the GPS event tracking of the future coupled with the best customer service possible.  We believe that the benefits of the exciting new growth opportunities this agreement will provide will be visible to all consumers both military and commercial alike.

Further information on Nav-Trax the military big brother to Race-Trax can be found at www.eiretech.net

 

St Moritz, Switzerland, was the latest event on the World Match Racing Tour to use the Race-Trax Match Racing solution, which paired boats and skippers allowing the action to be tracked second by second to within ½ metre accuracy.

Race-Trax Race Viewer software then uses the data to display attractive graphics and a rich set of race statistics and information to enhance the spectator experience. Uniquely the system also allows penalties to be displayed ensuring that both spectators and officials are kept up to date with the action on the water.

With the objective very much on developing and enhancing the spectator experience the focus was on collecting data from not just the match fleet of Blu 26's  but also course marks, committee boats and umpire RIBS. With this data and information on penalties Race-Trax can supply a complete re-enactment of the competition from the Round Robin right through to the finals. With such a rich data set it is not just the sailors who benefited from detailed post race analysis. Because their own RIBs were tracked, Umpires could review key decisions including their placement on the water in relation to the competitors, a key learning and review capability specifically requested by the umpiring team.

"The Race-Trax system will become an invaluable tool for spectators, sailors, umpires, race managers and event organisers as it will provide a wealth of information about the racing in one easy to use application." said Tour Director Craig Mitchell.

“You learn something at every event and we had some great ideas from the Umpires and Teams who really saw how the Race-Trax system would benefit them. We will take their ideas onboard for our next World Match Racing Tour event, the Agro Gold Cup in Bermuda where we will bring the event to an even wider audience” said Mike Anderson- Brown Commercial Director

 

As Official Tracking Partner to the iShares Cup the focus for Race-Trax at the 3rd round of the series in Cowes was to develop the on-site and remote spectator options.

On Day 1 Race Management were sited ashore above the Extreme Bar where Race-Trax again provided detailed information which proved invaluable to the smooth running of racing that has been called the Formula 1 of sailing.

On Day 2 a shift in wind direction forced Race Management to move to the Committee Boat. Race-Trax again showed great flexibility being able to set up a remote wireless link from the Committee Boat to the shore which enabled all the race data to be viewed from the VIP balcony.

Day 3 again saw Race-Trax on the Committee Boat using the shore link to transfer the race data. However not only was the data available as before but the excitement of the racing was also captured and displayed on a big screen in the VIP lounge.

The VIP’s were able to add a new dimension to the thrills and spills of the racing with a rich set of data including individual boat speeds, mark rounding, and distance and time to next mark. Zero latency, second by second update rates meant that information appeared on the screens precisely as it happened on the water.

“We are delighted at the progress made and it was great to see so many people in front of the big screen.”

Mike Anderson-Brown Commercial Director Race-Trax.

 

Race-Trax is the Official Tracking Partner to the iShares Cup and at the opening event of the series in Venice the Race-Trax system was put through its paces and showed how well the system and event management software could perform.

The Race-Trax system, which is no bigger than a house brick, was fitted to all Extreme 40s taking part. With sub ½ metre positional accuracy, 20 times per second update rates, large secure onboard data log, inbuilt heading pitch and roll sensors, wind sensor connectivity and zero latency, free-to-use 15(+)Km UHF telemetry plus extensive purpose built software, Race-Trax ensured instant, super accurate race information was available to Race Management and the Race Office for the whole of the event in Venice.

It is now the turn of Cowes to host Round 3 from 1st to 3rd August and Race-Trax will be building on its success but this time with the focus on developing on-site and remote spectator options.

“Since iShares Venice we have undertaken an extensive development program that will ultimately mean everybody can share in the excitement of iShares Cup racing as it happens. I am really excited about bringing this capability to Cowes and progressing the vision that both OC Events and iShares have for the future of Sail Racing. ” Ian Watts  – Technical Director Race-Trax.