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View from the Editor - Boats, Radios and Stopwatches  

Skandia Life Cowes Week, the world's largest sailing regatta comprising "30% sailing, 60% socialising and 10% sin," according to Bashford 41 race competitor Crispin Lowe and former owner of the Royal Corinthians Yacht Club in Cowes, played host to nearly 1,000 boats and 8,000 competitors and was blessed by blazing sunshine in the first week of August 2003. Being a sailing event novice, I was looking forward to seeing how the event technology would enhance my experience - or at the very least - explain what was going on in what can only be described as extremely crowded waters.


Technology was particularly vital to the crews that were doing the hard work of actually racing. Bearing in mind I can feel seasick on anything from a rowing boat up to a full-sized cruise-liner, and had spent a week dreading making the crossing by jetfoil from Southampton to the Isle of Wight, this was one occasion where I happily wouldn't be testing the technology from the competitor's perspective.
And the competitors needed considerable help to even reach the start line, not to mention a bit of luck while dodging the gigantic freight liners that seemed to steam through the race area every 15 minutes. For many years, the Cowes faithful have been caught out by the fact that the furthest extension of the start line is not actually on the start line itself, but half a mile away in the mid-Solent!

One innovation for the event in 2002 was the use of text messaging as a secondary means of transmitting courses. After some early teething problems, which meant that users with phones using the Orange network were unable to use the service because the messages were strangely routed via Switzerland, the software was deemed to be a success and was back in 2003 with enhancements to allow the race officers to make even more use of the service. "The text messaging to mobile phones 10 minutes before the start proved to be good, but still requires someone to check through the paper course guide onboard, and to translate the buoy numbers to names. Maybe a MMS service would get round this next year," says Cowes competitor Andrew Gellatly who was racing in a National Swallow K74.

Finding the Cowes hotspot

Cowes also had its own WiFi hotspot during the 2003 regatta, provided by Square Mile International which aims to bring wireless networks to 1,000 marinas worldwide. Competitors needed to bring their laptops to the Square Mile booth to install the enabling software and then were able to surf more than just the waves while they were out and about on the Solent. If someone can invent a waterproof laptop, I can certainly see the concept catching on.
Video was also a first at Cowes this year with the start of races being filmed in a bid to end disputes where boats might get penalised for crossing the line too early. That's assuming of course that they could actually find the start line. "But in order to keep down the number of frivolous requests to watch the video, we are going to insist on a £10 donation to Sail4Cancer, the official charity which is reclaimable if boats are reinstated by virtue of the video evidence," said Stuart Quarrie, Cowes Combined Clubs director at the start of the regatta, and which explained the absence of any 'Hello Mum' signs.


The technology that seemed both the most sensible (in terms of not costing a considerable amount of money if dropped overboard or inconvenience from trying to retrieve numbers from a soggy SIM card) was the use of event radios. Supplied by events radio specialist Radical Radios whose clients include the Blenheim Horse Trials and several Airshows, the small radio devices, emblazoned with Skandia Life branding were made free to competitors or could be bought for a small sum by the public. The radios picked up the event commentary from FM station Cowes Radio which has transmitted exclusively during the regatta since 1986. The commentary included vital information about which courses to sail, details of postponements, recalls and wind fill details.
"The radios provided for competitors during Cowes Week were enormously useful," says Jules Mantle, who was racing in a 1720 Sportsboat called Flamboyant. "In yacht racing the competitors only get the course they are to sail 10 minutes before the start gun. For small boats, the course is displayed on a board which shows a series of symbols and colours and from this, you have to work out exactly where to go, while at the same time sailing the boat, avoiding other competitors in the start area, and trying to find the best place to start on the line for favourable wind and tide. Cowes Week is the only regatta where the course is broadcast on FM radio, along with lots of other information about the wind, other boats' starting sequences and all this information helps us to sail our best possible race. Cowes Week this year had very light winds, and it was really helpful to us to listen to the radio throughout the race and find out what was happening in other parts of the Solent."
"The radios are a bonus for anyone sailing in the small boat classes at Cowes," agrees Gellatly. "It gives the 'big boat' advantage of hearing the course wherever you are on the starting line, without having to worry about misreading signs on the shore or getting an unobstructed view of the starting platform. Swallows, along with other old-school classes, have a fairly anti-technology approach to racing, with limits on electronics, GPS and high-tech materials. The radios mean that at least you get the course drawn out on the waterproof chart fairly quickly and have time to get on with other stuff before the start. The acid test must definitely be that on the day when I forgot to bring the radio along, I really missed not having it."
The radios were also popular with the spectators at Cowes and added method to the mayhem that appeared to be going on in the Solent to the untrained eye (i.e. mine). I even managed to see the end of a race thanks to the radio commentary. Up until that point I had to rely on the canon being fired to signify a race had finished and of course by that point the victor had sailed on by.

Technology at the track

Multiscreens in the Fast Track control room at the Crystal Palace Grand Pri
I sacrificed the end of Cowes Week and the famous Friday night firework display (despite the lure of it being set to music for the first time) to attend the Grand Prix Athletics at Crystal Palace in London. At the time of writing, the World Athletics Championships in Paris had been at the centre of a controversy involving US 100m sprinter Jon Drummond who was disqualified from the quarter-finals for a second false start, despite his protestations that he hadn't moved. Despite computer evidence to the contrary, Drummond refused to leave the track for over 30 minutes, arguing that the technology must be wrong.
The Grand Prix at Crystal Palace had its very own 100m controversy. After a delay due to problems with the event timing system, the race finally took place and, much to the crowd's momentary excitement, the winner Dwain Chambers was given a finishing time of 9.53 on the results board. The joy of a world record for Chambers was shared by the other competitors who were also given world record times before the results board fizzled out and the results deemed incorrect. An electronic time will never be given to Chambers for that race and due to the need to rely on the back-up method of stopwatches and human beings, his hand-timed 9.95 result was rounded up to 10 seconds. An embarrassment for the times system operator Tissot and a situation that will certainly have led to questions being asked about its technology and lack of back up systems.
Richard Russell in the Fast Track control room at the Crystal Palace Grand Prix
The 14 minute delay caused by the timing failure at Crystal Palace created more than a headache for Richard Russell, who as show director for in-house broadcaster Fast Track, had the added responsibility of making sure that the remaining events were all completed within the BBC's peak-time transmission slot. Russell's other responsibility for the evening was to produce a good show for the people in the stadium by way of utilising the BBC feeds and additional Fast Track cameras to create the best possible programming for the stadium's in-house screens.
"It's basically about creating as compelling a production as possible for the 18,000 people who have paid to come and watch," says Russell. "Athletics is often regarded as being a complicated sport and so Fast Track's aim is to present it in the most spectator-friendly way as possible, hopefully striking the right balance for those who are experienced fans and those who have come along for the very first time. The way we do this is by informing the spectators who the key athletes are in each event, how each individual discipline works and then drawing their attention towards what is editorially important at any each given moment throughout the evening."
Not an easy feat when as many as four field events can be going on simultaneously in different parts of the stadium. "The reality," explains Russell, "is that everybody can see the track but that their view of the various field events will always be determined by where they are sitting, so Alan Pascoe's Fast track team undertakes the responsibility to make sure that every paying customer is provided with all the right information at the right time to make sure that they have a really great evening."
With commentators Peter Matthews and Andy Kay supporting Jon Ridgeon, the former hurdler who combined his role as managing partner of Fast Track with that of being our informative in-house stadium presenter for the evening - and the distance to the beer tent not requiring particular athletic ability - the Crystal Palace experience was certainly one I look forward to repeating. Tissot technology permitting.

Results board at the Crystal Palace Grand Prix

Rachael Church - Editor

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Page from ArkSports' Sport and Technology (www.sportandtechnology.com) on 2009-01- 6 : View from the Editor: Boats, Radios and Stopwatches - September 2003 : http://www.sportandtechnology.com/features/0075.html