We have provided our GPS boat tracking services to several major events, including the 2018 GP14 World Championships, 2018 Blaze National Championships, 2018 Osprey Round the Isle of Wight Race, as well as numerous Club Opens and Regattas.
SSW's Tracker Station at the 2018 Gul GP14 World Championships, which took place under the shadow of the iconic St Michael's Mount. We used 120 GPS trackers throughout the week long event.
​Our First Event: Club Pursuit Race - Paignton SC's Christmas Cracker 2017
GPS trackers really come into their own in pursuit races, so we were thrilled to have the chance to launch the software at Paignton SC's Christmas Cracker Pursuit Race on the 3rd December 2017.
It's no secret that many Race Officers dread pursuit races with their drawn out starts, boats lapping at different paces and the practically impossible task of finishing multiple competitors at an instant in time. It was no surprise therefore that Paignton's OOD, James Ripley welcomed a little help from TracAce™.
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James commented, "I am very safety conscious, especially at this time of year, and knowing that we could monitor the position of every boat remotely was very reassuring."
The OOD and spectators in the clubhouse watched the live action unfold as each boat got underway and began lapping through the field. James explained that "TracAce™allowed us to monitor the evolution of the race and track any boats that were retiring."
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As this was the first time they'd used TracAce™, James and his team decided to also collect their results as normal from the water. Afterwards, we compared James' results to the output from TracAce™ which was generated almost immediately after the race finish. James said, "I was very happy that both sets of results matched exactly."
The 2017 Christmas Cracker replay is still available to view on TracAce™, and the system was used again at this year's (2018) Christmas Cracker Pursuit Race, which took place at Paignton on the 2nd December 2018.
World Championships - 2018 Gul GP14 World Championship
Just 8 months after TracAce™ was launched, SSW was contracted to provide GPS tracking for the GP14 World Championships at Mount's Bay SC. With 120 entries and 11 races scheduled over 6 days, this would undoubtably be the biggest test of TracAce™to date.
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Unfortunately storms washed out the first day's racing but 9 races were fitted into the remaining 5 days. SSW set up a 'tracker station' in the boat park, where tracker boards with an individually labelled peg for each boat housed the 120 GPS trackers in their waterproof bags. This made it easy for competitors to pick up and drop off their trackers as they left or arrived back in the dinghy park each day.
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With so many competitors, we adapted TracAce™ specially for this event to allow for filtering by the three fleets; Gold, Silver and Bronze. This feature allowed spectators to 'declutter' the screen in order to watch their preferred fleets battle it out.
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In a busy clubhouse of spectators, family and friends, TracAce™ was projected onto a big screen in the bar. The display proved to be very popular and many commented on how fantastic the technology was for keeping an eye on the progress of the fleet. This was especially true as most of the races took place out to sea, with views from the clubhouse and beach blocked by St. Michael's Mount!
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All the races from the 2018 Gul GP14 World Championships are available to watch online via the TracAce™ website.
