http://www.tybee500.com

wtg Claude. Looks great!

Sure does. Nice job!

Claude,
Looks great. I'm flattered with the attention. Is there a way we can get all the boats in the race this year to use the spot trackers for online following/ updates? I think we may have a company willing to rent them for $25 for the whole week! Seems like a no-brainer if we can get all the boats on the same tracking page.
Chris

hey Chris,
To get all the boats on the same page, there has to be one purchaser. Like maybe Chuck? Jay did it with his 3 teams last year.
Tawd

We had some problems with the spot getting water damage last year in the GT. Ended up wrapping them in bags. Also some issues with the 911 going off without knowlege and the Coast Guard chasing us with planes and helicopters. Added to the excitement of the conditions.

Where was it mounted ? I followed Jay and gang's lead and put mine on the back of the boom,exposed,no bag. It worked ,so people tell me. I never got to see any of my tracks.

you could strap the SPOT somewhere like on the boom where you wouldn't knock on it

There's also Kattack. They supplied gps trackers and everything at the Corsair Nationals a couple years ago, try them?

Tybee put theirs attached to some battens taped to the boom and it hung off the back. They didn't have any problems with it, but at the same time, the tracking on them really stinks IIRC. It only updates positions every 10 minutes, and they don't all update at the same time, so using it to see who is where in relation to the other competitors at any moment in time is completely worthless.

Then check this out:

http://rorc.geovoile.org/caribbean600/

It has a company listed at the bottom of the page. See what they have to say. I don't recall that Kattack is real-time.

We were strapping them to the back of the boom too. We broke a trap bungie and the trap line tangled around the SPOT on the boom on day three. I had my crew just remove it and store it in the Pelican case. I didn't want it hitting the 911 button.

The spot for $25 is all from the same company and it comes with the service so I bet we could get them all on the same page?
Jamie Livingston told me that the Spot needed to be in a completely unblocked area to get reception... not sure what the truth to that is.
What they are using for the 600 looks like what they are using for the VOR. The VOR only updates every 3 hours... not sure if that is the tracking software of race organizers.
Kattack isn't real time and the unit is simply a garmin Etrex in a pelican case.

I knew I'd seen another tracker.
http://www.iboattrack.com/

these guys track the St Pete to Isla Mujeres race, regata al sol or whatever it's called.

Just as an outside-the-box idea...

Would Virtual Sailor be interested in helping you with this event? I'm sure they have the logistics figured out for this.

Mike

Hey Claude,

Nice story on the T500 homepage about the dismasting. More stuff like that!

Bill has actually been working on that. I'm not sure if we can make it happen this year or not, but I'm hoping so. We'll keep you posted.

-Claude

In other news, the photos page is finally put back together...

http://www.tybee500.com/photos

Claude, The site looks great! I'm sure I'll be checking often. Chris, Did I read right? F18?

I think it was a certain sailors EPIRB that got triggered. They waved to the nice people in the big red helicopter who came out to say hello. Whoops! A good thing some of the RC have close links to the coasties.

To get spots to all show up on the same tracker page they need to be registered to the same account. To get them to all update at the same time we spoke about starting the tracking at the same time - at the skippers meeting for example. People could then go fasten them to the boat or crew.

Chris.

oh yeah....F18 all the way this year. All the cool kids are doing it, well at least some of them. The N20 will still be doing the race, just under the velocity sailing flag, and a new owner.
Chris

There are apps out there that can make all the spots show up on the same map. Offroad enthusiasts are all about the spots for their expeditions and the ability to call for help.