I've made up a webpage to replay the SCYA MidWinters regatta at MBYC in San Diego (20-footers were there).
An I20 "SmileMaker" (Day 1 races 1, 2 & 3) and my T "FullTilt" (all 6 races) were the only recordings made.

Winds were 5-10 kts Day 1 and 12-15+ on Day 2.

It's pretty interesting watching the relative performance between the boats and to study the local wind variations.

Action Replay

Mike.

What happened to you in the first race (after the first gate)?

that crashed my browser

That is slick.

That is really cool. I would like to see what I do but i'm afraid it would be like watching a car wreck with bodies strewn everywhere! Too gruesome not to watch... at least with no real data I can still lie about it...

I got in the second time with no crash. I have that software and am humbled that you have actually been able to inlay a map/picture. That is not an easy package to use but is a really neat deal. From what I understand, the new Velocitek products have available a similar, but more user friendly, software that will combine the information from several velocitek units (no other GPS units). I think it's a neat way to watch the racing - imagine if 10 or 15 boats were represented!

This last Spring year, I was fortunate enough to be on C. Greens' F18 on Lake Tomko, (Canyon Lake, TX), and 4 or 5 of the boats had the traking device, and later we watched the races unfold again on computer At the Yacht Club.

We even got to see us beat Tomko to 'A' mark in one race! Needless to say he did beat us, but, hey, we saw it on the computer track replay!

It is cool.

I actually like those tracks quite a lot. You can see the tactical errors, and view where you did the wrong thing.

I'm doing the same from time to time to share with fellow club members. Here is a flash capture of a Velocitek replay of a recent race. I'm was sailing my Stealth (red), Mike is on an Inter 17 (blue) and the green track is Andy on a Dart 18.

No comment on my tacking angles please, I was rubbish

http://screencast.com/t/hlIrQl2AuN

Two other tracks showing the difference in speed between a well driven Tornado and a lowly Stealth:

http://screencast.com/t/eKyTo2tv
http://screencast.com/t/PBgRHD3OTb


Warning: those are big flash file, it may take a while to download...

Pepin,

I haven't verified it - but can you only use data from Velocitek instruments with their new software?

For now, yes, this you can only download data from Velocitek devices. But the Velocitek guys intend to support GPX in the future. Aka, they are working on it.

The takedown line was wrapped under the snuffer hoop. We couldn't snuff the sail on approach the B mark. Tried many times re-hoisting/re-dousing, but could not see where the problem was. Ultimately we had to head well off wind (this was 1/4 way up the weather leg) to slow the boat, allow crew to shimmy out on bow to reach the snuffer...find the problem and correct it.

That has never happened to me before in a regatta (and that's a lot of regattas). I think the new crew hadn't been pulling in the retriever slack prior to releasing the halyard...thus it was free to flail and get wrapped.
We were ready the next time it happened in another race...crew went immediately to the bow and sorted it. Now we need to work on prevention technique.

When the software first appeared, I downloaded the trial but could not get it to work with my non-velocitek data (gpx). Pity, as I might have purchased the app if it worked. I'll keep me eyes open for when they add the other formats.

GPSAR now has a for-purchase version with re-vamped capability. One major item is the ability to link your gps to your computer via bluetooth to monitor tracks in real-time. There's something about using a cell phone to transmit over some distance...I guess folks back at the club could watch the tracks unfold in real time.

Does the Velocitek app have a controlable java (or other) applet to allow web-site play backs like what I'm using for the above tracks?

Mike.

Bluetooth = 10 meters. Unless you have a really really short course this is not going to happen


No. I've used jing to make a flash recording of the tracks I posted. But the app exports GPX data, so if you find a good tool, I'm all ears.

I think the bluetooth is only for a short distance gps to computer link. You can also bluetooth gps to cell phone, cellphone (ie onshore) to nearby pc with app running. Thus you can get long range real time tracking.

This is all quite cool...but I had this exact effect running years ago using a gps & handheld HAM radio (2m freq). This radio had a modem builtin so you could transmit digital tones up to 50 miles. These were picked up by transcevier towers...which would relay the info over vast distances (this is the forerunner to the cell phone system). At somepoint the signal would also be uploaded to the web and could be displayed ona moving map track display...giving near-real time tracking from my Tornado and from Afterburner.

Wasn't perfect by any means, but it did work well enough to entertain family & friends during our Milt Ingram, Tripoint & Newport to Ensenada races.