The Extreme Sailing Series is one of the world’s premier racing circuits, and in an effort to cement itself as an industry leader, it is revolutionizing how teams can leverage advanced analytics to gain a competitive advantage and sail even faster.
Since 2012, German technology company SAP has provided teams and fans of the Extreme Sailing Series various bits of information, including real-time 3D racing visuals, live leaderboard look-ins and post-race statistics such as distance sailed and top speeds.
As the Series has moved to ‘flying’ GC32 catamarans — basically boats on stilts in the water — SAP’s insights are proving even more valuable to sailors. Hyper-sensitive sensors attached to the foiling boats now give sailors more pertinent readings, like angle of the boat, than ever before.
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“The whole strategy for us is to make sailing more transparent and understandable for fans and sailors,” said Milan Černý, Technology and Innovation Lead, Global Sponsorships at SAP in a statement. “If you’re a sailor or a coach, you want to understand about your performance. Historically, performances were improved by analyzing sessions on the water but now with technology you can compare that to hard facts.
“All of a sudden the boats can fly and we want to understand what makes them fly, and what the ideal way to sail these boats is.
Through constant communication with the teams’ sailors, as Černý explained, SAP and the Extreme Sailing Series can learn what are the key metrics teams would like to see analyzed and the best angles to sail through foiling. Eventually, measurements such as weight distribution, heart rate monitoring, sail trim and other analytics will be incorporated into the Series as it continues to innovate in the water.
“This is a journey we are on with the Extreme Sailing Series to push the boundaries of our sport,” Černý said. “GPS tracking has been around for a while, but now we’re putting it into context, measuring maneuvers and then taking that data and supplying it to the fleet and the public. That’s the innovation, and foiling is just another step in that journey.
“F1 cars have around 120 sensors on them. The Extreme Sailing Series fleet is not quite at that level yet but we’re getting there.”