The SailGp is a creature of Russell Coutts, the king of the America’s Cup who has won it five times, has changed its face with his actions and visions and who would now like to overtake it with his circuit, which is an increasingly more sail technological, television and “cool” and who probably can’t wait – perhaps not being able to conquer them – to let go of the ballast of the traditionalists who still think about the America’s Cup del Moro or Azzurra, talking about Italy.
After all, the world goes on. And it is no coincidence that the America’s Cup also rode the wave, launching the Ac75, the flying monohulls, which amazed and made people discuss, but which undoubtedly won the game. Difficult to go back. The sail of the pros, that of the highest point of the pyramid, is made up of phenomena that think of more than 50 knots and that are in fact control units of thousands of data per second, a mountain of very fast information that helps them decide in a flash. A sail that is for the few, as F1 has also become, to which the SailGp crushes the eye, and which perhaps makes Coutts himself – perhaps the greatest – inadequate on board.
It is not, however on the ground. And, then, here’s what he set up.
SailGp, the most technological and fastest sailing competition
Boats over 52 knots
There are eight teams, for eight boats – the Kiwis are expected to put theirs in the water anytime soon -, for eight events. Whoever wins takes home a $ 1 million prize. You run with the F50 flying catamarans, all the same, a wing as a fixed mainsail with flap, a bow jib, two foils and two rudders that help the two hulls to get up on the water. The boat is 15 meters long, weighs 2.4 tons, there are five people on board, tucked into the hulls and who change sides by jumping on the platform net: the helmsman, two grinders, the flight controller and a trimmer. They are boats that can count on 10 years of development, which have been optimized compared to last year’s circuit and which can exceed 52 knots of speed.
Eight teams
The reigning champions of the circuit last season are the Australians, with skipper Tom Slingsby, who we remember as Oracle’s strategist in the 2013 America’s Cup. Then there are Nicolai Sehested’s Denmark (two Volvo Ocean Races on his side), France of the helmsman Billy Besson (gold at the Rio Games in Nacra 17), we see the Great Britain of Sir Ben Ainslie, the skipper of Ineos Uk in the last America’s Cup; Japan, with Nathan Outteridge and – new entry, Checco Bruni, the other helmsman of Luna Rossa (with him also Chris Draper). Team New Zealand with the phenomenal couple Pete Burling & Blair Tuke, Spain with Kiwi Phil Robertson at the helm and, finally, the USA with Jimmy Spithill, former Luna Rossa helmsman, as CEO and still helmsman.
Eight stages
The number eight must please Russell Coutts, perhaps also because it is a figure that brings good luck in China (sooner or later, the SailGp will get there). The first is in Bermuda, where the organizers seem to have solved the problems with the lockdown: it starts on 24 and 25 April. Then, Taranto on 5-6 June, Plymouth (UK) on 17-18 July, Rockwool in Denmark from 20 to 21 August, Spain-Cadiz 9-10 October, then Christchurch in New Zealand on 29-30 January 2022 and great final in San Francisco on March 26-27, again in 2022.
The super-technology
There is a partnership between SailGp and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and serves to provide real-time data to each of the eight competing teams, media partners and viewers. Two objectives: to improve the performance of the teams and to allow fans a greater participation in the action almost in symbiosis with the crews.
“Our championship continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible, both on and off the water,” says Russell Coutts.
Just to understand. Oracle Stream Analytics will deliver race metrics in real time, using sophisticated correlation models, data enrichment and machine learning. The system makes autonomous decisions based on the 30,000 data points that an F50 catamaran sends every second of a race and merges them into a single data stream, compared to the 10 streams that SailGP shared in its first season. This allows teams to easily customize their data “dashboards” with relevant tactical information, including open-source data from rival teams, and determine race strategies in an instant. All the info, moreover, will also be transmitted from the boats to the coaches, at the base and / or on the ribs, who will be able to analyze them and who will be able to send information or suggestions to the team at certain stages of the race on the basis of these conclusions.
Then there are the spectators. The streaming data is also used to feed a sort of “second screen” on which to follow the race, which will allow fans and enthusiasts to have a deeper understanding of the actions of the teams during the race through instant updates of performance metrics. key and dashboards – data on a dedicated SailGp app and on SailGP.com. It will be possible for spectators to choose two teams and get to the heart of their information flows, so as to share the same data that the sailors will receive.
Who manages the data? Through OCI, the anticipated 80 billion data requests generated over the eight tenders will be handled in Oracle’s cloud region in London for worldwide analysis and distribution, all within two tenths of a second. Live video and audio feeds captured aboard the F50 will be streamed to the cloud region for immediate transmission, while simultaneously being saved and stored in Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse. The production teams at the headquarters of the SailGp League will then use this information to create content to be broadcast in 175 countries -; all obviously managed remotely, a solution that also reduces the travel of people and equipment from one stage to another and means less costs.
The super simulator
Oracle Cloud will also power a new SailGp simulator. As training is limited to a few days before each event, the simulator allows you to virtually compete with the F50s from anywhere. Based on a dynamic speed prediction program using data from Season 1, and on the visualization technology of an Oracle virtual graphic workstation, athletes can assume the positions of helmsman, grinder, wing trimmer or flight controller and work on different sets -up and tender conditions.
Coutts also intends to let us mere mortals experience the thrill of the virtual F50 catamaran in future SailGp events: in practice, there will be the possibility for spectators and enthusiasts to compete against a computer generated boat or compete with each other.
