New Sailing Technology trialling with RC yachts

by Lynn Fitzpatrick US Editor Sail-World.com on 1 Nov 2007 Anticipating that the 2007 RC-27 Worlds would take place in Kendall, FL again this fall, I contacted the regatta organizers immediately after last year’s championship to suggest some additions to their regatta program.

Rather than sailing at the traditional Sunday afternoon venue on the lake in front of Baptist Hospital, the organizers confirmed that once again the championship would be moved to a nearby lake and hosted from Raul and Joanne Lopez’s backyard.

With a year to plan, I then contacted Tom Verburgt and Steve Palm of Kattack and Gus Miller of the International Finn Class to see if we could adapt and apply their new technologies to the RC-27. Already laden with a keel and a large cluster of AA batteries firmly secured in the bilge, the RC-27 had some design features that needed to be considered in the adapting the new technology. The size and method of attachment of the mounting units were the most important factors in bringing this state of the art technology to the fiercely competitive RC-27 fleet.

Gus Miller was enthusiastic about developing a mini carbon fiber camera mount for the aft deck of the RC-27. 'The nice thing about the boat design is that there is no wheel, tiller or helmsman to interfere with the mounting device,' said Miller. He was a bit concerned about the size of the camera. The concern was fleeting. Philip Khan was able to supply us with some early model cell phone cameras that were, for all intents and purposes, weightless and miniscule. With the onboard camera addition under control, I turned my focus on Kattack.

Verburgt and Palm were skeptical at first. The RC-27’s are so close to shore that the competitors and spectators can see everything. I didn’t tell them what I had up my sleeve, but eventually persuaded them that this would be akin to another beta test for small fleets of small boats. It could help them in pitching Scott MacLeod of the World Match Racing Tour that there should be a big screen with hyper speed colorful Kattack tracking lines next to the ladder board at future events. Their excitement was overwhelming and they also started working on a feather weight system.

While e-mails were flying between designers, engineers and project directors, I made two other calls. The first was to a startup whose principals were from MIT. The fledgling company develops precision instruments. I explained how subjective calling starting lines can be. I also explained that I had a number of high-tech businesses collaborating on the project. It was a perfect project for the new company. They introduced the project to some of their first semester interns and before I knew it, I was making the big call.

A good friend of mine has designed and had approved a number of casino games. He loved it. 'I always thought sailing was an elitist sport, but this is our chance to bring it to the masses! Built in video, lots of variables, it’s awesome! I’ll need to work on figuring out the odds. What makes this attractive to me is that the professionals are not well known in the sport. It’s not like baseball or football. Jeeze! I should call my buddy, Sal and see if he wants to rep any of the talent.'

Everything came together. The organizing committee even decided to engage www.Sail-World.com as its media partner for the event. We e-mailed the invite to the defending champion and members of the class and posted the NOR and the SI’s to the regatta website. About a month in advance of the big day, when we felt that we had enough boats registered to order more than just veggie burgers and a cake for the awards ceremony, the development teams flew into town for a test event.

Rather than shipping hulls around the country to make sure that the fittings were right, we posted boat specs and plans to the web. After arriving in Miami, the collaborators worked until the wee hours of the morning for glue and caulking to dry on the test boat.

While the boat floated a little lower on its waterline, everything seemed balanced and its pitching and righting moments seemed minimally affected.

Early in the morning, the MIT crew laid a cable attached to the starting buoys close to the the bottom of the shallow lake, perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction and taking into account the current from the storm drain to the east. They assured us that should wind conditions change throughout the day, the cable could be relocated with the buoys. The important thing was to make sure that the AV signal indicating that the bow of the boat had crossed the cable, could be relayed back to the skipper within tolerances established for the Olympics by engineers at Omega.

The other issue was turning off the cable’s ability to be detected by the bow-mounted SASSS unit (Super Accurate, Super Smart Starting) within less than a nanosecond of the start.

Over brunch, we discussed how to monitor Rule 42. That sparked the team’s first hint of dissention. Some voted for flipping a coin every time that a judge hovered over a competitor’s shoulder. Others didn’t see the need for enforcing rule 42 because there were no bodies aboard. After concluding that the contestants were masters with remote controls and could skull and pump like pros, it was decided that flipping a coin would be used on a trial basis this year and that an amendment would be made to the SI’s.

After about twenty minutes of getting used to handling the boat with the additional equipment aboard and allowing the technicians to perform their final diagnostics, the countdown to the start commenced. We sent one decoy over the line early and the SASSS alarms sounded. Other boats gathered steam and to spectators on shore, it looked like a clean start.

John McKnight wrote the following in his recap of the race,

'I had a little problem. I rounded the leeward mark and was heading upwind when disaster struck. My yellow boat came to a sudden stop, dead in the water. I thought to myself that is a little strange. Then the boat started settling lower in the water. The stern started to drop and the bow started to rise out of the water.

'I am thinking, 'What the heck is happening?' This was looking like the Titanic in that movie. Suddenly the boat started sliding backwards at about a 45 degree angle into the water. The whole hull disappeared below the water. Just the sails and mast were out of the water and they was (were) sinking fast. I watch the wind indicator slip below the surface. Everyone saw it. We were all standing there dumbfounded.'

We turned our backs to the lake and started reviewing the tapes. My friend, Vegas, as we affectionately call him, was excited. 'Bermuda Triangle! Even people who don’t sail can understand that! I didn’t factor the odds of disappearing boats into the odds, but it’s just a minor adjustment.'

While Vegas jumped for joy, the others rowed out to where there monitors indicated that the boat had sunk. All of the on board tracking devices and cameras continued to send back signals and everybody was relieved that they held up to being submerged to a depth of eight feet.

The boat was salvaged and brought back to shore. A mark on the keel was our only telltale sign as to what precipitated the sinking. It matched the color of the submerged cable that was set upwind of the leeward mark. While John dried off his boat and sprayed all electrical connections, additional weights were added to the cable and the test continued.

We apologize about not having announced this on April 1, as planned but we can confirm that the RC-27 World Championships will be held the weekend after Thanksgiving. You can follow the regatta on all of the collaborators’ websites. If you are in Las Vegas that weekend or at a pari-mutuel gambling site, look for a new sailing game that sounds off lots of bells and whistles once you hit the jackpot.