Australia's Brisbane to Keppel Race Yellow Brick Trackers are Alive!

by Suellen Hurling on 3 Aug 2010 For the first time in the short Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race history, satellite GPS trackers will be installed on each boat and will follow the fleet from Manly to Keppel Bay Marina.

Host club Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron has partnered with British company Yellow Brick and using their technology boats positions will be updated on the race website every 15 minutes.

'We laid the trackers out on our Sailing Academy rigging lawn, and within 15 minutes they had worked out that they were no longer in London and found themselves in Manly, on the foreshore of Moreton Bay, Brisbane Australia,' said race organiser Suellen Hurling.

'They have since been turned off and will go live again on Thursday once they have been installed on all boats,' continued Hurling.

The units are completely wireless and will track boats and they sail up the Queensland coast showing speed, distance to go and heading.

This is the first time this particular tracker has been utilised in Australia.

The races starts at 1500 hours on Friday 6 August east of Green Island on Moreton Bay in Brisbane. Spectators are welcome to watch the boats as they sail off into the sunset.

Race Website: http://www.brisbanetokeppel.com

Tracker: http://www.brisbanetokeppel.com/yacht-tracker/

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/brisbane2keppel/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/brisbanetokeppel.com/

SMS Registration: http://www.brisbanetokeppel.com/sms

The Club Marine Brisbane to Keppel Tropical Yacht Race is part of Queensland Tourism's Season of Sailing calendar and is proudly sponsored by O'Reilly's Real Estate, Angove Wines, Morgan's Seafood, Capricorn Tourism, Rockhampton Regional Council and of course Club Marine.

The race is hosted by Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron with the support of Keppel Bay Marina, Keppel Bay Sailing Club, Yeppon Coast Guard and Bundaberg VMR.