Take command of your own race
by Wyatt Kane 20 Jul 2018 10:00 PDT
Vakaros Atlas © Vakaros
Sailing is an inherently complex sport with a wide range of variables, from wind and sea state to technique, tactics, and boat setup. With this level of complexity, performance on the water can sometimes be a mystery.
How many dockside conversations have devolved into a guessing game of what worked and what didn't? Was it a lucky puff? Slow tacks or gybes? How well did we start? What was our boat speed compared to the fleet? Divine intervention? Without any reliable measure of performance, improvement is a long, slow process of trial and error.
At the highest levels, sailors trust instruments to provide real-time feedback on the water and track their performance over time. It lets them know how they are doing second-to-second and measure improvement from one day to the next. America's Cup teams dedicate significant resources to collecting performance data and have coaches to review it. They use survey-grade gyrocompasses, differential GPS, and proprietary software to provide a complete real-time picture of boat performance. With all of this technology, teams can pinpoint exactly where they need to improve.
For sailors and teams without multi-million dollar budgets, instrumentation hasn't lived up to its potential. Existing products are slow to respond, inaccurate, and don't capture useful data for analysis. Slow, noisy GPS receivers provide only a vague indication of how fast you were going a few seconds ago. Fixed digit displays limit functionality and force you to buy a new product for every new feature. Some devices don't even deliver the basics; the most popular distance to line tool can't be read with polarized sunglasses.
As sailing expands to higher performance boats, these shortcomings are magnified, making the frustrating gap between the technology used by high-level pros and the devices available to the average sailor even wider.
To fill that gap, Vakaros has introduced the Atlas: a state of the art, all-in-one instrument that brings pro level technology to the mainstream. With 18 Hz GPS, magnetic heading, inertial sensors, and a configurable graphic display, the Atlas finally delivers on the promise of sailing instrumentation. Experience real-time performance feedback on the water. Nail the start with highly accurate Distance to Line and an estimate of Time to Line. Refine technique with the help of sophisticated analytics.
Learn more about the Atlas at www.vakaros.com/atlas