smarttune and smartlink create a new common denominator
by Lou Johnson 5 Aug 2020 01:26 AEST
1 August 2020
Onboard Dragonfly between Bembridge and the Forts during the RORC's Race the Wight © Dragonfly
Saturday 1st August 2020 saw one of the biggest races of the year in the UK, probably globally, with 133 boats competing in the Royal Ocean Racing Club's 'Race the Wight' in the most perfect conditions possible.
The fleet were welcomed with 12-23 knots and bright sunshine throughout the day, ultimate champagne sailing conditions. To make sure the champagne was flowing for the winners, being able to set and tune their rig correctly was paramount. To achieve this, some of the top guys harnessed the latest in wireless load sensing technology using the Smart Range of products from Cyclops Marine.
At least 10+ boats had either their smartlink or smarttune products connected and linked wirelessly to live load data on their phone app. Here is what some had to say:
"The technology worked brilliantly! It was essential for hitting the runner tension from tack to tack, we have good 'feel and eye' for our settings but the ultimate check was seeing the actual forestay load in real time on the phone app. Easy to see, big numbers, we hit 2,200kg coming through the Hurst Narrows when the boat was really cooking," explained Navigator and Tactician, Nick Griffiths on board 5th place IC37, ICY.
Cyclops CEO, Chips Howarth was helming 3rd place multihull Dragonfly 28, Dragonfly, "We trialled a smartlink on our Code Zero sheet from the Needles to St Cats, combining the wind speed and hull speed with the sheet loading helped us to stay in the groove for the whole leg. It was great to have a visible number when loads were softening or heating up too much."
smarttune was a common denominator for leading Jeanneau Sunfast models which saw them dominate the IRC Class 3 leader board.
To harness the power of smarttune and smartlink please visit www.cyclopsmarine.com for more information, #MeasureSuccess.