Dear readers,
Before almost all races in national and international regattas, you can see that sailors approach as close as possible to the starting boat and the "pin end" in order to record their positions. So much for the usual procedure. At the end of the week, however, the International Star Boat Class Association announced that the next World Championships will be held in "Vakaro's Atlas 2" compasses with Racesense officially come into use.
Every participating boat as well as the start line and other course markers will be equipped with the new software. The system will ensure that the sailors no longer have to stop the time until the start signal, for example, as the sailors' devices will access the official timekeeping of the race organisers. In addition, "pinging", which is necessary before the start of a race with the digital compasses in order to get the start line into the system, will become superfluous.
Up to this point, there is little to criticise about the innovation in my opinion. Of course, it can be argued that managing to time the race correctly and setting the start line correctly are also part of racing. But if it were up to me, it should be the sailing performance within a race that counts.
The class association now also hopes that the system will "recognise in real time whether a boat crosses the line too early". According to the press release, the "Vakaros Atlas 2" is intended to ensure greater fairness and transparency. Unfortunately, I think it takes away too much of the appeal of the original regatta sailing.
Every weekend in the Bundesliga, we see how the video referee has taken the joy out of the game for many fans. The attempt to make football fairer has repeatedly culminated in protests from spectators, even years after the technology was introduced. Although it can be argued that the system makes football fairer and that the same could be achieved through the use of the software described above, ultimately the technology will not remain error-free. However, I would find this far more difficult to accept than inaccuracies made by a race director.
The Star Boat Class Association also plans to notify sailors who have crossed the start line too early that they must turn back via the vacaros. This takes away the sailors' responsibility to decide for themselves whether they are meant to be flying the "X" flag for individual recall or not.
I, for one, am not a fan of frantically trying to make sailing fairer through the excessive use of technology. For me, football is an important example in the debate as to why this is not beneficial to the sport.
Nils Leiterholt
YACHT editor
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