The sailing in the Olympics used much of the technology mentioned, including painting virtual lines on the water. The article feels overwrought, but the racing will be amazing. The new big Team NZ yacht is just near me here in Auckland, and feels like a tethered wild beast ready to be unleashed. Watch out for the rise of fixed wing sails, possibly transforming the yachting industry.
Hey Gibbon -- I'm not sure what catamaran you were looking at, but the America's Cup boats are actually even LARGER than that ...
The AC45 (the boat being used in current cup events while the larger AC72's are being designed and built) uses a 21.5m (71ft) wing ... and the boats that will be used in the actual Cup (the AC72) are even larger beasts -- a wing 40m (131ft) tall [1].
The design of and technology going into these AC class boats is fascinating. It's been a lot of fun watching the AC45's race and the AC72's will be quite a sight out on the water once they begin pushing 'em to their limits.
I think the racing in the Olympics also showed the limitations of this technology. Many times, the boats are what, on television, looks like miles apart, as some of them think they will get better winds by tacking now, and others think it is better to wait a few minutes before doing so. Between such groups 'meters to the finish line' is a bad approximation to 'seconds to the finish line'. Even with this technology, the sailors commenting on races often could not tell who was ahead.
You can diminish that by placing more buoys to round (effectively making the course smaller), but I am not sure it still is sailing, then.
Distance to finish is a poor estimator because the wind will be different in strength and direction in different places of the course. We use to have three marks in the Olympics but at some point it was reduced to two. I don't know why but I guess that the idea was to simplify the course for the sake of the spectators.
Not for the first time I heard spectators of the Olympics say that sailing is a very confusing sport and I hope that what is being done in the America's Cup and continued in London 2012 will help. On the other hand, I as a sailor, would like to see certain aspects of the race which are not spectator friendly at all.
Somewhat off topic, but do you mind if I drop a line to ask about the tech scene in Auckland? My wife and I are planning to emigrate to Auckland from the U.S. in the next few years and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the scene, whether a Yank like myself would be able to find a job, etc.
