The technology focus for the new SailGP global championship has been on the F50s and for good reason. The F50 is a new class of boat that shares DNA with the revolutionary cats used in the last America’s Cup. The boats are turbo-charged with advanced foils and sophisticated control systems. It has been an impressive undertaking and has delivered yet another step forward for high-performance sailing.
F50s are capable of more than 50kts (60 mph) and can make 30kts downwind in less than 10kts of breeze. The technical advances are clear to see. ‘Race Control set and modify the course on a PC-based navigation system, which is sent to the LiveLineFX servers for processing and redistribution’, explains Matt Eeles, R&D lead for B&G. In addition to a Fibre Optic Gyro compass, the committee boat utilises a B&G H5000 motion corrected wind solution to calculate true wind data, which is used by the Principal Race Officer to set the course axis and length. It also provides the true wind data for the layline and wind broadcast graphics.
