Spectators and competitors alike gave the universal thumbs-up to Cowes Week’s new Spectator app – but only after exhaustive refinement and testing to ensure it hit the ground glitch-free and operating at full capacity
Many sailors will be very used to turning up at a regatta and being asked to scan a QR code to open a WhatsApp group that the organizers use for communications.
Once upon a time, these were open channels filled with general competitor chitchat as well as race information from the RO. Latterly, they have become broadcast only, but they are still extremely limited in their capability. How, for instance, do you cope with a fleet of not 60 boats, but 600, spread across not half a dozen classes, but 40 different classes, all using the same race marks for their courses? In the case of Cowes Week, the answer was to write a dedicated event app and to tie that into the organization’s entry system so that from start to finish the event team can use one database of information. More here.
