Whenever I use raceQ's, my phone dies while on the water. It's pretty onerous in terms of data and battery for the sailors.

RaceQs is dead.

Here is the NOR paragraph from the Sydney to Hobart race, which uses Yellowbrick trackers.

13. TRACKING DEVICES AND CAMERAS
13.1. A boat shall carry a tracking device if so required by the Organising Authority. The device will be supplied by the Organising Authority. Once supplied, the tracking device becomes the responsibility of the Owner. Loss, damage or failure to return the tracking device will incur a £650 charge (to be charged in AUD at the exchange rate at the time). A boat on which such unit fails or ceases to operate may be required to provide additional position reports by radio/satphone in accordance with the Sailing Instructions.

13.2. A boat shall carry a camera or telemetry equipment if so required by the Organising Authority. The camera or equipment will be supplied by the Organising Authority. 

@John Is there another system available? re 13.1.  devices will NOT be supplied by the OA. The text should be like: "As an aid to overall race management, at least one competitor on each boat is requested to download and use the RaceQs app." Can someone translate it in NOR/SI language?

Try this thread in SA https://forums.sailinganarchy.com/threads/kwindoo-or-raceq-or.216510/ for some ideas.  There's also a German system used by Optis, and there's a guy round Sydney who has hand crafted a smartphone based system for boats to record and transmit their finishing times to the race committee.

It all depends on what specific purpose you want to use it for.  For example, do you want to:

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask competitors to download and run an app, but I  also don't think its unreasonable, for privacy or tactical concerns or just plain cussedness, for a competitor to refuse to do so.

If you want to make paid for hardware or software mandatory, the OA should pay for it an accept all risk of failure.

For a start, I think the words you have used would do fine, except I would leave out 'As an aid to overall race management', unless you have a legal privacy problem.

There are a lot of potential issues relating to tracking systems as far as I can see.
There is little doubt that tracking systems are the future and in a few years' time races will be run automatically with the systems recording start times, OCS boats, monitor that boats sail the course and record finishing times. There will only be a need for one person as RO to press the go button on the computer. No flag or horn mistakes and no redress claims!
However at this stage of development  a bit of caution is needed to make sure we are not running before we can walk. 
Before you can ask competitors to provide specialist equipment  I think you need to properly determine how and why you want to use it.

If it is to be used as a race management tool then I believe the OA needs to provide the equipment and take responsibility for its accuracy.
What we cannot allow to happen is for each OA to select different tracking systems so competitors need different equipment for each venue. I understand a Vakaros Atlas 2 box costs about AUD 1500. I am sure that. with the pace of technology changes and improvements, that a system 3 will be available followed by 4 and 5 over the next few years. Do we want to have competitors spend that sort of money each year or so? It is also possible of course that a good cheap alternative might shortly become available.

Will the tracking system be able to be used in protests? (I think it is no different from drone or video footage so should be treated the same way).

Will it be used to identify OCS boats and, if so, is it accurate and reliable enough for this purpose? It would need to be mounted in the same position on each boat.
What happens if the signal fails, and some boats get identified as OCS but others don't?

In my opinion it is only after all details have been resolved that effective SI's can be written.

Great comments John. I agree entirely.

Hello, Greg. Here's four ocean races that I know require trackers:

* SSS SHTP and Longpac require boats to supply position, but in keeping with the SSS' philosophy of "race what you've got," the systems are pretty ad hoc, so long as it gets the position to the RC regularly. The communications plan for SHTP might be the best single document to look at, https://jibeset.net/racedoc/JACKY/T004055182/nbrd_6.pdf 
* California Offshore Race Week uses Yellowbricks for finish recording, at least on some legs. Trackers are supplied to the OA and provided to boats. See NOR 1.7 and 7.x at https://offshoreraceweek.com/docs/2024-CORW-NOR.pdf 
* Chicago - Mackinac Race also uses Yellowbrick trackers, including for a virtual "gate." Trackers are supplied by the OA. See NOR 4(c), 4(m)(3), and 4(m)(4) at https://cycracetomackinac.com/assets/documents/2024_CYCRTM_NOR_Final.pdf
* Newport Bermuda uses Yellowbrick as trackers, supplied by the OA and provided to boats. See NOR 8.1 and 10.3 at https://racemanagement.blob.core.windows.net/customerspublic/Newport%20to%20Bermuda_8e08283a-7632-4a16-9561-94d1bedfa5c4/races/raceid_1590f2d9-180e-40a5-9c44-7eb54f8ad159/documents/Notice%20of%20Race%20Incorporating%20Amendment%201%20and%202.pdf


Felix, I believe the challenge with many cell phone systems is getting the position data off the phone and back to shore once the boat is away from cell towers. Michael M is a great local resource for that part. 


Hope this helps.

Good to hear from both John and Phil. Greetings from Ireland - it's snowing today!
There is are issues with using trackers to start or finish races:
- if the tracking position is used to decide if a boat has started or finished then this changes the RRS definition of start and finish.
- the accuracy of tracking depends on the refresh rate. I once watched the Figaro fleet sailing in very light conditions via a French Navy tracker system (the French take their offshore racing so seriously that a naval vessel follows the fleet). The refresh rate was 1-2 seconds, which meant that we could follow boats accelerate from O.5knots to nearly 2 knots in a gust and then slow.
On the other hand we tried finishing a race in Dublin using tracker data, only to realise that readings were only being taken once every 6 minutes! The fleet was so annoyed that 20 boats were represented at a hearing at the same time Ireland was beating the All Blacks in rugby!

In the same way, the tracked course of boats as shown on the screen is series of straight lines between tracker readings. Which does not necessarily provide convincing evidence that a boat has rounded a mark, or entered a no-go area.

Adding a Canadian race which allows cell phone tracking

* 2024 Southern Straits Classic Yacht Race, see ER 1.13 and the check in protocol of ER 28 at https://www.racingrulesofsailing.org/documents/7680/event

And another Canadian race:

* Royal Victorian YC (BC) Swiftsure is using a "Kwindoo Race Tracking app" per NOR 1.11 at https://www.swiftsure.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Swiftsure-2024-Three-Long-Courses-NoR-FINAL.pdf .

* The "Round the Island" race in Seattle also uses Kwindoo, and I think it may add virtual gates this year. Please reach out to Port Madison YC at https://portmadisonyc.org/event-5397162 if interested.