Velocitek

We have just added replays of Team Sevenstar SLAM's first 9 races at the Worlds to the Velocitek Replay Forum. The data for these replays was captured using Team Sevenstar SLAM's Velocitek SC-1 There are also some great photos in the event gallery.

Photo: Paul Todd

PORTO CERVO, ITA (10 June 2008) - Friday marked the close of possibly the most competitive Melges 24 World Championship in history, as well as the final race for GBR 592 under a British sail number.

Sevenstar SLAM is already on her way North to her new home in Oslo after a strong performance in the 2008 Volvo Melges 24 World Championship. “She’s been such a fast boat, and we’ve had great times all over the US and Europe sailing her,” said owner/helmsman Simon Strauss, who took initial delivery of the boat in 2004. With San Diego’s Bill Hardesty calling tactics, Strauss helmed Sevenstar SLAM to 5th and 7th place finishes in the championship’s final two races, moving up three places to a respectable 15th place for the regatta. After three days of gear busting Mistral winds, Friday saw a mix of conditions, starting out very light and building to 15 knots. “In moderate to heavy breeze, our upwind speed was incredible, and we sailed away from some of the fastest boats on the course,” said Strauss, the third-highest finishing owner/helmsman at the World Champs. “Our downwind speed wasn’t quite up to the same pace, but considering the credentials of some of our competition, we’re certainly happy with our result.”

A look at competition adds some perspective to Stauss’s performance, as well as that of all the amateur helmsmen at the Porto Cervo Worlds. The fleet included dozens of Olympic athletes and medallists as well as countless world, national, and continental champions in a variety of classes, and a number of teams were assembled especially for campaigns that would culminate in this big event. “We built this team about a year and a half ago with the goal of winning the championship,” said Federico Michetti, trimmer and program manager for Uka Uka Racing, the 2008 World Champion. With Michetti’s help, owner Lorenzo Santini put together an impressive crew including helmsman Lorenzo Bressani, a six-time world champ in the J/24, Beneteau 25 amongst others, Louis Vuitton Cup tactician Francesco Bruni, and European UFO22 Champion Francesca Prina. Aside from being a top Melges 24 racer and team manager for years, Michetti runs Melges Europe, the European distributor of the 24, the Melges 32, and the new Melges 20. “I love the Melges 32, but the skill level in the 24 fleet is something completely unique, and we feel incredibly fortunate to have pulled off the win,” said Michetti.

Uka Uka’s luck was powerful indeed, with her top four competitors suffering from major drama on the final day of racing. Alina Helly Hanson and Pilot Italia, in 2nd and 3rd going into Friday, saw uncharasterically deep finishes in the first race, while Flavio Favini on Blu Moon starting early for each of the two’s final races was an incredibly costly mistake for the top Swiss boat. At least these teams were able to finish out the day - Italian National Champion Gabrio Zandona, helming Joe Fly, saw their late-regatta charge to the head of the fleet thwarted when a shroud turnbuckle shattered in sloppy seas during the second race, ending their event and paving the way for Bressani’s clinching of the championship at the end of the penultimate race.

Joe Fly’s equipment failure points to the importance of perfect boat preparation at this level, where every mistake is amplified by the intensity of the competition. “Our team worked incredibly hard on getting Sevenstar SLAM properly set up for Worlds,” said Strauss. “Our shore crew did a great job on the boat, and Sevenstar Yacht Transport took perfect care of the boat on her transatlantic trip so that she arrived in perfect condition.” Stauss’s crew also used Velocitek’s SC-1 GPS race computer, whose line proximity feature helped prevent early starts like those that plagued Blu Moon on the final day. “The Velocitek is a great tool for big-fleet starts and for gaining confidence when you can’t see either end of the line,” explained Sevenstar SLAM forward hand James Hill.

Sevenstar SLAM Melges 24 Team

After more than a year of planning and development, today Velocitek released Version 3.0 of the Velocitek Control Center – a fantastic leap forward in race replay capability. Users will now be able to download, manage and play back information from multiple devices at once, allowing them to easily recreate races and training sessions involving multiple boats.

“While some great technical race analysis software has existed to date there has been no simple solution which allowed users to easily download, edit, combine and store race replays from a large group of boats – I am excited that we have been able to achieve this with the Velocitek Control Center 3.0” - Alec Stewart, President and Founder Velocitek.

The built-in race editor and creator allows the combining of multiple Velocitek GPS tracks into one replay which can easily be edited and replayed in the Race Player or exported to other GPS track analysis programs such as Google Earth or GPS Action Replay. This new feature makes it possible for a whole fleet to review their racing and training sessions – every tack, wind shift and change in boat speed! To see this in action, check out the demo video

As an added bonus, Velocitek also offers users the opportunity to publish their race or training sessions online, so anyone can watch and comment on the action. All sailors need to do is submit their Velocitek replay track files via email and Velocitek does the rest, compiling and publishing the tracks online at their race replay forum. Go to velocitek.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=181 to see an example from a race in Hawaii at the Lahaina Yacht Club.

In conjunction with the release of the Control Center with Race Replay, Velocitek has also introduced the “Fleet Pack”, which includes a bundle of five Velocitek SC-1 devices, mounting hardware, a USB hub and Version 3.0 of the Velocitek Control Center. Available at products section, it is priced at just $1950. “The Velocitek “Fleet Pack” and Velocitek Control Center 3.0 provides groups of sailors the opportunity to not only evaluate their individual performance on the water but to compare it with other boats in their fleet once they get back to shore” – Alec Stewart.

With two months left before the games, most of our training is happening in Qingdao. The weather tends to be hazy, but the statue of the Mazu, goddess of the sea (below) is still bright most days.

So far we've gotten lots of hours on the water, and we're looking forward to racing and training in whatever currents, ocean waves, and winds Qingdao has in store for us.

Velocitek was on board some of the top boats at the 2008 Mount Gay Rum Catalina 22 National Championship Regatta held last week, May 26-30, on Lake Grapevine, Texas. Grapevine Sailing Club and Catalina 22 Fleet 30 were thrilled to have Velocitek as a sponsor. After Monday's Memorial Day practice, Tuesday's race started off the week with a stiff breeze that died shortly after the start. Wednesday didn't give us much wind either, but Thursday and Friday's races couldn't have been much better and we were able to squeeze in some additional races to make up for earlier in the week. Randy Pawlowski on 'Gold Rush'was a brand new user that got his Velocitek on Monday night just in time to set it up for the first official races. After the races, he had nothing but good things to say and wished he'd bought it sooner. He primarily used the countdown timer to sync up with the race committee for starts and the compass upwind to help identify lifts and headers. He ended up finishing 7th of 27 in the gold fleet and commented that the knot meter especially helped keep boat speed up during the races, proving the Velocitek's usefulness right out of the box. Now we're all reviewing the tracks in preparation for next year's championship in San Fransisco.

Thanks again Velocitek!

-Jonathan Phelps
Organizing committee for the
2008 Catalina 22 National Championship Regatta
(www.catalina22fleet30.com)