RACE COMMITTEE

RACE COMMITTEE INNOVATES TO GO GREEN

BY JENNIFER STEFFLER

Several years ago, CYC started striving to achieve Platinum status in the Sailors for the Sea Clean Regatta program. While out on the water, I’ve lost count of the number of balloons, empty plastic bottles and bags, and styrofoam pieces I’ve “rescued” from the lake. The occasional recovery of a red (or sometimes faded to pink) Mount Gay hat counts as MOB practice rather than garbage pickup.

One of the requirements for being certified as a Clean Regatta is promoting “Green Boating” practices. One practice is to reduce fuel usage by employing MarkSetBots. This year CYC leased three MarkSetBots. These self-propelled Bots use multi-directional, electric trolling motors and GPS technology to set and adjust marks on a race course.

Using any cellular device, the Bots can be sent to a specific location based on where the user currently is (i.e., 120o @ 1.0 nm from the signal boat). One of our Bots has a wind instrument on it, so it continuously records and plots the wind direction in the App. RC can easily see the wind trends, which makes setting the course faster and helps us to provide higher quality races for the competitors.

If you’re a boat driver, don’t let the advertisements fool you! We still need you! These Bots are amazing and are changing the way we run races, but they aren’t perfect. While we can set a course for them to follow, they have no ability to avoid obstructions or other vessels. To prevent collisions, we tow them out to the race course, and the bots still require an operator to monitor them during a race. Fair warning, while sailors know they should always try to avoid hitting a mark, be extra careful with the Bots… they might just “hit back” as they return to station!