Swiftsure Yacht Race (OT, not C-Dory)

T

timflan

New member
I just think this is pretty dang cool. You can follow all the boats' progress in the big Swiftsure race this weekend, because they've fitted all competitors with Class-B AIS transceivers. My friend Aaron, aboard Lightning, reports that the units are small, self-contained solar/battery-powered units you just clamp onto a rail.

I've written it up on www.navagear.com , but you can find the Swiftsure Tracker directly at www.swiftsure.org/tracker/ .
 
Do you have a direct link to your article? Hitting the link didn't work, and going to Navagear I could not find the article. The first time I got the Swiftsure tracker, it showed the boat symbols, but I could not get the ID to work, then the furture times, hitting the link, didn't get any boats or tracks.

What Class B AIS are they using? Is this FCC certified? I understood that there was some foot dragging by FCC on the small-inexpensive unit certification. Are these units available for general public at this point?

Thanks
 
Sorry, the punctuation spoiled the hyperlinks in my post above.

Here's a direct link to my little article, but I don't really have answers to your questions...I wish I did! Aaron's on scene there, and NOT racing (I'm not sure why, but his boat has a DNF, and hasn't left the harbor!). So he probably had lots of spare time to learn about the technology.

Yes, the FCC has been...um...especially thorough, shall we say, with Class B AIS approval. But the race occurs in Canada...has the CRTC approved any Class B AIS devices? I don't know. They MIGHT have a permit to equip the boats as part of an experimental implementation. It isn't clear, but I'm hoping to learn more from my man on the scene.
 
how cool is that! My dad used to race Swiftsure years ago, won his class one year Columbia 36 called "Snoopy" that had the coolest spinnaker - it was Snoopy doing his "happy dance" like this:

snoopy_dance.jpg
 
Thanks, Tim,
This time both links worked, and I was able to click on the individual aboats for information. The track feature worked for some, but not others. Great information.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the Class B and FCC approvial/prices in the US. The recievers are already cheap. The Class B's should end up being as cheap as a VHF radio some day down the line!
 
Squarehead":chz9i2f2 said:
My dad used to race Swiftsure years ago, won his class one year Columbia 36 called "Snoopy" that had the coolest spinnaker - it was Snoopy doing his "happy dance" [...]
Click to expand...
How many years ago? I did a lot of racing on Puget Sound in the mid 1990s, and I swear I remember Snoopy's spinnaker. I only raced one Swiftsure, and it was one of them "Driftsure" years...we retired in the middle of the night when it became clear we were not going to finish the race EVEN IF the wind came up.

thataway":chz9i2f2 said:
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Class B and FCC approvial/prices in the US. The recievers are already cheap. The Class B's should end up being as cheap as a VHF radio some day down the line!
Click to expand...
Well, as cheap as a VHF and a GPS, anyway! :-) Honestly, they SHOULD cost about $400, but probably not for a few years, until the novelty wears off.
 
Since the CSB200 is about $1000 in EU contries where it is approved, I would expect the prices to come down fairly rapidly. The GPS chip is quite cheap--and the STR Circuit board is in the FCC approval works (somewhere). I would not be surprised to see $400 in a year or so. The recievers only are quite cheap.
 
timflan":14bogwu4 said:
How many years ago? I did a lot of racing on Puget Sound in the mid 1990s, and I swear I remember Snoopy's spinnaker. I only raced one Swiftsure, and it was one of them "Driftsure" years...we retired in the middle of the night when it became clear we were not going to finish the race EVEN IF the wind came up.
Click to expand...

80's - think he raced her in Swiftsure 3 times, once got demasted after getting broadsided by a powerboat! 'Course he took the repair downtime as excuse to install a furling jib & remount the halyards to mid deck =)
 
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