Race Tracking

[Eric Thomas]

I am not sure if this is old news to this event, but I thought I would ask, Out here on the Great Lakes we used FIS and ION Earth race tracking for this years Singlehanded Trans Superior race with great results. The two systems are very different both worked well and our site got 850,000 hits in 4 day! A little bit of add revenue on the site off set the cost while friends, family and the race organizers loved it. Any thoughts on this?

Eric Thomas
Olson 30
Polar Bear

 

[sleddog]

Eric,

In this this year's Transpac, FIS tracking "crashed" when the fleet was mid-ocean, leaving racers, officials, and shoreside followers in the dark for the duration of the race.

As far as I know, FIS never published any explanation or apology for what happened. I doubt they will be invited back by TPYC.

 

[dogbark]

Didn't the tracking equipment for most of the remaining fleet in the Mini Transat fail a couple of days ago as well? Al

 

[Robert Stodieck]

I am not sure if this is old news to this event, but I thought I would ask, Out here on the Great Lakes we used FIS and ION Earth race tracking for this years Singlehanded Trans Superior race with great results. The two systems are very different both worked well and our site got 850,000 hits in 4 day! A little bit of add revenue on the site off set the cost while friends, family and the race organizers loved it. Any thoughts on this?

Eric Thomas
Olson 30
Polar Bear

(reposted from Singlehanded Sailing Society general category)

New satelite tracking and emergency beacon option

Slightly flawed I think, but it is cheap enough to be taken seriously by singlehanders and the Transpac racers. Spot sends your position continuously and allows you to send an "I'm OK", "send the coasties", "come get me" canned messages.

Flawed since real SMS messaging would be so helpful even one way, but better than just an EPIRB. Service is $100 per year? Can be worn around the neck. Try that with your marine SSB, antenna, and your boats battery.

http://www.findmespot.com/newsroom/background.aspx

Reply With Quote

 

[sleddog]

Corrections appreciated, but according to the SPOT system website, mentioned above, coverage is only reliable to about halfway from mainland to Hawaii. Apparently no coverage for last third of crossing. Seems a personal EPIRB or Iridium sat phone w/ SAR phone number preprogrammed would be a better bet, if one is thinking this way.

 

[Kuewa]

Eric,

In this this year's Transpac, FIS tracking "crashed" when the fleet was mid-ocean, leaving racers, officials, and shoreside followers in the dark for the duration of the race.

As far as I know, FIS never published any explanation or apology for what happened. I doubt they will be invited back by TPYC.

As we were shoving off the dock at Waikiki Yacht Club on Cipango for the delivery home after the Transpac, someone from FIS ran up and handed us the boat's transmitter that had been repaired somehow. We knew nothing of what they had done, or what the problem had been, but the transmitter worked for 15 1/2 days back to SF.

Tony

 

[Robert Stodieck]

Corrections appreciated, but according to the SPOT system website, mentioned above, coverage is only reliable to about halfway from mainland to Hawaii. Apparently no coverage for last third of crossing. Seems a personal EPIRB or Iridium sat phone w/ SAR phone number preprogrammed would be a better bet, if one is thinking this way.

No corrections required. The original post was not in the Transpac forum and was not targeted specifically at people sailing to Hawaii. It was just a mention of an affordable new option. SPOT is based on the Globalstar satellite network which is geographically more limited than Orbcomm based systems like FIS and the Magellan GSC100 communicator. None of these systems are ideal, and if you only have one trick up your sleeve, your just not James Bond on the the water. All of these systems come with a "your lifetime" warranty. Redundancy is really a requirement for the Transpac.

BTW: The geographical coverage of any satellite based system is a moving target (so is SSB). They aren't going to schedule a new launch to accommodate your travel plans when transponder xxb5 craps out over the Pacific.