Part IV: The R-evolution of the equipments

The 1980s were a very active decade in sailing instrument design. The sensors steadily improved; B&G introduced their Sonic Speed in 1984 to eliminate the moving parts of a paddlewheel that could clog with weed.

Antonio Lopera, technician at Dahlberg S.A., installing the Sonic Speed

Bespoke vertical masthead units appeared at the 1987 America’s Cup and soon became off-the-shelf items. More user control was added to systems, allowing for changes to damping and calibration – a first step in what would become a long search for accuracy.

Linear channels were created that measured voltage output by load sensors or potentiometers. This meant that functions like rudder angle, traveller position and forestay load could be measured.

As systems opened with communication networks (BUS) supplying data to external computers, people began to write their own tactical and performance programs.

The IBM PC didn’t come out until ’81, and really there was a very limited amount of microprocessor-based instrumentation around at all.

The most basic of concepts that we now take for granted — like menus with sub-levels — had to be worked out from scratch. But it was not until 1988 that was launch to the market a waterproof on-deck tactical system – the Deckman  – developed by Sailmath.

By the beginning of the 1990s though, the sailing world had what is recognisable as a modern system. The launch of B&G’s Hercules 690 is a good example. It had all the essential functionality that we would now expect of a yacht racing instrument system.

Two separate processor units integrated raw data from the sensors into performance data, and then distributed it to a set of displays, each capable of being programmed for specific data channels.

A modular design allowed for expansion of both sensors and displays, while a new proprietary bus handled all the communications between the processors and displays.

In 1992 this was relaunched with new hardware based on the ‘brick’ shaped TouchPC –  the Deckman by Sailmath.

It was Brice Pryszo who developed the first isochronal solution for weather routing, and his MaxSea software had led the way in this area since the mid-eighties.

Sailmath joined the game with the launch of Deckman for Windows in the mid-90s – essentially the Deckman software ported to the Windows platform.

This enabled the development of much greater functionality, and weather routing with third-part forecasts was added for the 1997-98 Whitbread.

SOURCE: NAVICO

If you haven’t read the third part, The equipment of the God, it’s here.

Friday 10, Part V: The R-evolution of the sensor.