This year’s Windsurfer Australian national championships were held at the Toronto Amateur Sailing Club on Lake Macquarie. The event was a great success with a good variety of sailing conditions and plenty of happy sailors.
The event was made safer through the use of Inosscan for sailor Sign on and Sign off. Inosscan scanning stations were provided for sailors to scan their wristband tags before they entered the water and then again upon exit from the water.
The 140 or so sailors were issued with an Inosscan silicon wristband tag when they registered for the event. They scanned their tag at that time to confirm their registration.
They were jokingly told to keep the wristband on for the entire regatta so they never leave their tag back in their accommodation when it’s time for sailing.
The regatta was sailed over five days and the sailing consisted of course racing, a marathon, slalom and freestyle.
Registration and a briefing was held on the morning of day 1. The first sailing session was after lunch.
Sailors signed on at one of the Inosscan scanning stations before heading out onto the water.
Conditions were very light on the first day with only two divisions getting a race in. It was a very hot day at 36 degrees and sailors were happy to get out onto the water to cool off.
Sailors were very happy with how easy the sign on and sign off process was with Inosscan.
We had 2 scanning stations and, at peak times, signed people on and off using our phones.
The windsurfers usually use paper sheets for sign on and sign off. Paper isn’t compatible with wet sailors and end up a soggy mess at the end of each day.
Back to the sailing. Day 2 was sailed in 2 sessions in near perfect conditions 8-12 knots in the morning and 10-15 knots in the afternoon.
Three races were sailed in each session
Some sailors remarked that the wind was a bit light during the morning session. We didn’t hear any of that after the 6th race of the day.
Sailors signed on before going onto the water for the morning session and signed off when they came in for lunch. Inosscan made it easy for race management to keep an eye on the status of all sailors.
Sailors signed on and off again for the afternoon session.
A few sailors forgot to sign off after sailing and Inosscan was used to send them a sign off link. Everyone was accounted for very soon after the session finished.
The course racing was finished on the morning of day 3 with 2 races sailed on 2 courses with the wind starting to build near the end of race 2.
The wind continued to build during lunch on day 3 and the marathon was started in a building 20 knots of wind (see banner photo). Inosscan came into it’s own during this race with a number of competitors retiring and pulling into shore at various locations around the lake. They got transport back to the club and signed off. Again, the few outstanding were send sign off links via SMS and it wasn’t long before everyone was accounted for.
Day 4 saw the slalom racing sailed on two courses very close to the club. Conditions were back to a perfect 10-15knots great viewing was had on the Toronto shoreline.
The freestyle event was held first thing on day 5 followed by the finals of the slalom.
All in all a great event made safer through the use of Inosscan.
Inosscan was so successful at this event, the Windsurfer association intends to use it for all future events.
(Windsurfer branded images © Shane Baker)
