The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and web site developers Massive Interactive have developed www.rolexsydneyhobart.com, a highly innovative dedicated official web site for the 2002 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race which went on line this week.

The new site was launched today and will be fully active in the lead-up to and throughout the 630 nautical mile long ocean race down the Australian East Coast.

Major feature of the website will be Yacht Tracker, a satellite tracking system which will provide real time positions of each yacht throughout the race, updating every 10 minutes.

The CYCA will equip each boat in the fleet with an Inmarsat D+ transmitter which will automatically update the yacht’s latitude and longitude and transmit it via satellite to an earth station.

From there, the data will be transmitted to the website, showing in text and graphics each yacht’s position in the fleet, its place relative to other boats, and the speed currently being achieved, as well as the direction the boat is sailing.

Website viewers will be able to look at the overall state of the fleet or zoom into a group of boats, as well as accessing the current status of an individual boat.

In addition to the constant real time position reports via Yacht Tracker, positions received from the fleet will be immediately converted by a highly sophisticated spreadsheet into a report on the website that shows each yacht’s position in the fleet, distance to the finish line, as well as its progressive corrected time position under the IMS, IRC and PHS handicap categories.

Thus, once every 10 minutes viewers will be able to determine the handicap and line honours position of every boat in the fleet.

The web site www.rolexsydneyhobart.com also will by race start time contain a wealth of current and archival information about the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

This will include continuous news releases, background features, photographs and audio and visual interviews, as well as weather forecasts and, as the yachts finish, their finishing times and overall and division positions.

In the lead-up to the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, the official website includes the complete list of yachts entered, along with a photograph, a description of each boat, and a rundown on the crew.

There are also special features on the website about personalities associated with Australia’s most famous ocean race…the sailors who have sailed in 25 Hobart Races and more…the yachts which have battled up to 25 races south…those who are heading south yet once more…or for the first time ever.

Archival data on www.rolexsydneyhobart.com includes the complete results of the past 57 Sydney Hobart Races since the first in 1945, plus the weather they encountered; a summary of the line and overall handicap winners of those races; historical stories and statistical information; designers of those 57 overall (corrected time) winners; and some of the personalities who have sailed to Hobart over the years

Source: Peter Campbell