Mapping for a better understanding of ocean racing
Despite the health crisis, sailing and ocean racing were finally able to hold their own. Between the Vendée Globe and the Jules Verne Trophy, the autumn and winter of 2020 are full and amateurs, whether seasoned or not, have their eyes glued to the official maps of the various events and teams. For a yacht, the straight line is rarely the fastest route to the finish and the skipper adapts to the weather. The rankings based on distance to the finish, announced each morning on the radios, can be misleading. On the strength of this observation, some amateurs have expressed a desire for more accessible charts and more comprehensible results.
Active on the subject for 8 years, Volodia of his pseudonym, explains the genesis of his approach. "The idea at the beginning was to have several record races on the same cartography, and then to allow the general public and the sailing community to better follow these races. Then came the question of the relevance of the rankings. Today, we base ourselves on a theoretical route determined by waypoints that are placed manually (Editor's note: method now also adopted by some "official" charts). The objective is to find an automatic solution to calculate the position and ranking in relation to an average boat routing and then find an interesting way to present this in the end" explains the designer.
A Vendée Globe cartography is available at the link at the bottom of the article, presenting both the official rankings and the open data from the new solution.
An open-source initiative to boost major sailing races
The approach carried by Volodia and a group of volunteer developers is entirely open-source. "The aim is to avoid duplication of effort. We all have a job on the side and we want to be efficient. This will allow new people to come up with new things. The big players have fixed solutions that don't evolve much. Today it's a hobby project, but as always in open-source, companies can use these codes to move faster and propose new maps" concludes Volodia with hope.
