Technology | B&G Sailing NZ

The equipment

"B&G is going to be a great fit for the F50s, these are the highest performing sail racing boats in the world and so they need very reliable equipment. B&G has proven that time after time" - Tom Slingsby

From race boats to PRO, chase, support and mark boats, B&G instruments are at the heart of the F50s and the support boats, helping SailGP redefine the sport of sailing.

B&G has worked closely with SailGP as it heads into the second season of competition this year to integrate the B&G Zeus³S Glass Helm multifunctional display directly into the F50 catamaran’s wingsail. In a truly innovative world-first, the tactical display has been built into the wingsail itself.

“Our 24-inch B&G Zeus3S Glass Helm display will provide SailGP’s teams and athletes key data to make crucial tactical decisions during the race in the blink of an eye with all the customized information available right in front of them,” said Simon Conder, Global Head of Brand for B&G. “We are delighted to be working with SailGP to lead the way with innovations like these. To our knowledge the F50 is the first and only boat in the world to feature a Multifunction Display in its wingsails, and we have no doubt it will make it much easier for the athletes to make those fast and critical decisions they need to.”

The B&G windsensors on the F50 catamarans are at the heart of everything SailGP. They provide the sailors on the superfast boats with accurate, relevant data to keep wings at optimal trim and to make sure the foiling catamarans are sailing to their utmost potential. This data is also fed back to race control, allowing them to monitor conditions and enforce safety limits.

The SailGP race committee boat isn't like you'll see on your average start line. This one is fully kitted out with B&G H5000 systems, which allows for precise, intelligent calibration of all sensors. That means that even though it's coming from a rolling and pitching moored committee boat, the wind data can be relied upon for clear and valid race management decisions - which, when the F50s can do 50+ knots, is vital.

Advanced Wind Plot on the MFD allows the PRO to view historical true wind data. The true wind direction and speed calculated by H5000 is then used in the LiveLine TV graphics for showing laylines and wind data for the spectators.

When the boats that they are keeping up with are doing more than 50 knots you know that the chase boats need to be seriously capable. These are kitted out with the best technology available: That's multiple large B&G Zeus³ plotters, AIS transponders and VHF Radios, as well as our new HALO24 pulse-compression Radars.

Each chart plotter is connected via Ethernet to SailGP telemetry equipment, which provides wireless access to the MFD via a 4G network. This allows race control to push courses, mark positions, race timer control and conversational chatter to the B&G chart plotter on each support and race boat.

The foils on an F50 are extremely high tech, delicate bits of carbon fibre, and very vulnerable - so the chase boats are also kitted out with Structurescan 3D sonar transducers. This lets them survey the launching and sailing areas to check that there are no underwater obstructions that will cause damage to the F50s foils. Using C-MAP Genesis technology this data is used to draw custom charts of the seabed in the dock.