Over the last weekend, Dan has been lucky enough to have been asked out to sail with one of the earliest boats that used Sail-Sense, with full Performance Subscriptions, fitted to all their upwind sails. This was Simon Perry's J109 called Jiraffe. Simon started using Sail-Sense when we had early prototypes made, and has been one of the boats that has been key to the ultimate success of the product, along with a range of other boats including J70's, TP52's, Fast 40+ and other club racers right through to boats such as the Mini Maxis, Magic Carpet 3, Saudade, M5, Inukshuk and Sorcerous
Simon has invested a huge amount of time and money on new North Sails over the last few months, and so he really wants to know exactly how long and hard they have been used for, as well as where they are stored in between races. Before he had Sail-Sense, Simon used to keep a manual record of which sails he took on the boat, which were used and where they were left. This of course is an extremely laborious process and prone to human mistakes.
Simon now has 7 Sail-Sense devices, with full Performance subscriptions, fitted to not only his new sails, but also to his older sails. This is so he can review the exact number of hours each sail has been used for so that if its a training day, he can select the best possible sail. Recently, this new data meant that he realised that one of his older sails had actually been used less than he more recent ones, which allowed his to chose the best sails for practicing with. And with that choice made, the app guided him to the exact location of the sail, in his sail locker.
Since this last weekend was the first day out with two brand new sails, Simon asked if Dan could come along to see for ourselves just how it has transformed the quality and ease of how he records just how long, and hard, the sails have been used, that is now automatically recorded by the Sail-Sense devices, in the "field".
As you can see from the images below, there are several key bits of information that immediately jump out. First of all, with a press of a button, it tells him exactly which sails are actually on the boat. As we left the dock, this simple action saved our regatta as it told us that we had a sail on the boat that was not allowed for this particular regatta, which we then left on the dock. Brilliant!
And then, by simply starting a (digital, Sail-Sense) Race in the app, selecting all the sails he has Sail-Sense fitted to, all the crew with access are able to see exactly which sails were actually used during the race and for how long and hard they were used, and even the exact time we changed headsails. And once the racing was finished we were able to plot all this data, alongside the speed and course with the data output function.
In short, we were so pleased to hear from Simon that it really has transformed the way he records the use and location of all his sails. As a a club racing boat, that usually appears near the top of the scoreboard, Simon has said that the information that he now gets, from all his sails, at the touch of a button, has transformed that part of his annual sailing programs.
For more information on how to try Sail-Sense, visit the Spinlock Website and download the free app at the Apple and Android app stores.
Comments