The Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15’s final, deciding leg from Lorient, France, to Gothenburg, via a pit stop in The Hague, which starts later today, can now be followed every minute of the way from your pocket thanks to the ground-breaking Tracker (full story below).
– Virtual Eye race Tracker goes live for all of Leg 9
– First live offshore sailing Tracker available on web and app format
– Follow the Leg 9 fleet all the way to the last stopover in Gothenburg
LORIENT, France, June 16 – The Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15’s final, deciding leg from Lorient, France, to Gothenburg, via a pit stop in The Hague, which starts later today, can now be followed every minute of the day from your pocket thanks to the ground-breaking Tracker.
The ever-popular Tracker, which is available on all the race’s digital platforms, is normally updated periodically via technology provided through Race partners Inmarsat and Cobham from the boats to Race Control in Alicante, Spain.
With so much at stake in the 960-nautical mile (nm) final stage leading up to the finish of the offshore stages in Gothenburg at the start of next week (June 22), the Volvo Ocean Race has upgraded the service so that fans are always up to speed on the very latest progress of their favourite team.
“We’re really pleased to be able to turn our web and app Tracker into ‘live’ mode for the final week of what has been an amazingly tightly-fought race over the last nine months,” said Race CEO, Knut Frostad.
“This has never been done before by any offshore race on a platform which can be accessed on mobile devices. As before, fans can also access the Tracker on their laptops and desktop computers on all kinds of web browsers.
“One warning, though. We all know just how addictive this race and the Tracker can be, so we hope our fans allow themselves some sleep over the next week!”
The Tracker, powered with graphics technology from New Zealand-based company Virtual Eye, offers a wealth of features including close-up 3D images of the boats and their performance, plus wind direction and speed.
Data is available with a frequency varying between 10 seconds and five minutes.
The final leg is intriguingly poised. Although Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) have taken an unassailable eight-point lead following their seventh podium placing out of eight legs in Lorient, the rest of the leading positions are still there to be claimed.
Four teams – Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED), Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA), MAPFRE (Iker Martínez/ESP) and Team Alvimedica (Charlie Enright/USA) – are all in contention for the prestigious second and third places.
By the time the fleet, including Leg 8 winners Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) and Team Vestas Wind (Chris Nicholson/AUS), reaches Gothenburg next week, on Monday or possibly Tuesday depending on conditions, it will have covered a total of 38,739nm and visited 11 ports plus every continent.
The 12th edition of the 41-year-old triennial event, formerly the Whitbread Round the World Race, draws to its climax on June 27 with the Inmarsat Gothenburg In-Port Race.
via Volvo Ocean Race breaks new ground with mobile-friendly Tracker| Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015.