The Star Sailors League is making real inroads into creating the first ever – long overdue – international ranking system for sailors… of every type

Who is the best sailor in the world? This is something that can be determined subjectively, as happens annually in the Rolex World Sailor of the Year awards. But would it ever be possible to calculate this mathematically? Obviously there are inherent problems in a sport as diverse as sailing.

How can you compare the achievements of an Olympic gold medallist with the helm or one of the crew who won the America’s Cup, Volvo Ocean Race, Vendée Globe, Moth Worlds, 52 Super Series, Melges 32 Worlds or the Solitaire du Figaro? This is not just like trying to compare apples and pears, but apples with watermelons, grapefruit or gooseberries.

Making the most concerted and sophisticated effort to date towards this goal is the Star Sailors League. The pinnacle event in their often misunderstood circuit that aims to determine not the best Star sailor, but the best star of sailing, is the Star Sailors League Finals. For the past five years this event has been held in December in Nassau. Here there are indeed many veterans of the Star Class; however, they also happen to be among the best sailors in the world.

Among last December’s line-up were three Volvo Ocean Racewinning skippers: Paul Cayard and Torben Grael, both Star veterans, and Franck Cammas, who is not. In addition, there were five Olympic gold medallists and between the 25 skippers and 25 crew competing there were a total of 47 world championship titles in Olympic classes alone (the high score going to Robert Scheidt with 12 world titles to his name).

The Star Sailors League has been conceived with the aim of first determining, but also recognising and boosting the profile of the world’s best sailors. In addition to the finals, and the proposed four annual Grand Slam events, which in due course will feed into this, the backbone of the Star Sailors League is its Ranking.

The Ranking goes back to the very core concept of the Star Sailors League, which was set up based on the model of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour.

In the early 1970s tennis was in a state of chaos. National federations throughout the world were all-powerful, deciding which of their players competed in which event. The events too were in disarray, some allowing only pros, others only amateurs.

It was tedious so in 1971-72 they all got together for a discussion in Flushing Meadow. There they said, ‘Now we are together we will create the ATP, but to do that we need a ranking. We are all allowed to participate, it is open, but the ranking will decide who goes to Roland-Garros or to Wimbledon.’

That power now belonged to the players, thanks to their new ‘union’, was fully demonstrated when the pro tennis players boycotted Wimbledon in 1973 – a watershed moment in the history of professional tennis.

The Star Sailors League Ranking helps establish which sailors should be invited to their events. But, in addition, a meaningful ranking that is fair, reflective and easy to understand has multiple other benefits – helping to establish genuinely who are the best sailors, in turn helping to further the careers of professional sailors. It is also good news fodder for journalists, in a tried and tested format long established by other sports.

The Ranking established by the Star Sailors League obviously includes its own events but, importantly, other events, both major or otherwise, outside the League. At present it is still in its infancy, featuring principally results from the Star class, but this season results and points scored from Snipe, Finn and Soling events will be added to the Ranking and other classes are being invited to submit results from their events to be part of the Ranking too.

Even at this early stage the Ranking already has 2,500 sailors registered in its ‘system’. Given SSL’s aim of including all dinghies and small keelboat classes, and to do it globally, this monumental task starts to take on Human Genome Project proportions involving 10 Olympic classes, 143 World Sailing classes and 1,000+ non-World Sailing classes.

But while it may be early days in accumulating the data, thanks to borrowing from equivalent systems used in other sports, the Star Sailors League Ranking is already highly advanced in terms of its maths. At present it divides events into seven levels of category: for example, the winner of an U23 Finn World Championship would score 65 per cent of 2,500 points (ie 1,625 points).

Rather than allocating points only to the top 10 or top 25 finishers at each event, the Star Sailors League Ranking allocates points to everyone, right down to the crew in last place. Therefore, in addition to the above points allocations, the number of Ranking points a sailor scores at an event also has to be based on the number of each event’s participants.

It doesn’t end there either. The allocation of Ranking points also favours the best exponentially. So those who have performed best – specifically the top five, the top 10 and top 15 – all score substantially more than those who finished below this, for whom the Ranking points level out.

Fortunately, the Star Sailors League Ranking software is intelligent enough to calculate all this.

The Ranking system established by SSL (below), which started out grading Star results only, has now been extended to other classes in a bid to collate data to rank sailors across the board. Right: Paul Cayard, the 1998 Star World Champion who has sailed in the class more or less continuously since the late 1970s, has long been a fan of simplifying the sport for outsiders and has been an enthusiastic supporter of the League from the start

Significantly, a further refinement of the Ranking is that it does not continually accumulate points, which would favour sailors who competed in the most events. Instead, each sailor’s total score on the Star Sailors League Ranking is the sum of their six top-scoring events (in terms of ranking points). This does favour those who compete in more events, just not as directly.

The Ranking is rolling, so it doesn’t restart at the beginning of the year, for example, and is updated weekly. Event scores on the Ranking last for two years and drop to 50 per cent of their initial value in year two.

There are separate rankings for skippers and crew and there are even rules in place if skippers/crews change midway through an event.

Given not just the complexity of this, but also the sheer number of sailors who will ultimately end up in this database once more classes are added, it is understandable that the Star Sailors League is keen to bring onboard a company like SAP to assist in the data acquisition and number crunching.

From there it would be a small step to add yacht racing. The Ranking has started with small boats, the Star Sailors League argue, principally because this is the area of the sport practised by the highest number of participants and yet these sailors typically receive the least amount of attention because they lack the substantial marketing budgets of high-profile America’s Cup or Volvo Ocean Race campaigns.

A fair, accurate and meaningful ranking would definitely serve to make sailing more understandable to the public. It is argued that sailing’s diversity is also its downfall. By having more than 100 world championships annually, the sport lacks focus. The Star Sailors League Ranking aims to rectify this as well as being highly beneficial to the athletes themselves, creating a reliable benchmark by which to compare themselves with their peers, as well as their own personal performance year on year, in turn encouraging them to improve.

If there is an entity likely to succeed in making all this happen it is the Star Sailors League.

Click here for more information on the Star Sailors League »

…or how a famous German software company is fast raising the stakes in course management

In F1 Lewis Hamilton knows where his power is coming from because his Mercedes McLaren is fuelled up before the race with a carefully calculated amount of fuel that depends on conditions, track layout, driving style and so on. A sailor, however, never quite knows how much power he’s going to get, which direction it will come from and how long it might last.

Solving the problem of predicting weather and current conditions has gone through a quantum leap in the past few years, particularly in long-distance offshore racing. But big gains are also being made in short-course competition, particularly in Olympic sailing. At the forefront of this drive for greater knowledge and forecasting accuracy is Buell Software, in Germany.

It all started just over 20 years ago when Ingo Buell, a PhD in physics, entered a national competition to win a prize fund put forward by Daimler Benz Aerosail to develop technology that would help Germany’s Olympic sailors succeed at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Aided by his Masters students at Kiel University, Buell developed some routeing software. Jochen Schümann, competing in the Soling keelboat, analysed the printouts every morning before racing. He went on to win the gold medal, and so Buell Software was born.

Buell have provided current and tidal analysis to a number of Olympic teams for the past two Games, London 2012 and Rio 2016, but their new program for 2020, SailTokyo, takes things to a new level with integration of wind data and many other new features, as sales manager Yvette von der Burchard explains: ‘It’s a cloudbased team solution designed to prepare your sailing team for the Olympic Games – Tokyo 2020, Marseille 2024 – and all the World Sailing events and Olympic class world championships.’

Marcus Baur represented Germany in the 49er at two Olympic regattas, in London 2000 and Athens 2004, as well as winning the European Championships twice. He has worked closely with Buell Software for a number of years. ‘Sailing Team Germany were sponsored by the German software giant SAP from 2009 to 2016. During this time SAP and Sailing Team Germany partnered with Buell Software for the Olympics, with Ingo Buell coaching the team and providing his tidal analysis.

‘Hardly anyone in the world has thought more deeply about the influence of sea currents on sailing races than Ingo Buell,’ says Baur. ‘As a physicist and programmer he completely demystified the problem and developed algorithms, software applications and easy-to-use apps that empower sailors to get to grips with the subtle, and sometimes paradoxical, influence of complex tides. Apart from being a great learning tool, it enables sailors and coaches to predict the impact of the current in relation to prevailing wind patterns. A priceless performance gain and a must-have tool in a sailor’s toolset. I wish I’d had access to that weapon during my time as an Olympic sailor.’

The core element of the tool is the unique routeing algorithm that reflects the characteristics of Olympic boat classes. You can plug in the polars for a Laser Radial and the system will draw in wind forecasts and tidal data and crunch the best course for a Radial. You can even analyse the differences between going left, right or tacking with the shifts up the middle.

Buell says: ‘SailTokyo enables you to create models of currents and wind from your measured data. It also offers various wind patterns and current models for education. Teams can collect, store and share their data in their own cloud. Plus SailTokyo offers interfaces to all common measurement systems for currents or wind and integrates your existing data.’

A team licence for SailTokyo is subject to an annual fee that covers all devices they use. While the base package is extremely powerful in its own right, Buell Software offer additional services to customise the software. This way teams can boost the value and differentiate from others.

Buell Software have a number of products that have proved popular with the keelboat community, such as their Solent tidal analysis tool which integrates the polars of a number of popular racing classes. One sailor who has become a firm convert is Andrew ‘Dog’ Palfrey, the much sought-after coach who has worked with many top-flight teams including Artemis Racing in the America’s Cup. ‘I have used Race Area Analyser in the Solent for a number of years. I have also used it in La Rochelle. During long days on the Solent I will often validate the information by doing physical current checks, particularly during the tide-change periods. I am very impressed with the accuracy of the tidal information.

‘I like that Race Area Analyser helps to keep things simple for racing sailors. The routeing feature gives a gain/loss time delta. This helps in deciding if the current is going to be key on a given leg, or if we can largely discount the current when making strategic decisions.

Above: Using detailed data on wind and currents that can be validated by coaches out on the water, combined with the polars of a class of boat, SailTokyo allows detailed analysis of different tactical and strategic options. This is of high value for preparation as well as post-race analysis. This (below) is the recorded comparison of different tactical solutions for two Lasers while training out of the 2020 Olympic Regatta venue in Enoshima

‘Having come to rely somewhat on the accuracy of Buell’s Race Area Analyser in my adopted home of Cowes, I asked Yvette about a solution for the Etchells Worlds held on San Francisco Bay last year. They did not have a ready-made product, but offered the SailTokyo solution with a chart of SF Bay and all the functionality for me to set up courses and import a third-party GRIB current file (which we easily accessed from TideTech).

‘Buell did a great job in preparing and delivering the software with a set of easy-to-follow instructions. SailTokyo proved to be a very important aid during our campaign. Early in our trip, during the pre-worlds and training, we validated the readings. They were very accurate, which gave us confidence that the output of the routeings would also be accurate. We were not disappointed.

‘A lot of the time the routeing result indicated very little advantage from one side of the course. We would call that “open course”, which meant we could focus on making strategic decisions on wind strategy, startline bias and fleet management. But even when there was not a favoured side, there was still a lot of flow. In this way the accuracy of the software helped a lot with laylines from long range, as we knew the compass angle the tide was coming from and the angle we’d be sailing on the other tack. If the flow was adverse a small deviation either side of our bow would make a big difference. It gave us a lot of confidence, armed with that knowledge. It enabled us to focus on speed and fleet management.’

SAILTOKYO
SailTokyo is a comprehensive software tool based on three pillars:
1. Racing
Preparation

• Check conditions (wind and currents) any time before your race.
• Analyse fastest routes (via unique routeing algorithm, Dynamic Grid Routing*)
• Display fastest route in minute steps
• Gain tactical advice from advanced routeing analysis
• Debriefing
• Compare real tracks with analysis

2. Venue analysis
Currents
Receive an overview of currents on the racecourse by three options:

• Complete charts of tidal currents (available for specific venues)
• Import GRIB data
• Charts of currents from data measured by team (can be created within minutes)

Wind
Receive an overview of wind situation on racecourse:

• Import GRIB wind data
• Create fields of wind from data measured by team (within minutes)

3. Education
Improve the development of young talented sailors by:

• Teaching best performance in currents with several samples
• Teaching best performance in wind shifts or oscillating wind with wind patterns
• Training the importance of currents and wind with real data
• Comparing up to four settings directly (eg same boat class in different conditions)

* Most routeing software is based on isochronic routeing. This works well for long-distance racing but for shorter distances something more accurate is needed. Buell Software’s unique routeing algorithm reflects the characteristics of Olympic and inshore races, enabling highly accurate calculation of best courses even over short distances such as on an Olympic class windward-leeward course.

Click here for more information on Buell Software »

There is a (very cool) new face in town…

You remember that scene where James Bond emerges from the sea in full scuba gear and steps out of his wetsuit to reveal perfect evening dress, ready to make ladies swoon at the roulette table? Fiction, of course. And yet that’s what Marc Blees has set out to achieve with his new Code-Zero brand of clothing.

A great sailor in his own right, one of the best Finn and Star competitors to emerge from the Netherlands in recent years, Blees has also produced clothing for many big-name fashion brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and O’Neill. Closer to home he has been pivotal in the development of Gaastra Pro as a successful marine brand. In launching Code-Zero he brought together his two passions for fashion and sailing. The challenge he set his designers was to create apparel that was tough enough and reliable enough to go racing in utmost comfort and without compromise, while at the end of the day you could step ashore and straight into the restaurant without changing and without embarrassment. Even 007 had to change before entering the casino.

‘It’s very difficult to make great sailing gear and great casual gear into one garment, and I don’t believe we have any competition because we are talking about two very different worlds,’ says Blees.

‘There is no crossover between the marine technical apparel manufacturers in the sailing world, and world-famous fashion brands like Scotch & Soda, Tommy Hilfiger and Superdry. They don’t know how to make taped garments capable of standing up to the demands of life on the water. That’s what we know how to do, but what we want to do now is make technical clothing that you’d be proud to wear anywhere, not just in the marina.’

In launching this exciting new ‘designer technical apparel’ Dutch sailor Marc Blees intends to succeed where he knows a small few have tried and failed in the past. But in contrast with previous attempts to blend serious fashion with technical performance, Blees is 100 per cent aware that a high technical bar must be crossed before his customers get interested in any fashion merits. This is a welcome initiative that can only boost sailing’s image with its ‘younger’ participants! A win win…

So Code-Zero operates at the intersection of these two very different worlds and is turning heads both on and off the water. In its first year on the racing circuit Code-Zero clothing was already being worn on a number of high-profile boats including Rambler 88, the Maxi72, Jethou, the 100-footer Blackjack and the TP52 Quantum Racing. These are not the kind of campaigns to compromise on quality or performance. First and foremost, the clothing has to deliver on the technical demands, and if it looks good enough to wear for aprèssailing, well, that’s a very nice bonus.

Professional sailors are not easily impressed, nor are their wives! But Will McCarthy scored brownie points for wearing Code-Zero last season. ‘I have been fortunate enough to be using Code-Zero gear both on Rambler 88 and Blackjack and have been very impressed,’ he says. ‘Their clothes are very functional on the yacht, but also look fashionable. It is the first time in 20 years of pro sailing that I have come home with some new crew gear that met the approval of my wife to be worn socially. ‘What I am very happy with is the material being used in their products. Not only is it of very high quality, it is also very comfortable and functional. I honestly have to rate the Luff shorts as the best I have ever used. They are light, have enough stretch in the fabric, are quick drying and look great.

What is refreshing about this new brand and sets it apart is the quality and the fact it actually looks good. The other thing is Code-Zero are also approaching the sailors for feedback and are always making improvements. They’re very responsive like that.’

While Blees is proud to have kitted out such high-quality race teams with everything they need from head to toe, it’s the crossover products like the Luff shorts and the Gibe jacket in particular that excite him most of all.

America’s Cup legend Brad Butterworth is another professional who is impressed with how Code- Zero have been so successful out of the gate. ‘I have been using Code-Zero from the start and in particular the Gibe jacket. I have been sailing with it all season and just finished the Sydney-Hobart on Blackjack with the Gibe going strong. I’d be happy to recommend the Code-Zero gear to anyone.’

Click here for more information on Code-Zero »