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New York Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
How military-grade GPS systems help put SailGP at the forefront of sports officiating
Within 110 seconds of the start of the race, the umpire has already ruined two teams' races. One boat (Brazil) jumped the start and another (Australia) were deemed to be the cause of a near-miss collision, forcing Canada to take evasive action. 'Ohhhh! Craig Mitchell dealing out a tough card for the Brazilians!' commentator Todd Harris exclaimed, while Canadian team member Giles Scott says during the race: 'Craig, that was a black flag incident. We almost cut a boat in half there.' Advertisement 'I am still baffled by the decision — that cost us the final,' Australia's Tom Slingsby will say afterwards. Pretty straightforward, then. Mitchell is the leader of SailGP's version of soccer's VAR, the sport's chief umpire, and in many ways, it's a thankless task; he'll never please everybody. In another way, he and his team of officials could probably teach other sports a thing or two about how to utilize technology and transparency. The Athletic was given behind-the-scenes access at SailGP broadcast headquarters in London to find out how military-grade GPS systems help keep this high-speed water sport flowing. The use of technology to officiate sports remains a turbulent process. Soccer is very much still in the infancy phase (we hope) of using video replays to improve the sport and make it fairer. Give it a few more years, eh? The electronic line calling (ELC) system revolutionized the accuracy of line calls in tennis, but it's not a completely flawless system just yet. Over the years, cricket has certainly had its issues with the Decision Review System (DRS), which allows players to challenge on-field decisions. Sailing, or specifically SailGP, the big money, big stakes, 12-team championship which launched in 2019 and can count Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe and Hollywood's Ryan Reynolds among its investors, has been using technology since its inception — SailGP's founders, the American billionaire Larry Ellison and sailing great Russell Coutts, wanted to transform a sport widely perceived, in the UK at least, as being elitist. Generally in sailing, umpires attempt to follow the action on the water, positioned in a powerboat behind the race, hanging on for dear life at 80-odd kilometres an hour (50 mph) and holding up little flags to indicate penalties. But Mitchell is based in the altogether more serene surroundings of Ealing, west London, in the same studio that brings SailGP to our TV screens. Advertisement It's his and his team's job to spot infringements during races and dish out penalties. The chief umpire's role is a prominent one that involves communicating decisions live on TV and often fronting up afterwards to explain them. For soccer fans of a certain age, he's SailGP's Pierluigi Collina or, given Mitchell is more of a rugby union fan, Nigel Owens. 'I'm the face of the organization,' he says. 'Or the dart board.' Search Mitchell's name online and you'll see entire YouTube videos dedicated to analyzing his decisions. 'I see some of it, but I don't chase it,' Mitchell says. 'If we've made errors, we confess. We talk to teams and explain why we got it wrong. We want feedback on how the guys see it; are we missing something? Are we on the same page as them?' The technology Mitchell and his team predominantly lean on is called UmpApp, which in layman's terms shows the boats or, to be more precise, the F50 carbon-fiber catamarans, racing on their screens via what can only be described as 1980s video game-style graphics; simple, 2D figures zooming around a plain blue background. The GPS positions of the F50s are accurate to within 2.5 centimeters and have the same trackers that are used in missiles. By stripping everything back bar the tiny little boat figures, the umpires can concentrate fully on the direction of travel and how far the F50s are from their competitors. All 12 teams race head-to-head during a Grand Prix weekend, of which there are 12 this season, in identical F50s, helping keep costs down and races close. When the F50s are foiling above the water, they are capable of speeds over 60mph (100 km/h) — so for safety reasons, the sailors (or athletes as SailGP likes to call them) are permanently tethered to a retaining line on the F50s to prevent them from falling overboard. Many penalties are handed out for not giving way to another boat or not giving enough room for them to manoeuvre. Unlike in soccer, cricket, tennis, etc, SailGP doesn't stop to allow for an informed refereeing judgement. Decisions must be made in real time. 'We can't stop the race,' Mitchell says. 'I like to make a decision within seven to 10 seconds of an incident, which is a self-imposed deadline. That means you've got to be on the front foot when it comes to both making decisions and anticipating incidents. The biggest part of umpiring is anticipation and the positioning. Advertisement 'Being here (in Ealing) helps give us consistency; we know the setup, we're not shipping things around the world. You miss being in the same conditions as them and experiencing how windy and wavy it is, and how nervous they're getting. 'In terms of making decisions, we're better here because you've got all the data at your fingertips. The hardest part on the water is being in the right place to make that decision. Here, we're everywhere all at once.' Mitchell, in a notion many soccer players will find alien, is a referee/umpire who has a sense of humour and doesn't take himself too seriously. It feels like a pretty important characteristic for someone who, as he says, is the dartboard of SailGP. 'We had a big call recently with the British team. We felt they hadn't kept clear. I think Ben's (Sir Ben Ainslie, Britain's most successful Olympic sailor and the owner of the British team) response was 'lock him in the tower'. 'We need to be transparent. If we don't explain the thinking — and then get feedback — we don't improve. 'If someone disagrees fundamentally with a call but we stand by it, we just say, 'We'd do the same again', so then that team knows how to respond the next time.' Mitchell is fully aware of VAR and its controversies. He believes the lack of communication in stadiums, with 60,000 people not having a clue what is going on while a decision is deliberated over for several minutes, isn't ideal. 'I think baseball has started doing announcements in the stadium, cricket and rugby do, you can get the earpiece at the rugby game to listen to referee comms. 'I'll press a button to let the broadcasters know I'm about to speak, although not all the decisions will be broadcast, depending on how important they are to the race, but the teams will all be told. 'We also have contact with the teams before a race with a pre-race briefing, then an online debrief at the start of the next event.' Advertisement During a two-day Grand Prix — the SailGP season runs from November to November — there are seven fleet races (heats), with the three highest-scoring teams progressing to a winner-takes-all final. Incidents are clipped up and posted online, while Mitchell also gives regular interviews, sometimes detailing the nuances of every decision made. There's no hiding place. If competitors are heard over the race audio criticizing Mitchell, even swearing, it could be clipped up and posted on social media. 'I'd love to go and see the VAR setup,' he adds. 'It would be interesting to see the processes, the training you do, and how you practice. 'Once a month, we get the (UmpApp) tools, which is absolutely the key to getting the best from it. We simulate by running old races. It's not quite the same, as you don't have the adrenaline or pressure, but it gets the communication in sync. If we do drop the ball, it's been a communication error, so you need to be regimented in knowing what you're concentrating on.' That refers to Mitchell's six-strong team each being allocated a certain portion of the race. For example, of the 12 F50s, one referee will zoom in on two or three catamarans competing with each other on the water, while someone else will look at another couple of boats, etc. Another difference with soccer is that sailors and racers become officials. In fact, Mitchell thinks it's a vital pre-requisite. 'It's my view that if you've done high-level sailing, you'll make a good official,' he adds. 'You don't need to be Lionel Messi, of that caliber, but you need people who know how to kick a ball, take a penalty, elude the offside trap and know how the game works, because that gives you anticipation of what's going to happen… and knowledge of why things are happening.' Watching Mitchell and his team officiate during Sunday's races in Portsmouth — the Grand Prix was won by New Zealand — shows how calm communication is central to making the whole thing work, informing each other who is looking at what part of the race, and also using live television coverage and the best replay angles to help inform decisions. For example, the windier and more dangerous the water is, the more allowance may be given for certain actions. 'One of the coaches suggested we get a leaf blower in here to show the conditions out on the water,' Mitchell jokes. The two biggest calls both come in race six, firstly with Brazil sent to the back after fractionally jumping the start. Launching out of the timed start and reaching Mark 1 first is a huge advantage before teams head downwind for two laps of the course. 'It's a really big penalty,' Mitchell admits. 'Some guys were late starters, so we had to push them behind everyone, which is really harsh.' Advertisement Then a four-boat incident involving Australia, Great Britain, Denmark and Canada sees Australia heavily punished. 'It was a tricky situation, four boats all converging; you work out who's got to give room to who,' Mitchell later says. 'We went to the end of the line, which was Australia. My quick review now, after the race, is it was between Australia and Great Britain.' Mitchell will spend the next couple of hours going over those decisions and assessing where he and his team could have done better. Still, he judges their accuracy to be at around 98 percent for a recent race at Plymouth. 'We got two wrong out of 85 decisions made over that weekend,' he says. 'The accuracy is pretty good, but we should be that high. There's nothing we don't have at our disposal. 'Back in the day when we were on the water, there were some decisions we just wouldn't have been able to make because we didn't see them properly. Now we can see everything, so there aren't many excuses for not getting it right.'
News.com.au
21-07-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
‘I'm still baffled': Penalty costs Australia place in final at Great Britain SailGP
Australia's hopes of a podium finish at the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix came undone in dramatic fashion overnight on Sunday, with extreme conditions and a contentious umpire call combining to derail their finals campaign. With top-end winds and waves pounding the fleet in Portsmouth, teams were pushed to the limit in what many described as 'survival racing'. The high stakes racing on Sunday saw Great Britain and Spain both suffer tech issues during racing, near-misses across the fleet, and boats reaching speeds of up to 83km/h in wild conditions. Tom Slingsby's crew were in the hunt for the third spot in the winner-takes-all final ahead of Switzerland after the team secured a fourth place in the fifth fleet race. However the defining moment for the Australians came in the sixth race, when they were hit with a controversial penalty in a four-boat incident involving Canada, Denmark and Great Britain. Commentator Stevie Morrison said: 'Oh my lord, Australia relative (to) Canada, that's unbelievable. Huge penalty to the Roos.' Watch the moment Australia was penalised for in the video above Australia was deemed the outside boat failing to give room to Canada by the umpires, a decision that forced the team to go behind Canada losing several places in the fleet and ultimately a place in the final. Slingsby disagreed with the penalty, saying: 'We obviously didn't even see Canada, they were three boats apart. 'I have seen the footage and I am still shocked as to how we got the penalty. GBR didn't even attempt to gybe and if they did we would have had to avoid and keep clear of them, but I am still baffled by the decision. That cost us the final.' New Zealand's Black Foils claimed victory on the Solent in Portsmouth, edging out Great Britain and Switzerland, while Australia finished fourth overall at the UK event. Slingsby said there was plenty to take away from the weekend, but he was left wanting more as the BONDS Flying Roos chase their second win of the season after saluting in Auckland in January. 'We've got speed and we've got the skills to do it,' Slingsby said. 'We had some really great moments and some average moments, but we know we can sail better than that so we will regroup and review the footage so we can keep improving.' The Kiwi win has triggered a shake-up at the top of the season five leaderboard with New Zealand now moving into first place on 54 points, narrowly ahead of the BONDS Flying Roos on 52 points, and Spain close behind on 51 points. New Zealand have been one of the most consistent and successful teams over the course of SailGP's existence but the Black Foils are yet to win an overall championship. The Rolex SailGP Championship now shifts to Sassnitz, Germany, with the next Grand Prix scheduled for August 16-17, as the BONDS Flying Roos continue their campaign for a fourth championship title.
Straits Times
07-06-2025
- Sport
- Straits Times
Spain take lead on day one of SailGP in New York
Sailing - SailGP - Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix - New York, United States - June 6, 2025 Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank helmed by Erik Heil lead BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team helmed by Tom Slingsby, France SailGP Team helmed by Quentin Delapierre and Red Bull Italy SailGP Team helmed by Ruggero Tita as they pass the One World Trade Centre and New York City skyline during a practice session ahead of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix Ricardo Pinto/SailGP/Handout via REUTERS Sailing - SailGP - Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix - New York, United States - June 6, 2025 New Zealand SailGP Team and France SailGP pass by the Statue of Liberty during a session ahead of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix Jason Ludlow/SailGP/Handout via REUTERS Sailing - SailGP - Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix - New York, United States - June 6, 2025 USA SailGP Team helmed by Taylor Canfield, BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team helmed by Tom Slingsby and Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank helmed by Erik Heil in action during a practice session ahead of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix Ricardo Pinto/SailGP/Handout via REUTERS Sailing - SailGP - Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix - New York, United States - June 6, 2025 Spain SailGP Team helmed by Diego Botin, Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team helmed by Dylan Fletcher, Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team helmed by Martine Grael, USA SailGP Team helmed by Taylor Canfield and Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank helmed by Erik Heil sail past the One World Trade Centre and New York City skyline during a practice session ahead of the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix Ricardo Pinto/SailGP/Handout via REUTERS Spain take lead on day one of SailGP in New York NEW YORK - Spain took the lead on day one of the sixth round of the SailGP season on Saturday, picking up the win in the opening race in New York as Diego Botin's team are well positioned for consecutive victories. Defending series champions Spain, who won the San Francisco event in March, made it look easy despite light winds and strong tides as they took the first win of the day. Competing against one of the most famous skylines in the world on the iconic Hudson River, they sailed away from the fleet and led at mark one before sealing a 14-second lead over second New Zealand on the finish line. After a brilliant opening performance, Spain were off to a turbulent start in the second race but finished fourth, moving up from their last 12th position at the start line. They started at the back once again in the third and last fleet race of the day but moved themselves up into the third to lead overnight on 25 points before day two of the event on Sunday. Spain, led by Olympic champion driver Botin, are five points ahead of second-placed Denmark and France in third. Australia and Brazil were going head to head in the second race before Tom Slingsby's team, now rebranded as the BONDS Flying Roos after new celebrity co-owners Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds were announced on Thursday, took the win. New Zealand, winners in New York last year, won the third race but 11th spot in the second saw them finish fourth for the day. The race was brought forward due to a storm forecast later in the day, and started two and a half hours earlier than originally scheduled. The global racing championship is back into action after a wingsail defect forced a brief hiatus with the cancellation of May's Rio event. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
CNA
07-06-2025
- Sport
- CNA
Sailing-Spain take lead on day one of SailGP in New York
NEW YORK :Spain took the lead on day one of the sixth round of the SailGP season on Saturday, picking up the win in the opening race in New York as Diego Botin's team are well positioned for consecutive victories. Defending series champions Spain, who won the San Francisco event in March, made it look easy despite light winds and strong tides as they took the first win of the day. Competing against one of the most famous skylines in the world on the iconic Hudson River, they sailed away from the fleet and led at mark one before sealing a 14-second lead over second New Zealand on the finish line. After a brilliant opening performance, Spain were off to a turbulent start in the second race but finished fourth, moving up from their last 12th position at the start line. They started at the back once again in the third and last fleet race of the day but moved themselves up into the third to lead overnight on 25 points before day two of the event on Sunday. Spain, led by Olympic champion driver Botin, are five points ahead of second-placed Denmark and France in third. Australia and Brazil were going head to head in the second race before Tom Slingsby's team, now rebranded as the BONDS Flying Roos after new celebrity co-owners Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds were announced on Thursday, took the win. New Zealand, winners in New York last year, won the third race but 11th spot in the second saw them finish fourth for the day. The race was brought forward due to a storm forecast later in the day, and started two and a half hours earlier than originally scheduled. The global racing championship is back into action after a wingsail defect forced a brief hiatus with the cancellation of May's Rio event.
Reuters
07-06-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Spain take lead on day one of SailGP in New York
NEW YORK, June 7 (Reuters) - Spain took the lead on day one of the sixth round of the SailGP season on Saturday, picking up the win in the opening race in New York as Diego Botin's team are well positioned for consecutive victories. Defending series champions Spain, who won the San Francisco event in March, made it look easy despite light winds and strong tides as they took the first win of the day. Competing against one of the most famous skylines in the world on the iconic Hudson River, they sailed away from the fleet and led at mark one before sealing a 14-second lead over second New Zealand on the finish line. After a brilliant opening performance, Spain were off to a turbulent start in the second race but finished fourth, moving up from their last 12th position at the start line. They started at the back once again in the third and last fleet race of the day but moved themselves up into the third to lead overnight on 25 points before day two of the event on Sunday. Spain, led by Olympic champion driver Botin, are five points ahead of second-placed Denmark and France in third. Australia and Brazil were going head to head in the second race before Tom Slingsby's team, now rebranded as the BONDS Flying Roos after new celebrity co-owners Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds were announced on Thursday, took the win. New Zealand, winners in New York last year, won the third race but 11th spot in the second saw them finish fourth for the day. The race was brought forward due to a storm forecast later in the day, and started two and a half hours earlier than originally scheduled. The global racing championship is back into action after a wingsail defect forced a brief hiatus with the cancellation of May's Rio event.
