The Amazing Ways Data, Analytics And IoT Are Used By SailGP

SailGP was established in 2018. It had begun its second season as an annual global sailing event with competitions at some of the world’s most renowned harbours before the season was suspended and events rescheduled for 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. I recently spoke to Lahini Sivaganeshan, Innovation Advisor at Oracle, about how data, analytics and internet of things technology is at the heart of the race. While many times technology is used by other competitive athletes to provide a competitive advantage, in SailGP, technology is equal across all teams. Even though SailGP is a sporting competition, businesses would be wise to learn from how data and analytics tools are used by competitors in order to enhance business performance at their companies. You can watch the full discussion and see some cool footage of the races here:

Fuelled by Tech

"There are rival national teams that battle it out in these F50 catamarans. Each grand prix consists of two competition days, there are five fleet races, and as the points accumulate throughout the season it all ends up leading to the top two teams battling it out for this million-dollar prize, with a trophy and the glory of winning the SailGP season,” Sivaganeshan explained more details about the sailing league.

Technology allows fans to be at the center of the SailGP action thanks to 1,200 sensors, cameras and microphones fitted on each of the identical 50-foot F50 catamarans that are used by each crew. The approximately 20 megabytes of data collected are streamed to the Oracle Cloud within 200 milliseconds and made available to the crew and teams, fans and umpires of the race.

The data is stored using Oracle’s Autonomous Database software on the Oracle Cloud and then streamed out to the teams, mobile app and broadcasters through the company’s GoldenGate data integration and replication software.

The teams race on identical catamarans that were redesigned with the latest sailing technology, including battery-powered systems and under-craft hydrofoils. The data collected from each vessel is shared with all so that team's data analysts using Oracle data analysis tools and crew can learn from it all to improve performance. This allows the emphasis of the race to be on the sailing skills of the humans because each team is equalized in terms of the boats used and the data collected to make decisions.

Just as in Formula One racing, SailGP races can be decided by shaving off milliseconds. Real-time data helps in both sports. Teams need to understand how very slight changes can alter race times and therefore give them an edge over the competition.

Sivaganeshan explained that they collect not only onboard data, but also gather and analyze data from markers along the course, about wind and weather conditions that could have an impact on the race.

"As a team, we have our analytics experts, and we work with them to understand what we can understand from the data. There have been some really, really accurate predictions. One of our experts produced the ghost boat, which is to predict the optimal course to win a race which, of course, all the sailing teams are very interested in finding out about," Sivaganeshan said.

However, in an important interaction between humans and the data, when the sailors reviewed the route the ghost boat predicted as being optimal, they explained that on the water, the pattern suggested would cause a real catamaran to capsize. Therefore, the data experts reapplied some of their learning and then developed a more realistic route.

Fan Engagement and Marketing Opportunities

In addition to how technology informs race management, fan engagement is also an important use for the data. Fans use the mobile app that’s powered with all the data to monitor the competition and feel closer than ever before to all the action. Technology enables an unprecedented fan experience around the world as they can listen in to how crews respond during the race through onboard microphones and cameras.

There are even marketing implications for race data. "One of our data athletes on the team created a Twitter dashboard to understand how fans are interacting with the sport. This includes how many tweets are coming in per hour, what's the most popular hashtag being used, and also if anyone who is well-known in the sport (an influencer) makes a tweet about SailGP that can influence a lot of other followers,” Sivaganeshan said.

Another way SailGP uses technology is with its Talked About feature. It started off with a Q&A feature for someone who is brand-new to sailing to help them understand about the grand prix and SailGP. On version two, one of their experts is using voice recognition and a chatbot that would allow a sailor to ask the chatbot during a race why a competitor passed them. The bot will bring back the results and give a suggestion for how to overcome the deficit.

In addition, one of their partners analyzes video footage and uses classifiers to identify logos. From a logo detection dashboard, they can find out how many times a logo has appeared, how big it is, and then be able to predict where the optimal position would be to place a logo on a boat that might then receive the most amount of screen time.

What Can Businesses Learn from SailGP?

SailGP isn't just a sporting event; it's also a small business. They are using data, technology, analytics tools, connected SaaS solutions, and internet of things—just like any other small business can. They are doing continuous research and development with the data as they are collecting. Since all the SailGP teams get access to the data equally, you can consider them the various departments in a business. These departments are being challenged by using gamification to garner insights from the data to enhance performance.   

What will the future hold for SailGP? There are already more extraordinary tools and insights in development. I look forward to seeing how things evolve with the use of data, analytics, and internet of things technology to elevate SailGP even further. 

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About Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things.

LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that reaches millions of readers.

For more on AI and technology trends, see Bernard Marr’s book Artificial Intelligence in Practice: How 50 Companies Used AI and Machine Learning To Solve Problems and his forthcoming book Tech Trends in Practice: The 25 Technologies That Are Driving The 4Th Industrial Revolution, which is available to pre-order now.