Image: Harry KH

BT, together with UK tech start-up Coderus, have revealed a tactical app which will act as a virtual ‘seventh crew member’ to help Ben Ainslie’s Land Rover BAR team gain a competitive edge in their bid to win the 35th America’s Cup.

BT committed to help the team after the number of crew members allowed on board the catamaran shrunk from eight to six after the last America’s Cup. This means that helmsman Sir Ben Ainslie, and tactician Giles Scott, have more responsibilities and less time than ever before.

BT and Coderus needed to develop an app for use on mobile and wearable tech which could intuitively show critical information throughout the race, with no user interaction. It was also essential that the software was well crafted so its operation kept pace with events as they unfolded, as well as being optimised for robust network, hardware and battery performance, given the length of time that the crew spend on the water.

After a series of “agile development sprints” and testing sessions over the past 12 months with Ainslie, Scott, engineers from the team and user experience architects from BT and Coderus, the new app has been designed to provide critical data to the team about the strategic layout of the course, the position of the boat, how many legs of the race are left and how far it is to the next boundary, all allowing the team to make swift tactical decisions and giving them maximum time for manoeuvring.

The app can also tell the team exactly when to power up so that they cross the start line at the second the race begins, gaining a critical advantage from the very beginning by getting the team in front at Mark 1. The leader at this point is expected to win up to 80% of the races for the America’s Cup.

The technology works both on a tablet screen and a smart watch, so that the crew members can be alerted to glance down and see vital information about the sailing course instantly.  The team will be using high water-resistant Android tablets and watches. During training sessions the technology, along with hundreds of sensors on the boat and voice communications, is all connected back to the shore via BT’s military grade 4G wireless link, and back to experts at the team’s Portsmouth base via a subsea cable, part of BT’s global communications network. This is part of the agreement recently announced by the two companies, with BT working as Land Rover BAR’s Technology in Sustainability partner.

The app will be used in a competitive race for the first time on the 26 May as part of the America’s Cup Finals in Bermuda. During races the app runs on its own, with no connection back to shore.

Sailing team tactician and Olympic gold medallist Giles Scott said: “We were desperate for an app which could act as a virtual seventh crew member and become central to our decision making process during the race, providing Ben and I with the data that we really need to gain a competitive advantage. We’ve had great support from BT and Coderus through all stages of the development, from design, build and now refinement out on the water.”

Richard Hopkirk, Engineering Manager at Land Rover BAR commented: “This has been a fantastic example of how our collaboration with our technical partners can bring out the best of both teams, and allow us to achieve far more than we could do as a Cup team alone. We’ve managed to merge our in-house sailing and tactical expertise with the software development knowledge of BT and Coderus, and the result will be on the water helping us win races come the summer.”

As exclusive broadcast partner for the UK and Ireland, BT is bringing live footage of the competition to millions of people at home. BT will show the 35th America’s Cup on BT Sport this summer, broadcasting live coverage through to the finals in Bermuda.

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