THE 21th CHESAPEAKE SAILING YACHT SYMPOSIUM

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, MARCH 2013

A Measurement System for Performance Monitoring on Small Sailing Dinghies

1 ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, MARCH 2003
Christoph Boehm, Yacht Research Unit Kiel, Germany / Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Robert Brehm, Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Janek Meyer, Yacht Research Unit Kiel, Germany
Lars Duggen, Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Kai Graf, Institute of Naval Architecture, University of Applied Sciences Kiel (UAS), Germany

1 ABSTRACT 3 INTRODUCTION
This paper describes a new performance Modern nautical instrument systems are widely
monitoring system for dinghies and small sailing boats, used on contemporary racing yachts. They allow
developed in a collaborative project of the Yacht Research monitoring of nautical data such as wind speed and angle,
Unit Kiel (YRUK) and the Mads Clausen Institute (MCI) boat velocity in an absolute and water bound frame.
of the University of Southern Denmark. The system under Additional sensors provide information about dynamic
development features a complete set of nautical motions and loads. Software systems tracking the course
instruments (wind, boat speed and heading, position) as on digital maps help to assess the performance of the yacht
well as dynamic sensors measuring the motion of the and support tactical decisions while racing. These systems
dinghy with additional audio and video streams for crew are widely available and have proven their value for racing
observations. Most sensors are integrated in a small crews.
lightweight housing also containing a main processing unit
to be mounted on a dinghy. Some external miniaturized Similar systems on dinghies are rare.
sensors (wind and water anemometers) are connected Instrumentation on dinghies is usually restricted to
wirelessly. Data and media streams are recorded. Further a dedicated sensor/instrument pairs for an isolated particular
telemetry system allows online data transmission to a purpose, e.g. wind or position/course (one of the few
remote client operated on a coach boat. Analysis software exceptions is the PiGarda © system from Cosworth Ltd,
allows the coach to visualize and analyze the performance /GB)Ref.: [1]. While sailors on board may take advantage
of the dinghy. Both, the hardware system and the analysis from these data, they are not available to a coach
software are presented here including first results from a responsible for developing the performance of the sailors.
field trial. In addition a coach would need a complete integrated set
of measurement data in order to analyze the performance
2 NOTATION and aid its development
 Leeway angle (°)
 Rudder angle (°) In a joint project YRUK and MCI are addressing
AWA Apparent wind angle (°) this. YRUK and MCI are developing a system measuring
COG Course over Ground (°) nautical as well as dynamic motion data on dinghies as
HDG Heading (°) described above for bigboats. In addition audio and video
LAT Latitude streams for crew and sail observations are generated.
LON Longitude While data streams are recorded on board the dinghy, a
SOG Speed over ground (m/s) telemetry system is available for online data transfer. A
TWA True wind angle (°) coach boat nearby may receive the data streams from one
TWD True wind direction (°) or many dinghies equipped with the system. Software
TWS True wind speed (m/s) running on a laptop or tablet computer, connected to the
VMG Velocity made good (m/s) sailing dinghies by a client server principle, allows the
VPP Velocity prediction program coach to observe onboard action and performance of the
dinghies

1
 Analysis software is available to support the
coach in assessing the performance of the sailors and help
them to improve it. It is up to the coach to derive
conclusions and take respective action in order to develop
the performance of the racing crew.
The following chapters will describe the hardware
and software system in detail. First results of field tests
will be presented and the next steps in the system
development are outlines.
4 THE PERFORMAND SYSTEM
It has been explicated in the introduction that
available systems to measure boat and crew performance
nowadays are principally aimed on application for larger
boats. Performance assessment during training sessions on
smaller boats and dinghies in still depend significantly on
the subjective judgment of coaches. Practice evaluation
based on scientific methods as it is progressively used in
professional sports like football, soccer or formula 1 racing
is virtually unheard of in small boat yacht racing. The
system described here, christened PerforManD
(Performance Monitoring and Development), allows a
coach to monitor practice performance of a specific boat,
compare the results with other boats and thus helps to
enhance the efficiency of practical training sessions.
The PerforManD system consists of a set of
onboard sensors measuring nautical and dynamic data.
These transmit data to a central data aggregation unit
placed on the respective dinghy. This unit records the
sensor data for later review and simultaneously transmits
the data to a data visualizing unit onboard the coach boat.
This data visualizing unit is currently a laptop computer,
but future software versions might be ported to tablet
computers or even smartphones. A descriptive overview of
the system is given in Figure 1.
Figure 1: System Principle
Within the PerforManD system every boat is
equipped with a wind anemometer to measure apparent
wind and a paddlewheel or impeller velocimeter to
measure speed through water. Further sensors include
video camera(s), GPS position, orientation and speed and
an inertial measurement unit. When possible, instruments
have been housed into the data aggregation unit which,
beside its data logging capabilities also includes telemetry
modules like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for wireless
communication. Since the use case of PerforManD aims at
small boats and dinghies, great care has been taken that all
sensors can be mounted to the sail boat without permanent
destruction like e.g. drilling holes. Furthermore, no cabling
is required since all sensors connect wirelessly to the data
aggregation unit or are embedded in it. This allows for fast
setup of the system on an individual boat. Compared to big
boats instruments all components have been miniaturized
with respect to size and weight. Both, the data aggregation
unit and the sensor nodes are powered autonomously by
lithium batteries in addition to solar panels which allow for
data logging sessions of approximately 8 hours.
To provide the coach with access to real-time data
during training sessions, a Wi-Fi module with external
antenna is mounted onboard the coach boat to extend the
connection range of the visualizing and analyzing unit. . If
several boats are in range, the coach is able to switch
between the individual boats or to monitor the data of
multiple boats simultaneously. This allows for either the
direct performance comparison of boats sailing in similar
conditions, the monitoring of a complete fleet, or giving
special attention to a particular boat by dedicated exclusive
monitoring.
The second mode in which PerforManD may be
used is the review mode. In this mode data collected by the
data aggregation unit onboard the dinghies during previous
practice sessions may be reviewed and compared. Several
ways of using the review mode are thinkable:
 A coach may choose to review practice sessions
to draw conclusions regarding success of training
sessions which he then presents to the sailors.
 Coach and crew(s) may review training sessions
simultaneously to discuss maneuvers and evaluate
performance.
 A performance analyst can use the review mode
to generate debriefing documents to present them
to the sailing team. He can also feed performance
data regarding training sessions into an external
database.
Besides the ability to monitor and display
measured boat data, PerforManD also incorporates
sophisticated analyzing tools which have been developed
to help the coach evaluating the performance of sailors.
Among the available analysis methods, a 3D velocity polar
plot and a data processing algorithm to obtain velocity
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polars is of outstanding importance, since it allows
assessing performance relative to a target, which can be
derived from field tests as well as from theoretical
predictions. PerforManD thus is a coaching tool, which
aids helps coaches to improve efficiency of sailing training
sessions.
5 HARDWARE - SOFTWARE CONCEPT
The introduced sailing performance quantification
system puts very specific and hard constraints on the
hardware and software design and its respective specific
topologies. Obviously the hard- and software needs to be
designed to meet the specific rough (wet and dynamic)
conditions onboard a sailing dinghy while still providing
the usability suitable for quick & easy installation and
maintenance. In addition it should provide maximum
reliability, flexibility and both power and processing
efficiency. In any situation the installed system should
uncontestably not interfere with the sailors onboard nor
shall the installation influence the sailing performance of
the boat in any respect. The pre-session installation
overhead time should be zero or at least limited to a
minimum so that hardly any time effort is spend before
each new training session, while system components like
the sensors should be temporary and durable mountable
without any permanent fixations at the boats structure.
Physically the system consists of the following
components:
1. A central data aggregation and processing
system onboard the dinghy
2. Different sensors, distributed over a star
network for performance measure and sailing
performance quantification.
3. Mobile or stationary computer executing the
analyzing software in real-time or server-less.
The development and design of the hard- /software
topology has been led by the natural distribution of the
system consisting of the two major distributed
components, on one side the coach, using the data
visualization and analyzing software executed on a
(mobile) computer and the sailboat as the sailing
performance data aggregation and provision system. On
the bases of this given natural structure it is obvious to
choose a classical client-server topology as underlying
framework for the system topology where the hardware
onboard the sailing Dinghy acts as data server and the data
receiving computer executing the analyzing software acts
as client as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: - Server (Dinghy) transmits measured data to
Client (Coach Boat)
The advantages of this client-server scheme are not far to
seek; the system is divided into two components, client and
server, which interact only over a defined communication
interface and protocol. Once this interface and protocol is
defined both hard- and software components on their
respective sides can be developed independently and there
are no hard- /software constraints to one another. The
analyzing software on its executing platform and the data
server onboard the dinghy are physically decoupled and
completely independent platforms.
This client-server scheme improves the flexibility and
maintenance of the system. The server and the client are
able to operate head / body-less (stand-alone) and both can
easily adapt to system changes on the opposite side. In
addition, the client-server decoupling improves reliability
on either side and reduces code complexity which results
in easier hard- and software maintenance but also in
greater stability and reliability.
In fact such client/server scheme also simplifies the hard-
software development as well as its management.
Independent non-parallel development work becomes
easily possible and independent programming languages
can be used as long as the agreed interfacing is provided.
This client-server scheme is consistently further brought
down onboard the sailing dinghy where sensors act as data
servers and the central data aggregation unit acts as the
client which connects to these. Again this improves
flexibility in terms of modular hardware extensions and
changes of the system onboard the dinghy.
5.1 Hardware topology
The hardware onboard each sailing dinghy consists
of a star topology sensor network with wired and wireless
sensor node connections with a central data aggregation
and processing unit as the star point of the system.
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The general approach for using partly wireless
communication links has been driven by the constraint to
minimize or completely prevent interference of the
installed system with the sailor and the sailing performance
of the dinghy. Cable connections obviously break this
constraint. The wireless approach solves the cable
problems, it however brings up new problems that are
inherent to wireless communication systems, the primary
problem being that of autonomous power supply. The
remote sensor nodes need to be powered autonomously
and the individual power budget need to suit the global
runtime of the system. This requires the appropriate choice
of the wireless network technology as well as suitable
protocols and autonomous power supplies.
In order to design a generic and modular exchangeable and
extendable system, a standard wireless communication
technology has been chosen for onboard wireless data
communication between the data aggregator unit and the
sensor nodes. This allows for access to sensor nodes even
with standard communication devices such like smart
phones and tablet computers without the need of the
central data aggregation device. This in particular becomes
interesting in cases where the system is installed on semi-
professional sailboats where the full extent of the here
described PerforManD system might not be used.
Several suitable wireless technologies are available for
decades such as ANT, ANT+, ZigBee, ZigBee RF4CE,
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Nike+, IrDA, and the near-field
communications (NFC) standard all featuring specific
capabilities but also shortcomings. However, only two are
generally and widely accepted in today’s mobile embedded
communication market being Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. These
are supported generically; almost all of the available
mobile communication devices such as Smart-Phones and
tablet computers support Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
communication. In order to allow for maximum
compatibility of the PerforManD system to state-of-art
embedded mobile devices and because of its extremely low
power consumption, Bluetooth 4.0 (Bluetooth Low Energy
- BLE) has been chosen as the sensor networks
communication layer in the PerforManD system.
The Bluetooth Low Energy technology was designed for
lowest possible power consumption. The advantage of
Bluetooth Low Energy is that it can be placed into deep
sleep mode where it only awakes event-driven to send
active files to its gateway. The maximum peak current
consumption is less than 20 mA and the average current
consumption depending on the transmission rate can be
brought down to about 1 μA which releases power load off
the energy supplying system (battery). One reason for the
ultra-low power consumption is the low latency for
gateway linking and little message overhead. Therefore,
the energy consumption is reduced to a tenth of that of
classical Bluetooth communication which suits well to the
here described autonomous sensor network. The above
described power advantages make it possible to use
standard rechargeable lithium cells for energy storage
which provide the necessary individual sensor node
lifetimes to cover the global onboard system lifetime.
Based on Bluetooth the onboard wireless sensor network
uses a simple star topology where all sensor nodes are
slaves and the data aggregator is the central master device.
The slaves use an advertising function to periodically
announce availability of sensor data within the sensor
network which are then read by the master (data
aggregator). A generic BLE board has been developed to
bridge classical communication interfaces such as UART
over Bluetooth. This allows to connect standard sensor
technology via a wireless link which is essential for those
sensors not embedded inside the central data aggregator. In
particular so far this is true for the Wind Anemometer and
the Log (Speed through the water) which is currently under
development.
The remote sensor nodes are powered by rechargeable
batteries. To extend lifetime for sensors which demand
high energy density, additional supply is added in form of
a solar panel which extends the battery lifetime of the
sensor. This is the case for the mast top ultrasonic wind
anemometer which ultrasonic sensing scheme consumes
extra energy. The energy harvesting also reduces efforts on
maintenance and pre-session overhead time for system
installation since battery changes are less frequent required
or completely prevented.
The goal for the development of the central onboard
hardware was to allow for easily modular expansion of the
system with high level user-experience. This means that
software- and hardware-wise the system is easily scalable.
In terms of hardware this scalability is reached through the
above described master/slave sensor star topology, and the
client-server scheme for data aggregator and analyzing
graphical user interface at the receiving mobile computer.
All location independent sensors are embedded in the data
aggregation unit and are connected to the main processor
by internal serial communication busses. These wired
sensors are in particular the Global Positioning System
(GPS) and the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to
measure the craft's velocity over ground, and 3D
orientation and dynamics on the water surface.
The complete sensor network is built around a powerful
32-bit ARM Cortex processor core which is the heart of
the data aggregator where the integrated peripherals are
used to implement the various communication interfaces
and protocols to interface to the attached sensor periphery
and the client side, see Figure 3: Hardware layer. This for
server-sensor communication is mainly the I2C bus, UART
and SPI as well as Bluetooth and for the client side
communication this is an Ethernet, USB and a WI-FI
controller.
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Data at the data aggregation unit is stored on a micro-SD
card. This card can be accessed via a standard mini-USB
cable or via the network interface and an FTP connection.
When a USB cable is connected to the data aggregation
unit it gets mounted as an external hard drive so that the
recorded data can be easily accessed from any host
computer.
Figure 3: Hardware layer
5.2 Sensor technology
In the first instance the sensor topology onboard the dinghy
is able to collect the following dynamic parameters:
1. Wind Speed and direction
2. Position, Speed-over-Ground, Heading
3. Pitch – Roll – Yaw
4. (Speed through the water)
Wind Anemometer: The wind speed and direction is
measured by a wireless ultrasonic wind anemometer which
is easily installed on the mast top without the need of
cabled connections. The wind anemometer is powered
through a buffer battery connected to a solar panel. It
submits data autonomously at a maximum sample rate of
1Hz. A future version will be able to sample at 2 and 4Hz.
The dynamic range of the sensor is 0.25 – 80 knots at a
resolution of 0.1knots. The directional resolution is ±1º.
The weight of the unit is approximately 200g. The sensor
has a cylindrical form with a diameter of about 150mm and
a height of about 80mm.
GPS: A Global Positioning System chip is embedded into
the central data aggregator unit which provides the current
position, speed-over-ground and the heading. A high
performance GPS module is used which enables high
performance navigation for harsh GPS environments and
low signal reception. A fix rate is configurable up to 10Hz
to track highly dynamic movements of the sailboat. The
device has a high sensitivity to compensate for possible
negative effects of the surrounding server system EMI
(Electromagnetic Interference) and an efficient current
consumption of just 25mA. Communication with the main
processor is provided through a standard UART interface.
Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU): The IMU is based on a
System-in-Package module which combines a 3-axis
gyroscope, a 3-axis accelerometer, a 3-axis magnetometer
as well as an onboard digital motion processor which is
capable of processing 9-axis motion algorithms. For high
precision and dynamic motion tracking the gyro offers 16
bits resolution and a programmable full scale range of
±250, ±500, ±1000, and ±2000°/sec. The range of the
accelerometer is programmable to be ±2g, ±4g, ±8g, and
±16g at a resolution of 16 bits, the compass resolution is
13 bits and the range ±1200µT. The IMU features an
embedded co-processor in addition to the main data
aggregation processor to offload timing requirements and
processing power needed for the motion processing
algorithms. Communication with the main processor is
provided through the I2C interface.
Speed-through-the-water: This sensor is still under bench
construction but will be available in the next prototype
series introduction. A small impeller is mounted (glued) on
the outer wall under the sailing dinghy. The rotating
impeller creates a rotating magnetic field which is
measured by a Hall-Effect sensor mounted at the opposite
inner wall of the boats hull. A Hall-Effect sensor varies its
output voltage in response to a magnetic field. This sensor
is attached to microcontroller which processes the data and
links them to the data aggregation unit via Bluetooth link.
Accuracy and resolution are still to be defined in the
calibration laboratory.
The newest prototype series of the data aggregation unit
will provide video and audio data via a real time stream
and an embedded camera.
5.3 Server-Client Communication
Data collected by the server from the individual
sensors are simply forwarded to the client over a standard
secured IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi connection layer. An ad-hoc
wireless LAN network is used where the client and the
server communicate peer-to-peer (P2P). In a peer to peer
network each network node is allowed to directly
communicate with one another within a defined P2P group.
Nodes within range of each other can discover and
communicate directly without involving central access
points or routers. This allows for flexible setup and
extension of the PerforManD system network so that
multiple sailing dinghies can server data to just one single
client (coach).
The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is used to
transfer the data collected at the server onboard the sailboat
to the client which is executed on a mobile computer and
runs the data analyzing software. TCP is chosen for its
reliability and its easy implementation. TCP is optimized
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for accurate delivery rather than low package delivery
latency. Therefore in heavy loaded networks long transfer
latencies sometimes occur because of out-of-order message
delays or retransmission of lost messages. However, the
simplicity and easy implementation of TCP prevails these
drawbacks in this application where network complexity
respectively network traffic is readily comprehensible in
the insular peer-to-peer network.

Data are sent to the data analyzing unit and software in an

ASCII XML formatted TCP stream as shown
below:<sensordatacollection>
<sensordataset id="1">
<gps>
<gmttime>
<hours>09</hours>
<minutes>08</minutes>
<seconds>24</seconds>
</gmttime>
<date>
<dd>27</dd>
<mm>04</mm>
<yyyy>2012</yyyy>
</date>
<latitude>
<degrees>54</degrees>
<minutes>54</minutes>
<seconds>45</seconds>
<hemisphere>N</hemisphere>
</latitude>
<longitude>
<degrees>009</degrees>
<minutes>46</minutes>
<seconds>48</seconds>
<hemisphere>E</hemisphere>
</longitude>
<speedMS>0.02</speedMS>
<heading>0.0</heading>
</gps>
<wind>
<timestamp>1334492563</timestamp>
<speedMS>0.3086</speedMS>
<reldirection>135.0</reldirection>
<temperatureC>25.0</temperatureC>
</wind>
<acceleration>
<x>0</x>
<y>3</y>
<z>56</z>
</acceleration>
</sensordataset>
</sensordatacollection>
In the next prototype revision the audio/video stream will
be transported as a parallel data stream using the Real-time
Streaming Protocol (RTSP) as shown in Figure 4: Data
streams. In addition to USB, network data access is
provided through the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
and the setup of the data aggregation unit is done through a
web interface and the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
These several data protocols and data stream are used in
collaboration as shown in Figure 4: Data streams
Figure 4: Data streams
5.4 Server Software
The hardware onboard the sail boat is built around a
powerful but efficient 32-bit embedded processor which
allows for execution of a state-of-art rich 32-bit operation
system kernel. A standard kernel is optimized for
embedded usage and features an advanced power
management which adapts to the underlying hardware to
maximize battery lifetime. On top of the kernel sits a
modular extendable operating system which provides
maximum usability, user experience and flexibility for
system extension. The actual PerforManD system
functionality is build modular into the operating system
kernel so that the system gets cross-platform compatible.
This allows for easy porting of the complete PerforManD
server software structure to other hardware platforms
which can be smart phones or tablet computers.
Software access to peripheral devices such as all attached
sensors is provided through loadable kernel modules which
abstract the underlying hardware to accessible files in the
file system of the operating system from which individual
sensor data are read. Once a module is loaded into the
kernel a new (sensor) service comes available to the user-
space through standard entry points, known technically as
system calls. This scheme protects the system from user
access to the underlying hardware of the sensor interfaces
and protocols which provides maximum system stability
and reliability since all hardware is completely secured for
user access and potential mess-up or bug introduction.
Each sensor has its individual kernel module which is
responsible for the sensor hardware interrogation but also
power control. It runs secured and protected inside the
kernel as an individual process which is scheduled by the
kernel scheduler only. These modules are individually
programmed for each sensor type and they can be loaded
(or unloaded) into the kernel on demand depending on the
system configuration onboard each individual sailing
dinghy. Depending on the attached sensor the related
module will poll for sensor data at defined sample rates or
it listens for incoming data which it makes accessible to
the user-space through individual files named after the
sensor inside the file system of the operating system.

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All sensor interfacing modules are programmed for
maximum power efficiency and where possible hardware
is put asleep if not accessed to reach maximum power
efficiency. Where possible an event/interrupt driven
approach is used. This allows for precise runtime and
battery lifetime prediction which is of major importance
for the described system. For each system configuration a
specific energetic load can be predicted and from that the
maximum battery lifetime of the system.
Naturally the kernel implements the used TCP networking
protocol which provides the server-to-client
communication over the peer-to-peer wireless network. A
featured networking utility (application) which reads and
writes data across network connections using TCP is used
for the client communication. This utility can be accessed
from user-space applications or scripts.
Additional communication channels can be added as
loadable kernel modules as well. This for example can be a
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) connection via a
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)
modem. In such case the system provides direct data
backup and access via modern data cloud systems via a file
hosting service that offers cloud storage and file
synchronization. If a GSM connection is available data are
written (backup) directly into the data cloud. Therefore no
manual data transfer via USB/Network has to be
performed.
To provide maximum user experience the complete system
set-up and configuration is done through a graphical user
web-interface. Hidden behind this graphical user interface,
the web-interface generates the required system calls to
load and unload kernel modules respectively, and initialize
the system for specific configurations. Once the
configuration for the system is done, a configuration script
is generated which is executed at each system boot.
Because all complex sensor hardware interfacing,
housekeeping, communication protocol implementations
and timing or interrupt functionalities are implemented
inside loadable kernel modules and hidden, the actual data
sampling and the data forwarding via a TCP stream or
other communication interfaces can completely be
programmed in a simple scripting language which is
executed in the user space of the kernel. This makes the
system extremely flexible and provides maximum stability
and reliability. The script is automatically generated by the
web-interface depending on the individual settings of the
user. Just like each sensor and communication module, the
kernel then executes this script as a separate process.
6 CLIENT – SOFTWARE
In the following the client software (Figure 5) and
its visualization and analyzing tools will be described in
detail. The software is aimed to give a coach or
performance analyst the possibility to visualize data
measured using the PerforManD sensor system, to assist
the assessment in sailing performance with additional
analysis tools. In addition a review mode is available for
visualization and analyzing of the recorded measurement
stream during debriefing sessions of sailors and coaches.
Figure 5: The Client - Software
Before training, a boat/training specific software
setup can be initiated which can be used as default setup..
On the water several views on the measured performance
data are available. There are two categories:
1. The coach can choose to focus on one
particular boat out of the fleet equipped
with the system.
2. More than one boat can be chosen for a
comparative view of performances.
This feature is available online during training sessions as
well as in the debriefing sessions. In a debriefing session a
user is able to focus on arbitrary situations on the timeline
and do a training data replay with adjustable speed. This
can be done for a particular boat or for the entire fleet fully
synchronized.
A major aspect of the software development
process has been cross-platform portability. Therefore the
client software has been written in C++ programming
language, portable GUI development libraries and OpenGL
graphics.
6.1 3D/2D Polar Plot
A velocity polar diagram showing the speed a
sailing yacht can achieve depending on true wind speed
and direction is widely used by yacht designers. It allows
assessing a particular design and comparing it to others.
Velocity polars are also valuable to the sailor. They
provide operational parameters like tack and gybe angles
and cross overs for different sail sets. However primarily
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they provide the maximum speed of the yacht as a target,
depending on wind conditions. A velocity plot provides a
target for the sailor to achieve during training sessions. If
he routinely exceeds the target, the velocity polar is invalid
and has to be modified. Obviously an accurate velocity
polar is of great value to a coach of a dinghy.
Standard velocity polar diagrams are based on an
aerodynamic and a hydrodynamic model of the sail boat
derived from experimental or numerical flow analysis. The
PerforManD system uses a different approach: it generates
a velocity polar from performance measurements aboard.
These measurements are obtained while sailing and do not
need any special attention.
To this end PerforManD uses a three dimensional
description of the boat speed depending on TWA and
TWS, where TWS is given as a continuous value rather
than a set of discrete values as a conventional polar plot.
The geometric representation of this three-dimensional
boat performance description is a torus surface in a three
dimensional cylindrical coordinate system, see Figure 3.
Figure 6: 3D Polar Plot
A conventional polar plot can be derived easily
from this 3D-torus. Any horizontal intersection through the
torus at a particular height, e.g. wind speed, gives the
velocity polar for this particular wind speed.
PerforManD presents the intersection of the polar
torus at the currently measured wind speed. In addition the
current boat speed at current TWA is also shown in the
diagram, see Figure 3. A conventional 2D polar diagram
derived from the torus is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 7: 2D Polar Plot based on the 3D calculation
The advantages of this 2D/3D polar plot are:
 for polar plot generation, measured boat performance is
used in the polar diagram for any arbitrary wind speed
as measured, without additional interpolation.
 a single graphical presentation allows a coach to
observe the current sailing state of the dinghy, he is
working with: Does the boat reach its target speed, does
the boat sail its target upwind or downwind TWA? Is it
expected to gybe.
 Tracks of measured performance points in the 3D-polar
visualize changes of boat speed, wind speed and wind
angle and allows assessing whether they correlate
(appropriately).
 Comparisons of different sailors tori allow identifying
strengths and weaknesses of a crew.
 Comparisons of theoretical and measured tori allow
assessing a theoretical VPP method.
The process of generation of a performance torus
is split into five steps: (1) filtering the data, (2) data
storage, (3) best-of method, (4) interpolating and (5)
smoothing.
Performance relevant data such as wind and boat
speed and angles, respectively, are acquired with a data
rate of 5 to 10 Hz and averaged to 1 to 2 Hz. A filtering
procedure excludes maneuver situations and handles wind
gaps or shifts. Manoeuvers are detected using the AWA
and other course-relevant values. Wind gaps or rapid wind
changes have to be recognized, since they correlate with
boat speed changes only with some phase difference and
would degenerate the accuracy of a boat speed to wind
speed mapping.
Filtered data is stored in a three dimensional array
with the velocity of the boat, the true wind speed and its
direction as the three dimensions. Array elements count the
8
absolute frequency of occurrence of a particular
combination of boat speed, TWA and TWS. Due to the
gridded character of speed, AWA and AWS in the array,
any measurement has to be distributed by a reverse tri-
linear interpolation to the eight nearest neighbor fields as
illustrated in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Reverse Trilinear Interpolation
Due to the data storage concept in a three-
dimensional array, exact measured values cannot be
retrieved; however averaged values over a data set are
equal to those of conventional averages. The method
allows efficient data storage even if millions of individual
samples are taken into account. The storage concept
involves a given inherent inaccuracy. Since using a
reasonable large array this inaccuracy is by far smaller than
the accuracy of the wind and boat speed sensors and can be
neglected.
Special care has been taken to avoid considering
sub-optimal boat speeds in the averaging process. This is
done using an approach similar to the definition of
significant wave height and named “best-of method”. To
get suitable polar tori, some interpolation of missing values
and additional smoothing is necessary. This is done using
local low order polynomial approximation derived from
least square calculations.
While the process of obtaining measurement data
streams for polar torus generation is fully automated, it is
assumed that many hours of sailing are necessary to
achieve a plausible velocity polar torus. At the beginning
of the use of a PerforManD system the torus will be
incomplete and inaccurate while over time the entire wind
range will be covered and accuracy will grow. It is possible
to import existing diagrams which will be fitted by
additional measurements. The imported diagrams could be
either diagrams generated by the PerforManD-Software or
by an external VPP.
6.2 Digital Chart
A digital chart is available within PerforManD,
showing any dinghy registered and involved in the training
process. In online mode this can serve as a conventional
navigation aid. In addition to position it provides
information of the current sailing state (speed, wind, etc.)
of any boat linked to the coach boat.
Figure 9: digital chart
In review mode the digital chart can show any
boat, which has been equipped with the PerforManD
system and thus provides recorded data streams.
Consequently a debriefing session can visualize an entire
fleet simultaneously. For each boat the local wind and
performance measures are available. This is of some help
for debriefing sessions not only for the orientation of the
sailors; but also it can provide information of the relative
performance of the boats, how they behave tactically and
how they take advantage of the local wind.
6.3 Video Player
With the video player, it is possible to get to know
the situation of the boat and the sailors. With a camera
position chosen appropriately one can get information like
the trim, the wave conditions and the behavior of the
sailors. In review mode, the video player is available as
well, showing recorded media streams. The video is
synchronized to all other instruments and with other boats.
This allows correlating action on board with respective
performance data. The video mode will be available for the
next prototype release of the PerforManD system.
6.4 Time Series Plot
Time series plot (Figure 16) allows showing any
available data stream over time, whether it is a native,
directly measured stream or a derived one. Its purpose is
manifold: it can be used to visualize the change of wind
data over time or the correlation between boat speed and
motion, for example in waves. It is used to detect wind
changes, manoeuvers or performance changes due to some
trimming action.
The time series plot can visualize measured and
derived data as instant mode values or as averaged values
9
over an arbitrary period. In addition, the difference
between a long term average (10 sec to 30 min) and the
instant value can be shown. A typical application for this
would be the change of wind direction around an average
in comparison with the change of boat course around an
average. This visualizes the ability of the crew on board to
take appropriate action in case of wind changes.
6.5 Maneuver Estimation
The maneuver estimation allows the trainer to
recognize maneuvers and their qualities on a quick glance.
By using the replay mode he is able to analyze the reasons
by means of the recorded video and the plotted data.
The software detects a maneuver by checking
changes of the sign of AWA. Additional algorithms
recognize if the detected point really belongs to a correct
maneuver or if they are measurement errors or hard wind
shifts. The maneuver is finished when the new course is
reached and the boat has reached its maximum speed in
relation to the new course and wind conditions. Because of
the unsteadiness of the natural environment, e.g. rapid
wind changes, waves and currents, it is not possible to
detect the correct start and endpoints automatically. To
solve this problem the start- and endpoints are calculated
with a constant time-offset with respect to the time where
AWA changes its sign. A simple mechanism is available to
change the constant time offset for any individual tack.
Each manoeuver is getting a rating, quantifying
the quality of the manoeuver. The rating is based on the
area between the VMG-curve and the straight line between
the start- and endpoint as illustrated in Figure 10 or in
Marchaj [2].
Figure 10: Theory of the Maneuver Estimation
The area is defined as follows:
𝑡𝐸𝑛𝑑
𝑉𝑀𝐺𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡 + 𝑉𝑀𝐺𝐸𝑛𝑑
𝐴=∫ 𝑉𝑀𝐺(𝑡) 𝑑𝑡 − ∙ (𝑡𝐸𝑛𝑑 − 𝑡𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡 )
𝑡𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡 2
Therefore the rating is the height made good
compared to the height made good in the same time
without a tack. In theory, this algorithm is not very
sensible to the actual value of the start and end time of the
tack as long as this is in reasonable distance to the
beginning of the manoeuver.
6.6 Velocity-Made-Good-Plot
The VMG-Plot is an instrument, which plots the
velocity made good over the apparent wind angle. This
instrument provides the best way to get the optimal tack
angle. One conceivable scenario is that the sailor will aim
for the maximum boat speed, while slowly decreasing the
angle to the wind. Meanwhile the coach observes the
VMG-value in the plot, where the plotted data will get a
tendency like in the blue curve shown in Figure 11. After
the sailor has passed the optimal angle it is easy read from
the plot.
Figure 11: VMG Plot
Figure 11 shows high VMG values for small
AWAs. These are caused by tacks since the boat keeps its
initial speed at the beginning of the tack due to boat inertia.
To avoid misinterpretation due to these tacks, the trainer is
able to clear the plotted points with a single click.
Moreover it is possible that the plot only shows a few of
the last recorded points. This way outdated points will be
deleted automatically.
6.7 Sail Shape Analysis
The PerforManD system makes it possible to
analyze sail shapes during a regular training session. For
that purpose additional cameras may be placed at suitable
places, for example directly on deck or at the masthead.
These cameras are wirelessly connected to the display unit
on the coach boat. The user may remotely trigger a
snapshot of the current state of the sail at any time. This
snapshot is then automatically transferred to the display
unit.
After the picture of the sail shape is loaded, the
coach may look at it to see if the shape matches his
expectations and he then is able to define profile stripes
(Figure 12). These profile stripes allow deriving typical
sail characteristics like chord length, maximum draft
position, maximum draft, twist and entry and exit angles.
In combination with performance data from other
PerforManD plots, these sail characteristics can be used to
10
quantify the influence of trimming on sail shape and thus
on sailing performance. A measured sail with its profile
stripes as well as the boat ID and recording time may be
stored and therefore serve to build a database of ideal
configurations for specific environmental conditions (wind
conditions and direction, sea state). With input from a large
number of training sessions one is able to determine a
guide for optimal sail trimming for a specific crew.

Figure 13: Wind Shifts

When observing a good sailor, the arrow of the

HDG-delta value should follow the arrow of the TWD-
delta value and the delay should be as small as possible.

6.9 Classical Instruments

Important real-time values are shown in the
classical nautical instrument view. The layout is orientated
on common instruments on board of a boat. This gives the
Figure 12: Sail Shape measurement user a familiar view.
The profile stripes are currently manually defined
using B-splines. While we are aware that more
sophisticated methods are available which allow the
automatic detection of sail shape stripes from images
and/or video streams (e.g. line-recognition algorithms
based on Hough transformation), we decided against
implementing such methods in the current PerforManD
version. This however might change for future versions
depending on user demands. For the time being it is
considered sufficient since, with the current
implementation, one is already able to retrieve
performance-relevant information with minimal manual
effort.

6.8 Wind Shifts

All sailors need the skill to recognize wind shifts
and align their course to the new wind direction, to analyze
and train this skill the software contains an instrument
called Wind Shifts. As illustrated in Figure 13 the delta
value of the heading is shown on the left-hand side and the
delta value of the wind direction on the right-hand side.
The delta value is calculated based on the difference
between the average and current value. In this case it is
possible to use a sliding average for the average value or a
constant average.
Figure 14: Classical Instruments
7 RESULTS
In order to prove the PerforManD system, sea
trials have been conducted. For these first initial trials a
small keelboat has been selected as test platform. The
platform has been chosen as a compromise between a big
boat (stable platform, less dynamics, dry testing
conditions) and a dinghy (unstable platform, very dynamic,
wet testing conditions). This compromise has been made to

11
ease the first trials, which were aimed for testing and
debugging of the system concept and its core components.

7.1 Setup of the PerforManD system

The platform used is a Waarschip 725, a 7.25m
long quarter-tonner, built in multi-chine plywood
construction technique. The principle dimensions are given
in Table 1.

Table 1: Principle dimensions of W725

Length over all (m) 7.25

Length of water line (m) 5.5
Maximum breadth (m) 2.5
Draft (m) 1.2
Displ. (t) 1.2
Keel Weight (t) 0.5
Main Sail Area (m²) 9.8
Genua-1 sail area (m²) 16.3
Genua-2 sail area (m²) 13
jib sail area (m²) 6
Spinnaker sail area (m²) 36

Figure 15: Setup of sensor equipment

In order to equip the boat for sea trials the
different sensors have been placed on the boat as shown in
Figure 15.
The data aggregation unit has been fixed on top of the
cabin roof with the following sensors embedded:
 GPS sensor for:
o speed over ground (SOG)
o course over ground (COG)
o position (LAT / LON)
 Accelerometer
o Accelerations and derived values in
3-axis
o Orientation 2 angles (PITCH,
HEEL)
 Fluxgate compass for magnetic course (HDG)
 Thermometer
The 3D wind anemometer has been placed at the masthead
to measure apparent wind speed (AWS) and angle relative
to the boat axis (AWA).
To measure the shape of the fore sails, a camera has been
installed on the foredeck. In the current development phase
this camera is a GoPro Hero 2 with Wi-Fi module which
allows transferring the captured images directly to the
computer on the coach boat.
The single sensor component which we have not
been able to integrate so far is the log.
7.2 First Results
This initial testing phase has been dictated by
three major goals:
1. Debug hardware (sensors, Wi-Fi, etc.) and
software (implementation of derived values,
etc.).
2. Test the system in a non-laboratory
environment.
3. Collect data which allows to improve the
software
Verification by means of quantitative values is
very hard to achieve for measurements on a sailing boat,
therefore instruments are normally calibrated in laboratory
conditions. However, a qualitative assessment of measured
values is possible. This approach is necessary, especially
when it comes to interaction of the different sensors to
deliver data for derived values.
The time series plot shown in Figure 16 is a cut-
out of one of the sea trials. It shows the variation of
different native and derived values for a time period of
approximately 420s (7min). The upper lines, numbered 1
to 5 are plotted over the primary y-Axis (left) whilst values
from 6 to 9 are plotted over the secondary axis.

12

Figure 16: Time series plot of data from sea trials
The displayed values are:
(1) True Wind Direction [°] , (green)
(2) Course over Ground [°] , (dark yellow)
(3) Heading [°] , (dark blue)
(4) True Wind Angle [°] , (red)
(5) Apparent Wind Angle [°] , (dark red)
(6) Apparent Wind Speed [m/s] , (dark green)
(7) True Wind Speed [m/s] , (white)
(8) Speed Over Ground [m/s] , (purple)
(9) Velocity Made Good [m/s] , (blue)
The plot allows several observations which are useful for a
qualitative assessment. One can see that the variation of
the measured values (AWA, AWS, COG, SOG and HDG)
is reasonable, without either being too smooth or too much
fluctuation.
At point (a) the COG sensor readings (1) shows a
sudden drop which at first glance might look like a sensor
failure. In truth this is only display-related and originates
from the definition of COG as values ranging from 0° to
360°. The derived values (TWS, TWA, TWD, and VMG)
also show reasonable values. In comparison values from a
local metrological station (Kiel Lighthouse) reported a true
wind direction of 270° and a true wind speed of 8.5kts for
the time interval displayed in the plot (Figure 17, red line).
The measured values of the PerforManD system in Figure
16 give an average TWS of approximately 7.8kts and an
average TWD of 280°, thus being very similar to the
values from the metrological station.
Figure 17: Wind information from local metrological
station
Keeping in mind that the measurements were
taking in constrained coastal waters whilst the metrological
station is located a few miles away in a more open water
these data correlate very well.
At points (b) and (c) in Figure 16 sudden changes
in AWA and TWA are observable. At (a) the AWA drops
from roughly 40° to -60° and then increase to -40° - TWA
follows this pattern, as do AWS, SOG and VMG. This
behavior indicates that at point (a) the boat has tacked.
Looking at the true wind direction one can see that these
values are not affected by the tacking maneuver indicating
a correct derived value implementation. The same holds
true for TWS which is also not affected by the tack and
only shows some natural oscillations originating from
gusts.
Point (b) also shows a tacking maneuver, but
differences can be seen here. First of all one can see an
increase of AWS and TWS of 3.5 and 3.1 m/s during tack,
respectively. This indicates that the sailor has tacked in a
gust. The consequences for the tacking maneuver are
noticeable. Both VMG and SOG only show a very short
drop and a significantly faster recovery than during the
tack at point (a). One can therefore conclude that because
of tacking in a gust, tack (b) was better than tack (a). This
is also reflected by the maneuver estimation plot as
depicted in Figure 18.
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Figure 18: Rating of tacking maneuvers
For the blue VMG curve the shaded area
associated with the curve reflects the amount of distance to
windward gained / lost. This results in a rating as described
in section 6.5. Comparing the rating of maneuver (a) and
(b) clearly shows an advantage for maneuver (b).
7.3 First generated polar diagrams
None of the test runs aimed solely for the polar
diagram creation. Therefore, there are lots of maneuvers in
the measured data. Additionally, the individual
measurements took less than an hour for the same
combination of sails. The sailed course has often been
close to the wind, resulting in a polar plot which is only
sufficiently dense in this TWA region. Nevertheless, it is
possible to show some promising results. To get a first
overview of the quality of the generated diagrams, these
are compared to the calculated diagrams of AVPP. The
generated diagrams are only based on the measured data,
which results in a lot of gaps due to insufficient data.
In the following 2d polar plots (Figure 20 and
Figure 22) the blue curve always represents the polar
diagram calculated in AVPP for the Waarschip 725 with
its mainsail and the small jib. The first trial presented here
was done with three persons on board in wind conditions
over 4bft with lots of gusts and wind shifts. The second
trial was done with two persons on board and the middle
jib. The wind was relatively constant and about 3bft. The
generated diagrams are based on a sailing time of about 40
minutes at a sample arte of 0.3Hz which was reduced do to
hardware issues.
Figure 19 and Figure 21 show the top view of the 3D-plot.
The black points are the real measured points, which are
shown only for validation purposes. These points allow
judging of the distribution of the measured points, which in
this case explains all gaps in the 2D polar lines in Figure
20 and Figure 22.
Looking at the 2D polar plots one can see that in
the downwind sector the measured polar lines are
misshaped and seem to show wrong values. This is due to
a thin data base leaving not enough points for the
calculation of a correctly shaped polynomial in the region
of the downwind courses. From the generated polar lines
at low wind speeds one can see that the displayed boat
velocities seem to be too high. This is a result of the wind
gaps and the mass inertia of the boat. This indicates that
the filter algorithm is not effective enough to handle wind
gaps correctly and needs to be revised. In general the
tendency of the boat velocity matches very well with the
one predicted which was by AVPP. Especially the polar
lines of the second trial have a nearly constant offset to the
AVPP polar lines. Here one has to mention that the
hydrodynamic database used to produce the polar lines is
empiric and better suited for racing yachts. The
aerodynamic model is based on the assumption of
optimum sail trim and modern sails, which is not the case
for both crew and boat. Additionally the VPP polar
assumes calm water which of course is not the case in a
natural environment. It can therefore considered that the
VPP polar is roughly half a knot too fast. As mentioned
above, the sailors did not aim for the maximum boat speed,
but for the validation of the instruments. This gets obvious
after comparing the measured data (black points) to the
generated body, because the body is always close to the
maximal reached boat speed. Indeed one has to consider
that the AVPP polar lines are calculated for the small jib,
but the second trial was done with the middle jib.
With attention to the insufficient data count and
the contradictory trial targets, the here presented results are
already promising and one could expect useful results after
a few more days on water.
Figure 19: First Trial Top-View of the 3d-Plot
14
 Figure 20: First Trial 2d Polar Lines
Figure 21: Second Trial Top-View of the 3d-Plot
Figure 22: Second Trial 2d Polar Lines
7.4 Assessment of the first trials
The major goals of the first trials were to collect
data to assist and improve the on-going development of the
analysis software, test the system in a natural environment
and to detect bugs in software and hardware. These goals
have been achieved. Whilst a thorough validation of the
system is still pending, qualitative analysis of the first
results revealed no major bugs in the visualization of
native values and the implementation derived values. The
results also showed that the system is capable of delivering
information regarding crew / boat performance to a coach.
Future trials including additional sensors like audio / video
and log on more dynamic boat platforms like dinghies,
skiffs and catamarans are scheduled for 2013.
8 CONCLUSION
The paper presented here describes the
PerforManD system developed in a joint project by Yacht
Research Unit Kiel and Mads Clausen Institute (University
of Southern Denmark) /Sonderborg. The project is in an
15
intermediate state. While hardware and software
development is pretty advanced, field measurements are
only available in limited number.

The system is aimed to support coaches of sailing

dinghy crews. It provides the necessary information to
assess and develop the individual performance of a crew in
a contemporary racing dinghy. It has to be underlined, that
by no means the PerforManD system tries to substitute the
work of a coach. The sole purpose of the system is to
provide information to a coach.

The next steps of the project focus on field tests

and subsequent refinement of the system. To this end,
proprietary sensors for wind and boat speed are under
development, which are better fitted to be used on a
dinghy. Finally calibration and filtering algorithms will be
enhanced, since they are of dominant importance to the
accuracy of the systems.

The developers of the system are currently

investigating options to make use of the system in an
extended prototype phase, where further refinements of
software and hardware are realized while the system is in
use for teams in preparation of the Olympic Games 2016.

9 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The PerforManD project is funded by the
INTERREG4A program of the European Union.

10 REFERENCES
1. “Cosworth, Product Catalogue, Performance Sailing,
PiGarda”, Internet: http://cosworth.com/products/
marine/performance-sailing/pi-garda-data-logger/
[Accessed: 29.12.2012]
2. MARCHAJ, C.A.: Die Aerodynamik der Segel:
Theorie und Praxis, Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld,
1996

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