ABPmer becomes official tidal modelling supplier of SailGP

Marine consultancy and survey specialist, ABPmer has become the official supplier of ocean intelligence to SailGP.

Season 2 of the championship is well underway, with ABPmer providing race-day current data at ten-minute intervals for events through to March 2022, including Saint-Tropez, Cadiz-Andalusia (Spain), and San Francisco, where tides are the primary driver of surface currents.

With the teams flying the F50 catamarans at record-breaking speeds approaching 100 km/h, tidal current information is a key data-feed used to optimise performance on race days.

“We are delighted to be supporting SailGP with tidal intelligence during the 2021/2022 Championship season,” says Damon O’Brien, ABPmer’s managing director. “Both SailGP race management and the world-class athletes benefit from our modelling specialists’ high-resolution hydrodynamic (water motion) numerical model outputs, delivering accurate representations of current speed and direction across the race areas.“

Alex Reid, head of systems at SailGP, comments: “It is very important to have accurate tidal data from a sailing and race management perspective. A large number of calculations on the F50s relating to wind, performance analysis, navigation and control systems rely on tidal data. The level of fidelity that ABPmer has been able to provide has really increased the quality of the data, which translates into a number of tangible improvements across the platform.”

ABPmer is a recognised leader in offshore, coastal and estuarine numerical modelling, and has supported TeamGBR, the British Sailing Team in the Olympics and Paralympics.