The changing face of sailing

By TERRY MADDAFORD

One of the more enduring memories from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics was watching Tom Schnackenberg on his in-line skates, laptop computer under his arm, racing from the Olympic village to New Zealand's yachting compound.

These days he has changed his wheels to a more sedate mountain bike. That laptop, well beyond its use by date, replaced over the years by more sophisticated models.

The on-going search for the hi-tech advantage - so much the key in the vital off-water technological war - continues. Upgrades, both in the hard and software, are on-going.

As head of the design team, Schnackenberg still lives in the fast lane but he and his Team New Zealand team-mates are never far from their computers.

"We have two or three laptops on the boats. They are used to monitor performance and navigation," said Schnackenberg. "We can get information from satellite pictures which enables us to predict weather patterns several days ahead."

Computers are also invaluable tools in reading winds and waves.

"There is a mass of data collected every day we go out. It is then put into the computers and used to compile charts.

"I used to go through a spiral notebook a month," said Schnackenberg. "I was always making notes. I still do, but these days a notebook lasts a lot longer. My calculations now in the computer. Our lives now revolve around our computers."

The hi-tech world of big time yachting is mind-blowing. Sextants and nautical charts replaced by sophisticated laptops, laser guns and GPS [Global Positioning Satellites] receivers which play their part when changing wind conditions can dictate late changes to course marks.

But, come the real thing - the best-of-nine battle for the Auld Mug - there can be no "outside assistance." Once the 10 minute gun is fired the crew cannot receive any weather or other information. Cellphones are loaded into a waterproof canister and tossed overboard and retrieved by the chase boats.

Sails too have been caught up in the computer-driven evolutionary process.

"Sails used to be cut out flat and sewn together. Now with the 3DL (three-dimension layout) sails there is hardly a seam to be seen," Schnackenberg said. "In today's hi-tech world almost all sails are simply joined together. Looms were very expensive and the sails took a long time to make.

"The changes have been gradual. We had tri-radial sails in the mid-80s and then we went to scrim now we have Kevlar (the big brown mainsails so much part of the America's Cup these days) or a mix of Kevlar and carbon with some polyester. We also use Mylar -- a polyester film.

"In some ways it is like baking where you have the basic ingredients of eggs, flour, butter and sugar. You get different results by varying the amount of each you use. Sailmaking is a bit like that. It is up to us to work out which will do the job best."

But those huge colourful spinnakers have largely escaped the technological blast.

"They are still woven. We have made only tiny improvements over the years."

When Schnackenberg joined North Sails in the early 1970s, computers were in their infancy.

"My job was to write the programmes but it was a long, exacting, task."

Now most of the Team New Zealand team are, according to Schnackenberg, "computer literate."

Analysing the vast amount of information gathered by the various technological tools can mean the difference between winning and losing.

Whatever happened to simply pushing a boat out and letting the wind do the rest?