Sail Race Tracker is a low-cost, waterproof, open-source GPS tracking system for youth sailing fleets — bringing America's-Cup-style live maps to club and school regattas for a fraction of the cost.
From shore, parents and coaches can't see much of the race and often have no idea where sailors are. Professional events like SailGP and the America's Cup solve this with live GPS maps — but those systems are too expensive, too complex, and too reliant on mobile data for club or school use.
Commercial trackers (RaceQs, Sailmon, Yellowbrick) run NZ$500–900 per unit, plus $30+/month subscriptions.
Most rely on a phone or SIM on each boat — but phones are banned in racing and data costs add up fast.
Nothing on the market is waterproof, SIM-free, class-legal and able to handle a 50–200 boat regatta.
Each boat carries a lightweight, waterproof LoRa GPS tracker. Positions hop across a radio mesh to a support-boat gateway and Raspberry Pi, then onto a live web dashboard anyone can open from the clubhouse — no SIM cards, no subscriptions.
A simple but powerful data flow turns raw GPS broadcasts into structured, replayable race data.
Built with Flask and Leaflet.js, the dashboard plots every boat on the map with trails, timing and race replay — so spectators stay engaged and coaches can review tactics afterwards.
This isn't a concept render — it's a working prototype, mounted on a Starling and tested on the water with a real youth fleet.
The design goals came straight from talking with sailors, parents, coaches and race officials across Auckland's clubs, Yachting New Zealand, High Performance Sport NZ and NZIODA.
Replay races and training to see exactly where time was gained or lost — learning from data, not just memory.
See the full fleet instantly, spot drifting or capsized boats quickly, and record timing accurately.
Replay full sessions, compare sailor choices and run large-group debriefs with real evidence.
Watch live from shore — staying involved while cutting the need for fuel-burning chase boats.
The film produced for the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow national final — the problem, the build, and the system on the water.
assets/video/sail-race-tracker.mp4 and this player will stream it. (See the note in the project folder — the original 300 MB .mov needs compressing first.)Field-tested with Royal Akarana Yacht Club, the prototype works end to end. The roadmap: custom firmware for richer data, a custom PCB, and a full race-management app.