AUSTRALIAN SAILING TEAM AND B&G RENEW PARTNERSHIP FOR ANOTHER FOUR YEARS

Southampton, UK – Australian Sailing, governing body for the sport of sailing in Australia and B&G, the world’s leading sailing navigation and instrument specialists, have renewed their partnership to provide B&G electronics to the high-performance Australian Sailing Team.

When it comes to real-time sailing information, and the delivery of it, the Australian Sailing Team (AST) has relied on B&G for the gathering and display of data on board their coach boats, all over the globe, for the past eight years. The two recently extended their long-term partnership for another four years, as a sign of the shared commitment that goes beyond the supply of equipment but also includes the support supplied by B&G’s software technicians. Usually this is under very short timeframes, quite often just before major international regattas, and it has to eventually be installed across the entire fleet.

“The partnership between B&G and the AST was first established in 2014, with the intention of providing high-end sailing electronics to support vessels across Australia for the training of athletes,” said Laura Tolmay, Marketing & Communications Manager for Asia-Pacific at B&G. “As the only electronics brand designed specifically for sailing, B&G is committed to elevate sailing in Australia, and take a bigger role within the sailing community where we can support not only performance racing, but youth sailing and cruising. The successful partnership with the AST allows us to partake in youth sailing events, regattas, and various other activities that promote sailing, and inspire those within the fraternity.”

Australian Sailing’s Performance Analyst, Sam Ellis, added, “The challenge we face is that in a sport as multifactorial and complex as sailing, is that there are no silver bullets when it comes to performance. The key is to be able to reliably identify and understand the complex relationships between the environment you are sailing in, and your boat’s performance. So you need to be able to respond accordingly, as the environment changes around you.”

“Since beginning my role with Australian Sailing Team four years ago, B&G have been instrumental in providing us with the equipment and support we need to be able to not only monitor our environment in real-time in a simple user-friendly manner, but also collect that data for long-term analysis. Sailing is a sport of decision making and risk analysis. The better the information you have on hand, typically then sets you up for a much higher degree of decision making. The B&G systems we employ gift us with the most accurate and reliable information to base our decisions on.”

Every single one of AST’s coach boats around the world is fully fitted with a B&G Zeus MDF and features cutting-edge environmental sensors, supplied by B&G, which means no matter where the Australian sailors go in the world, they are always gaining insights into the environment, allowing coaches and sailors to identify trends in the environment, and react to get the best out of their boats, no matter what the conditions.

Said Michael Blackburn, 2000 Olympic medalist and Australian Sailing Technical Director, “AST coaches need reliable equipment that just works in harsh conditions, and also when the going gets tough during major international regattas. We’ve benefited immensely from our eight-year partnership with B&G, depending on their weather monitoring gear on our fleet of coach boats for accurate and reliable insights into wind strength and direction.”

“It’s also valuable for us to be able to compare weather data between coach boats to give us a better picture of what the wind is doing across the course. With B&G’s support, we’ve outfitted our fleet of regatta coach boats with feature packed performance tools that enhance our coaches and athletes understanding of wind behaviour. The AST is absolutely looking forward to continuing its partnership with B&G for the next four years, and all the regattas we will attend in that time.”