Innovative sailing equipment from MCI will be ready for commercial production

The Mads Clausen Institute has since 2010 worked together with the Yacht Research Unit at Kiel University of Applied Science about developing a new innovative performance and training system for professional sailors. This INTERREG 4A cross-border project is called PerforManD, and the results of the project have been so good that it has now received an add-on grant for the project of almost 1 Mio. DKK.

Ready for commercial production

Originally, PerforManD received approx. 3.5 Mio. DKK in support from the INTERREG 4A program under the EU Regional Development Fund, and the target was to develop a system, which can measure and record different parameters of the sailor and the boat during the sail. The project has succeeded, and this is mostly due to a very good division of the tasks between SDU and the university in Kiel. The Mads Clausen Institute at SDU has managed the development of the sailboat’s sensor systems and related embedded hard- and software and the Yacht Research Group at the university in Kiel has been in charge of developing the data analysis software. The system as such is ready but with the extra grant, the partners can now strengthen the hardware and expand the software over the course of 2014. Thus, the completion of the prototype will reach a level where it will be ready for commercial production at the end of 2015.

-The special knowledge about sensors which is present at the Mads Clausen Institute and the particular competences within boat and sail technology at the Yacht Research Group at Kiel University of Applied Sciences have supplemented each other in an ideal manner in this project. This is why we can now take this project a step further and finish the system completely and make it ready for production, says Project Manager at the Mads Clausen Institute Robert Brehm.

For Olympic sailors and ambitious amateurs

The PerforManD system shows 3D movement of the boat, its position, the speed above and under water as well as visual information, via a video link, about the position of the sails and efficiency and wave conditions. Thus, analyses of the sailing maneuvers, such as tacking, are possible. The German Olympic sailing team has been part of the development process and has continuously tested the system. It is still the goal that the team will use the system when it is completely done. However, with the new functions the system will not only be helpful to professional sailors in optimizing their performance but also to ambitious amateurs.

For further information, please contact Project Manager Robert Brehm, the Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark in Sønderborg, ph. +45 6500 1612 or by e-mail at brehm@mci.sdu.dk.