Andrew Palfrey, Cowes – Sailor, Coach, Tactician

“ I have used Race Area Analyser in the Solent over the last three years. I have also used it in La Rochelle.
When I am racing, it is one of my primary tools for making strategic decisions. I also use it as a de-briefing tool to figure out why something worked (or didn’t). In this way, it is a very good learning tool.
When coaching, I highly recommend it’s use for the teams I work with.
During long days on the solent, I will often validate the information by doing physical current checks, particularly during the tide-change periods. I am very impressed with the accuracy of the tidal information.
I like that Race Area Analyser helps to keep things simple for racing sailors. The routing feature gives a gain-loss time delta. This helps in deciding whether the current is going to be key on a given leg, or whether we can largely discount the current when making strategic decisions.
I use both the laptop and tablet versions and have never had a difficulty. When I ask questions, Buell Software staff respond quickly with answers.”

 

Giovanni Belgrano, Cowes – Winner of Black Group over all, Cowes Week 2017. Owner/Skipper Whooper

We became aware of RAA when trying to upgrade/modernise our racing tactical preparation four years ago. Since then we have been in correspondence with Yvette as the software got developed into a very user-friendly tool – onboard refer to it’s output as what ‚the German Lady says’.
We use it on iPad (home and onboard), and tend to share screenshots the day before the race as part of our strategy planning.
We tried and developed several techniques to get the most out of it, and it’s been really helping-out with achieving the results we have her win the Solent, in particular for the fixed-course coastal races, where we can strategise in advance, and update/refine as the wind forecasts start firming-up. We are gradually introducing it for ‘live’ support prior to the start, and hope for during the race with our GPS position showing.
The RAA team have been very helpful for example they have entered our own polars, with our specific significant tacking losses, and the prediction of optimum number of tacks up a difficult leg seems to match closely what we feel is best, thus providing us with a good target frequency of tacks for specific situations and timing.
It has helped us pick exact optimum position for the long RYS transit start line (by seeing where the best tidal route intersects it).
It is also very interesting and great fun to study the sensitivity to which ‘side‘ becomes favourite based on small wind direction, or strength, or timing changes; it comes out with unusual, unexpected routes which few know, or have the courage to take.

 

Rich Cooper – Owner/Skipper J/88 Jongleur

Race Analyser Solent
„I started racing only 3 years ago in the fairly complicated tidal area of the Solent. Get the tides wrong and you might as well stay tied up on the dock. I have used Race Analyser as our Strategy Planner for my J/88 and it is has proved invaluable. I like to run scenarios of races based on wind forecasts the evening before on an iMac and print off the results for our crew race briefings. Having Race Analyser on the iPad enables Strategy updates on the day and even between races. A quick run of actual conditions takes less than 5mins. All the race marks are loaded and the drag and drop marks are very handy to use. It won’t win races for you on its own but it is a fantastic race tool and one I wouldn’t want to be without.“
Rich Cooper

 

James Lyne – Sailor, Coach, Tactician

„Buell software has been an invaluable tool in preparing a daily playbook for my sailing teams in tidal venues of Cowes and San Francisco.
The ability to route on such a small scale, with accurate boat polars and high resolution tide and wind models, has given the sailing teams great confidence in the results.
I would not want to race in tidal venues without Buell software to game plan the day.
The software is easy to use, produces quick , easily understandable results.“

 
Ed Adams – Sailor, Coach, Tactician

„I have found the Race Analyzer to be surprisingly accurate at predicting which side of the race course is favored for current, and by how much. It is particularly useful in situations where the current is angled in relation to the wind direction. The company’s technical service has also been prompt and helpful.“