Eliminating the dirty little secret

With the growth of solo and doublehanded racing, there’s a dirty little secret never discussed as this type of racing violates the COLREGS – Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea – which exist to maintain order among all vessels at sea.

IMOCA, as the most notable Class in the genre of shorthanded competition, is eager to come up with a solution for how its Class Members don’t often maintain a proper look-out, and for how they don’t operate their 60-footers at a safe speed to avoid collision.

Therefore, the Class has joined with marine industry partners to improve the safety of sailors for the next Vendee Globe in 2024. The stated aim of this alliance of experts in onboard electronics, data management, and artificial intelligence is to develop technology to automatically detect, identify, and avoid obstacles in order to reduce the risk of collisions. – Full Report