Why Offshore Racing Is the Ultimate Tech and Human Challenge—and How digiLabs AI Fits In
When people ask what Offshore Racing is, they initially imagine a high-paced water sport with a lot of swashbuckling pirate action and huge waves swamping the boat. It is a lot of that. But at the elite level, it's a constantly changing maths problem, where athletes are juggling a changing set of values: True Wind Speed, Apparent Wind Angle, and Speed Over Ground, whilst also juggling risk and uncertainty in terms of their optimal course considering sea state, tidal, wind conditions, and their fellow competitors. What it amounts to is a very complex game of chess in the shower, with little sleep, and someone redesigning the chessboard every six hours as weather files are released.
The Challenge
The Figaro 3 class—the arena we’re competing in this year—is the most famously ruthless environment for Offshore Racing. The boats are identical, and the sailors embedded in the class are the best working sailors on the scene. All but one Vendée Globe solo round-the-world race skipper (the premier race in sailing) has been a Figaro competitor.
My co-skipper, Charlie Warhurst, meteorologist Ella Boxall, and I, with the support of digiLab, have entered our ‘rookie’ season in the class. We've completed one race already, and the next will be our ultimate challenge and by far the biggest double-handed (two-person) race we’ve ever done.
Six hundred and fifty miles non-stop around the famously remote and harsh Fastnet Rock, the Defi Paprec is a testing ground for those looking to make it at the sport’s elite level. Charlie and I have sailed all our lives in the English Channel and the Westcountry, and so, whilst the boat is new and we have a lot more experienced skippers, we have an intimate knowledge of the sailing area.
digiLab’s Floating Laboratory
In the last 20 years, data science has revolutionised the sport of sailing, enabling competitors to log data from the boat and more accurately predict weather conditions. Racing Navigators have become technicians, using technology that combines weather forecast data and boat ‘polars’ (graphs showing the speed the boat can expect at different wind speeds/angles) to chart an efficient, race-winning course. Unfortunately, there’s no way for this technology to describe or dissect the output of its calculations.
Caption: This is the polar for the original Figaro; the Figaro 3 can hit 27kts downwind
The next step is where digiLab enters the game. Every Figaro 3 is identical - same hull, same sails, same foils. The only advantage is the one you create. Using digiLab’s AI, we will analyse data gathered from training and previous races. digiLab, working with Ella, can start to quantify uncertainty within the data and give us suggested routes and a more nuanced picture of the strategic situation: Do we gybe now? Do we take the inshore route? How well does the swell forecast match up to the live wave buoy data? Do we change sails before this squall hits, or does our previous data suggest we sail better with the current sail plan?
Marine Sector Applications
The learnings from testing technology in the high-stakes precision world of Offshore Racing will be hugely important to the Marine Sector. From making shipping more efficient and sustainable, to making wind farms more effective.
For me, it's cool to be a part of a sponsorship relationship that is not just about marketing and exposure. It’s actually about using the digiLab Figaro 3 as an R&D Lab and a working example of the technology. We know that weather forecast data becomes less reliable as wind speed drops, but that's not reflected in current technology.
With digiLab on board as our sponsor, we can afford the sails, coaching, and the preparation we need to line up against the very best in the world. It’s a partnership built on shared values: adaptability, precision, and performance under pressure. They’re championing young British talent in a data-driven sport and sharing our excitement in getting things done.