First Person Video (FPV) Radio Sailing

[John949]

Attached is some footage from my early experiments with this technology.  Just to be clear this is a recording of real-time video being transmitted from the boat to a screen on my transmitter i.e. I am (at least partially) sailing the boat by looking at the screen.

It's still early days bit a few things are obvious:

Good points:

1. Makes rounding marks much easier
2. Viewing the tell-tales is valuable
3. You can see what you are doing in a crowd of boats

Bad Points:

1. Camera field of view is limited so you need to switch between looking at the boat and the screen  e.g. you can't see sideways to judge the starting line or see boats behind you.

The technology obviously comes from the current popularity of drones & drone racing and hence the cost is very reasonable.  The set-up I'm using costs less than an RMG,  I did wonder about 3D glasses but ruled it out (for the moment at least) because of a) the FOV problem and b) I don't want to look like a geek.

Yes I know this is illegal for racing (at the moment!) but I believe we need to examine this technology to see what benefits it could bring to our sport.  If it could be used to attract more people (maybe even younger people) into the sport then we would be foolish to ignore it.

P.S. If you record the footage it would make interesting viewing at a protest meeting!

[Mike Ewart]

Why?

[Stephen B]

Amazing… and the first view of a future.

we ought to get Mr G Lineker and other pundits, to have their views about this,  after all they have said about the 4th football referee.
Could be useful for coaching beginners… also for some great video clips to attract new people to our sport.
 

Disregard nothing at this stage, is my view.

 

[danieljhmayo]

This footage is awesome! What kit did you use? Definitely expands on the experience of close racing.