CASON GRAND PRIX 2008
The most challenging regatta on Lake Balaton to begin soon
On morning of September 27th a fleet of one-man sail boats will leave the port of Csopak (Lake Balaton, Hungary) to compete in the Solo Lake Balaton Roundabout Regatta. A competition brought to live 8 years ago by Nándor Fa who is a Hungarian sailor who has sailed around the world with his boat St. Jupat in 717 days between 1985-1987; besides he took part in 1990-1991 at the BOC Challenge and in 1992-1993 at Vendée Globe where he finished at the 5th place.
The CASON Grand Prix race has some very strenuous technical requirements for the sailors: they must sail from one end of the 77 km long Lake Balaton to the other – then back, alone, without landfall or external assistance. A comparably high-level of technical skill is required both to complete the race and to track it, and this year’s main sponsor, CASON Engineering Plc, a world leading GPS technology provider, meets that requirement.
For a long time, CASON has provided high level technical support to various Hungarian sailing competitions such as like the greatest challenge on Hungarian waters – the Solo Lake Balaton Roundabout Regatta organised by Nándor Fa.
The technical collaboration between CASON and the organisers which began in 2002 has become an even stronger co-operation in 2008 with CASON supplying the state-of-the-art background technology to sailors and the race thereby guaranteeing the safety and the enjoyment of the race.
The GPS equipment enables viewers to follow the race online as well as on the displays at the start-finish location. Live tracking and a continuous commentary following the exciting developments of the regatta will be available at the
www.casongrandprix.net websites.
The support of CASON also increases participants’ safety with transmitters on the boats and the sailors immediately indicating if anybody falls overboard. The equipment also enables sailors to make instant contact with rescue units or the technical staff when necessary.
In describing the advantages of tracking, Nándor Fa stressed that this system gives viewers a real-time experience and it is an excellent tool for subsequent analyses.