Perq for America’s Cup entrant

Press, 1 March 1983, Page 28

Perq for America’s Cup entrant

Britain's entry in the America's Cup. Victory, is having her sailing performance monitored and analysed by a scientific graphics computer operating in one of the harshest environments imaginable for a computer.

Mounted in a 13-metre motor launch during summer trials off Newport, Rhode Island, the ICL Perq graphics computer was linked by radio to the 12-metre Victory receiving data on wind speed, wind direction, boat speed, position and leeway for a variety of sail combinations and sea conditions and these were displayed continuously on the Perq screen and stored on disc files for future retrieval and analysis. The British challenger for the 1983 America's Cup is being entered by the Victory Syndicate. After the summer trials they have now moved to Nassau in the Bahamas to continue the trials throughout the northern winter. During this time the Perq computer is being extended to develop models of the yacht's performance for different wind strengths and directions and to provide a comprehensive analysis of the yacht's capabilities in all weather. The computer cabinet, which incorporates both

floppy and hard-disc drives, has been mounted on the launch in foam rubber within an aluminium box which is gimballed fore and aft and athwartships in a further aluminium frame which, itself. is mounted on foam rubber. In the initial stages, use of the disc was confined to very gentle sea conditions but it has since proved able to cope with deteriorating seas and has continued to operate in conditions beyond those considered suitable for the Victory itself. The programs have been written with the aim of making the data and graphics accessible to the inexperienced user. Use of the keyboard has been kept to a minimum. In practice, with the boat rolling through as much as 40 degrees, it is difficult to type accurately, but pointing with the cursor on the graphics tablet connected to the terminal is relatively easy. Armed with the information obtained, the Victory and her crew will be able to fine-tune the boat.