Cyclops Marine Limited develops load sensors that bring America’s Cup technology to ordinary sailors. Get the edge with repeatable settings which help find and maintain superior speeds.
Remember your best race? Everything clicked. You were in a different gear than everyone else. You pointed higher off the start line. You were going faster than the competition. The following day you go to repeat it all, and you just can’t find the same gear.
Professional sailors repeatedly appear to find ‘that gear’, yet the weekend sailor has limited control over what kind of day they will have on the water.
There are few variables that are directly controllable by the crew, but Four-time Volvo Ocean Race Winner Stu Bannatyne says that "matching forestay tension to the wind and sails is the key to upwind performance."
So, if a sailor could set their rig up precisely according to the wind and their sails time after time, they would have a massive leg-up on the competition.
The minds at Cyclops have made this a possibility, harnessing the latest technology to create smarttune, a simple-to-install load sensor that accurately measures stay tension in real time, transmitting rig-loads wirelessly to smartphone or boat instruments.
Cyclops Marine Ltd is a technology business led by innovators that have developed load sensors for use in the sailing environment. The Cyclops Marine Smart range of products is a new generation of wireless load sensors created by some of the leading brains from Cambridge University, in tandem with sailors, to produce accurate, repeatable and meaningful data. Set to become the industry standard, the Smart range enables sailors to set their boat up for optimum performance time after time. Easy to install, the range provides real-time data that is simple to understand. Cyclops is led Ian ‘Chips’ Howarth surrounded by an experienced team of both renowned sailors & technical experts.
With smarttune you can measure and repeat your fastest settings, control your forestay sag and headsail shape, also your mast bend to manage your mainsail shape as you race for optimal performance in all conditions, on all points of sail.
“Forestay sag is a key part of controlling the aero-shape of the headsail and enables you to create different sail shapes for different wind conditions. Forestay sag is measured by forestay load, and controlled by rig and backstays. Accurate knowledge of forestay sag enables you to repeatedly adjust this to give the optimum sail shape for best performance throughout the race.” - Former sailmaker and America's Cup Coach, Eddie Warden Owen
The load sensor can be swapped in for your existing turn screw in minutes and showing the live rig load on your smartphone seconds later.
"Installing smarttune is as simple as taking turns off a turn screw to adjust the mast rake. This is definitely a system anyone can install on their own boat," (Hannah Diamond, Volvo Ocean Race and shorthanded sailor).
