Executive Committee Action
January 13, 2026
Update on RaceSense and Testing at the 2026 Winter Championship
The Class has now used the Vakaros Automated Race Management System (RaceSense) at several regattas, most recently at the 2025 Lightning North American Championship. Overall, the system has worked well, and we’ve heard a lot of useful feedback from competitors.
On November 17, 2025, we held a town hall to talk through whether and how RaceSense should be used at future events. A few consistent themes came out of that discussion:
- The race management and over-early features were very well received
- The cost of units, subscriptions, and training remain real concerns
- RaceSense would continue to be limited to larger regional, national, or international events
- The Atlas 2 unit offers additional features compared to the Edge, especially distance to line
- The Class has not yet tested RaceSense with distance to line enabled
- Several competitors asked that we consider using distance to line, as it may reduce over-early starts and improve safety and racing quality
What Happens Next
Following the town hall, an advisory committee was formed to review feedback from the Class, look at RaceSense data, and consider experiences from other classes. The committee met twice and based on that work, recommended that the Class test RaceSense with the distance to line feature enabled and all features available with the Atlas 2 unit at the 2026 Winter Championship, March 14-18, 2026 at the St Petersburg Yacht Club in St Petersburg, Florida.
We are currently working on rental options for competitors who do not already own a Vakaros Atlas 2 unit. Once those details are finalized, a NOR amendment will be posted.
All competitors at the Winter Championship will be required to use a RaceSense device.
After the Winter Championship, the data and feedback from the event will be reviewed to help determine how the Class proceeds with RaceSense in the future.
The Executive Committee has approved this plan and any temporary Class Rule modifications to allow for this test. We will continue to keep the Class informed as details are finalized.
On behalf of the Executive Committee,
David Starck, President