Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the Lack of Sailing Apps

Recently I enjoyed watching the highlight from the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships but was disappointed in the lack of mobile accessibility for results and information about the event. Whilst the website was functional, and actually looked quite good if you were viewing it on a desktop/laptop computer, it left a lot to be desired when accessing it via a mobile device. It seems surprising that given the push by the sailing fraternity to raise the profile of the sport that there was no consideration given to building an application for any of the mobile platforms.

The second failure of the sailing community is this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Personally I’m not a big fan of the design of the website but I do like the Yacht Tracker system they’re using. Unfortunately again there are no apps available for any of the mobile platforms as far as I’m aware.

Yesterday after watching the start to the Sydney Hobart on TV (yes, even though I live in Sydney I actually think you get a better view of the start via TV that fighting the crowds at either of the heads) I decided that I would put together a quick Windows Phone application using the data exposed by Twitter, the RSS feed and the data feeds that Yacht Tracker uses. I haven’t bothered to submit the app to Marketplace as the race would be over before it gets approved. Unfortunately this means that only users with an unlocked/developer Windows Phone can use the app.

My apologies if you can’t run the app, send me an email via the website and I’ll see what I can do to get you a trial version. I’ve also included the following screenshots so you can see what you’re missing (remember, this is less than 8 hours of work!)