"Our 4-day race is held on perhaps the wildest and most remote coastline in South Africa. On day 2 of the 2018 race a paddler lost their ski and was left swimming 2km out to sea. Flotilla assisted the situation and helped us to rescue the paddler in minutes. The human and financial saving was immeasurable."
"SafeTrx and Flotilla added a whole new component to our race. Most of our race happens out of sight. Flotilla enabled us to display the race on big screen at race HQ. This really drew shore side spectators into the event as they could watch the race unfold. Our sponsors loved it as it opened a whole new online audience for their brand."
"Tracking our participants over the course is important to us, both for safety reasons, and for the viewing public. The SafeTrx Flotilla Event website showing the runners progress allowed anyone to monitor the racers on what was a very tough day."
"The KwaZulu-Natal north coast is a dream downwind destination with warm water and no winter to speak of. The challenging surf conditions make running events covering numerous zones hard work. Flotilla feeds race organisers real time information on the location of the field, aiding in the positioning of our water safety crew which is a valuable asset to extreme watersports like downwind surfski paddling."
"This is a game changer for event organisers. Now we can have instant notifications from any paddler/boat who is in trouble. No more flagging down a rescue boat or having to make a call. Quick button press in the SafeTrx app and the NSRI and the event safety knows immediately and can react. This comes bundled with live paddler/boat tracking for spectators. Incredible."
"Endorsed by our national sporting organisation Canoe Racing New Zealand, the event serves as our selections for this year’s International Canoe Federation World Championship in France. We have investigated many tracking and emergency alerting options and are convinced that SafeTrx (kindly made available by the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard) is the best solution available to keep our paddlers safe on the water."
"Overall the system worked really well, it’s fantastic and I am really keen to be a part of the future development."
"We feel happy that we will continue this into the future knowing that we are able to mount rescues and know what’s going on with the fleet at all times"
"With SafeTrx as the core safety system for two large events this weekend in Cape Town we had to have complete confidence. As expected, everything performed 100% and we were delighted to know SafeTrx had our backs if needed."
The Ballito Downwind 2018 race on South Africa’s northern Durban coast used SafeTrx Flotilla Event. The formerly named Durban Downwind race has developed a cult following since it was launched and is run alongside the Ballito Pro surfing contest.
This was the first edition of the Ballito Downwind and it was an exciting affair where the province’s best surfski paddlers took on the Indian Ocean, racing over 18km from Blythdale Beach to Tiffany’s Beach in Salt Rock. Barry Lewin, Ballito Downwind, event organiser said “Following up on the Freedom Challenge, the Ballito Downwind was delighted to use the NRSI SafeTrx app to track our race. With a likely race time of 70-100 minutes we were able to use the continuous tracking mode in the smartphone app to present high accuracy location and time information to organisers and online viewers alike!”
The PE2EL Surf Ski Challenge, from Port Elizabeth to East London in South Africa, is a four day open ocean racing surfski marathon over a 250 km course on the “Sunshine Coast”. The race is widely regarded as the toughest surfski race in the world and attracts elite competitors.
Tim Fey, a participant in the PE2EL Surf Ski Challenge race, found himself in an emergency situation and was rescued with the aid of the NSRI SafeTrx app. Tim said “Losing my surfski 2 km out to sea was a frightening experience. SafeTrx played a vital role in my rescue. Using SafeTrx meant my rescuers knew my exact position; it took the search out of the rescue. Seeing the rescue boat coming straight towards me was an incredible feeling.”
SA Surfski used SafeTrx Flotilla Event for the 28-kilometre Freedom Paddle in Cape Town, South Africa, in May 2018. Over 200 paddlers took part in the Freedom Paddle event, braving the weather conditions and currents to paddle around Robben Island from Cape Town.
One of the competitor’s race ended unexpectedly. The NSRI Table Bay sea rescue station was alerted to a surf-skier who activated an emergency using his RSA SafeTrx app, south of Robben Island. The NSRI lifeboat located the paddler at the coordinates provided on the RSA SafeTrx app emergency activation.
The Freedom Paddle 2019 in Cape Town used SafeTrx Flotilla for the second year running. This year SafeTrx Flotilla was the tracking system for event safety, and with 100% SafeTrx usage the event safety team had complete visibility on the full field of paddlers. With 191 doubles teams or single paddlers entered for the race the safety team verified the SafeTrx app was running on paddlers phones at the registration event on the evening before the Freedom Paddle. This eliminated the need for any paddlers new to SafeTrx to download the app on race morning.
Ocean Sports, based in Cornwall in the UK, used Flotilla Event for the Celtic Crossing event in May 2018. Paddlers journeyed from the Scilly Islands to Cornwall. This is one of the most challenging paddling events in Europe, with over 53kms of open ocean paddling.
Glenn Eldridge, Principal at Ocean Sports, said “Celtic Crossing is the kind of extreme ocean sports event where safety is paramount, and we are proud to bring innovation and enhanced safety to the race for our participants using SafeTrx Flotilla Event”.
The Makai Cup race in New South Wales, Australia is a true 22km big ocean downwind race and is not for the beginner! Ending in Ulladulla, the race attracts experienced paddlers to an open ocean route along a very isolated stretch of coast. Event safety on the water is paramount and the event organisers, the Makai Paddlers, made the use of the AVCG SafeTrx app mandatory.
After the race Philip Paris-Browne, event organiser said “We feel happy that we will continue this into the future knowing that we are able to mount rescues and know what’s going on with the fleet at all times”.
Variety - The Children’s Charity of Queensland, Australia used SafeTrx Flotilla Event for the Variety Jet Trek. The Yamaha Variety Jet Trek is Australia’s largest and most successful charity personal watercraft (PWC) event, running annually for the last 20 years. This is an adrenaline packed jet ski adventure on-water, travelling 800km over 6 days through some of the most amazing coastlines from Bundaberg to Hamilton Island.
Craig Marriott, Operations Manager at Varity Children’s Charity said “Overall the system worked really well, it’s fantastic and I am really keen to be a part of the future development.”
Pacific Ocean Paddlers used SafeTrx Flotilla for the Vaikobi King & Queen of the Harbour in New Zealand. The race doubles as New Zealand’s iconic national Ocean Racing championships. The event also traditionally features SUP and Waka-Ama categories, where the Auckland Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf play host to the best Surfski, SUP and Waka-Ama and Prone paddlers New Zealand has to offer, along with some pretty solid international competition.
The event organisers had been in search for a solution to track participants safety on the water. Garth Spencer, event organiser at Pacific Ocean Paddlers said “We have investigated many tracking and emergency alerting options and are convinced that SafeTrx (kindly made available by the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard) is the best solution available to keep our paddlers safe on the water.”
Safehaven Marine used the SafeTrx Flotilla website to create a dedicated public website to highlight their “Long Way Round” circumnavigation of Ireland and Rockall.
SafeTrx Flotilla was used to display the position of ThunderChild every 10 minutes for the thirty four hour record run.
KNRM, The Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution, used SafeTrx Flotilla as an event tracking website for the 2017 West Coast Challenge and 2018 West Coast Challenge, a running and biking marathon for duos and solo runners over 130 kilometers from Den Helder in the north of Holland to the Hook of Holland in the south.
Participants used their SafeTrx app to report their location every 10 minutes with the SafeTrx Flotilla website displaying the locations of all participants.
Titan Environmental Surveys Ltd uses SafeTrx Flotilla Fleet for 24/7 real time vessel tracking. Flotilla Fleet has brought cost saving and convenience to Titan. Geraint O’Donovan of Titan said “We chose the RYA SafeTrx app because it’s really easy to use and it’s really convenient that the Coast Guard has all of our details automatically.”
By using Flotilla Fleet Titan has enhanced fleet safety and security and is benefiting from the trip planning and ETA overdue alerting capability of Flotilla Fleet.
