Remember how Jimmy Spithill’s heads-up display sunglasses were all the talk back when he was helming the gigantic BMW Oracle tri in the 33rd America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain?
Now “ordinary” sailors can enjoy the same fighter-jet-style technology, thanks to a company called Afterguard Marine (afterguard.co), which introduced its own set of head-up-display sunglasses this past spring, at about $2,000 apiece.
The Afterguard system includes both the glasses and a “central communications unit,” which pulls data from a boat’s onboard instruments and streams it to the glasses.
The data itself is organized according to a number of different formats, or screens, that are optimized for either the starting sequence, tactics or performance. The system is sophisticated enough that you can even download the polars for your own boat or class.
According to Afterguard, if a class allows a GPS and compass, then the glasses are also perfectly legal. Time will tell how much of a difference these nifty little gadgets make out on the racecourse.
Photo courtesy of Afterguard Marine
