How to win a virtual regatta

Ever since Sir Francis Chichester first sailed solo around the world in 1967, there has been an arms race to produce yet faster sailing vessels; in the last decade the record has tumbled.

The two areas driving this evolution are improvements in materials and mathematics.

One of the single most important revolutions has been the development of “routing”; the ability to mathematically predict the best course-to-steer to position the vessel in time and space to catch the best wind and tide.

Dr Jim Holmes will present his application of the Differential Evolution Genetic Algorithm to solve the problem of routing.