The Mitsubishi Motors Youth Regatta was the first ever sailing event in Ireland to live-tweet its results. The team behind the event used Twitter, a social media service, to transmit text updates and photos from the racecourse across the web. The online Twitter feeds, detailing starts, mark roundings, weather updates and provisional finish placings were displayed live in both clubhouses of both clubs involved in the running of the event and online.
The benefits of Twitter, which has been used internationally to update events like the Americas Cup and the Princess Sofia regatta in Palma, is that it can be done simply and at zero cost from most smartphones, like Blackberries and iPhones, using free downloadable apps. Users, like sailing clubs, can set up a free account online and publish unlimited updates as the action happens on the water. Updates can also be posted via a web login screen, with the upshot that regatta followers are kept up to date as regattas progress in short bursts, rather than waiting for a long press release at the end of the day.
The DublinBay2012 account, used to tweet the Dun Laoghaire youth regatta, has been set up in anticipation of the 2012 Youth Worlds, to be held in Dun Laoghaire. However the Royal St George is already on Twitter, as is Howth Yacht Club, and both use their accounts to broadcast club news.
The Dublinbay2012 account prompted several parents of sailors to set up accounts to follow the racing and send messages back and forth.
Afloat Magazine has been on twitter for a long time now, with more than 2,000 tweets of Irish marine news under our belt at @AfloatMagazine
