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Emirates Team NZ return to the water, but under Alert Level 3 restrictions

May 1, 2020

The crew wore alarmed separation devices to make sure they were two metres apart.

Team New Zealand is back on the water for the first time since the lockdown began but they’re ensuring safe social distancing is taking place on board thanks to new devices.

The America’s Cup defenders sought approval from the Government and Coastguard NZ before resuming preparations for next year's regatta, taking their test boat Te Kāhu out on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf this week.

To ensure they could work at Level 3 the team began brainstorming ideas in the early stages of the lockdown and initial thoughts centred around the complex issue of managing appropriate levels of social distancing for the entire team while at work.

“It was obvious to us that monitoring social distancing would be both difficult and distracting for the team to be constantly judging their distance by eye all day long,” Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton said.

“So we went looking for a simple technological system that could aid the team with their personal distancing but nothing seemed to be readily available.

"Because we are an organisation with technology at its core, we looked at what we could do ourselves and who we knew could help.”

Dalton thought of Brent Russell and company Igtimi, which is in charge of developing the pinpoint accurate boat tracking software for the America’s Cup race management system.

Soon after, the team was equipped with separation devices that sound an alarm if they break social distancing while out on the water.

The tags are programmed to react by flashing, beeping and vibrating when a pre-programmed perimeter is intersected. The interactions between the two tags (or people) are then logged for contact tracing purposes.

“We have basically come up with a cost-effective technical solution to keep the Emirates Team New Zealand crew separated in their own bubbles in their work environment, and recording any contact between them for traceability and accountability.” Russell said.

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