Introducing eTally Kiosk

In our previous post we looked at why tallying is an important factor for competitor safety, and how eTally by phone is a logical progression. Now we are introducing eTally Kiosk - a new way for competitors to sign afloat and ashore.

Think of Kiosk as a communal, shared version of eTally by phone, available on a tablet computer strategically positioned in your clubhouse.

Before racing, competitors walk up, identify themselves, say they are sailing, make way for the next person.

Once ashore, it’s the same but they can also declare whether they finished, or not.

Here’s the process in pictures

1:Identify  2:Confirm  3:eTally  4:Next person

Kiosk doesn’t replace eTally by phone, the two coexist and people can mix and match as suits them best.

It runs in any web browser and on any internet connected device but is targeted at touch-screen tablets. Chrome on a 10 inch Android tablet is a good bet.

Looking for an event to give Kiosk some serious beta testing, we decided on Chichester Harbour Race Week at Hayling Island. 400 competitors over a 5 day regatta should be tough enough!

And how did it go? Very well indeed. The competitors loved it and the kit was trouble free.

Or to be precise, very, very nearly trouble free! The gory, and amusing, details will be revealed in a subsequent post.

Meanwhile, Kiosk is available for you now. See the eTally Kiosk Help topic for how to use.

Tallying – Traditional Technology: Updated

 “I counted them out and I counted them all back in again.”

This famous quote from a Falklands War reporter sums up a simple technique that’s long been used to account for people, livestock, any items that depart and are expected to return.

To this day counting competitors is a mainstay of sailing event safety management: you know who has gone afloat and you know who has come back. If the two lists don’t match then search procedures kick in.

The familiar tally board works well when competitors are known, controlled and relatively few in number. When you have a long entry list and can’t be sure who is going to turn up, or you need them to declare whether, or not, they sailed the course, then signing sheets are the way to go. But then you have the problem of comparing scribbles!

SailEvent eTally replaces signing on paper with everyday technology – mobile phones. 

 

Then the clever thing is that SailEvent collates and compares, in real time, the lists of those who went sailing with those who have returned. Any discrepancy is immediately obvious.

These screenshots are from the SailEvent Race Team app taken during the ‘Admirals Cuppa’, an invitation event for illustration only!

Now apply the all important afloat but NOT ashore filter and where’s Rodney!?

Time to start looking for him.

In this blog post we’ve shown how SailEvent’s eTally feature brings today’s thinking to traditional tallying.

In our next post we introduce a new, connected alternative to eTally by phone.