Racing Alpha
About
Racing Alpha is a web app for analyzing sailing GPS tracks to improve racing performance. GPS tracks can be uploaded manually in .gpx, .csv, and .fit formats. However, most users prefer to connect their Garmin accounts which allows Racing Alpha to automatically process every sailing session. By the time sailors sit down for a debrief with their coach, powerful analytics are at their fingertips to unlock the next level of racing performance.
OpenMy Experience
I started working at Racing Alpha part time in April 2020 shortly after it was founded by my sailing coach Willie Mcbride. Over the summer I created an algorithm to segment a GPS track into the various types of sailing maneuvers; tacks, gybes, bear aways, and leeward roundings. Achieving an accurate segmentation of all sailing GPS tracks without wind data was a huge challenge. I tweaked the process with Willie's feedback, and by the end of the summer we had something that worked very well.
In June 2021, after graduating from college, I began working full time. As the only developer actively working on the project I had to work extra hard to learn all of the technologies and make sure that I was following the best practices. Since then I have added many new features and refined various parts of the application, learning a lot along the way.
Some Notable Contributions
Adding a track report page showing correlations between maneuver metrics and maneuver loss.
Creating wind estimates throughout tracks by bisecting maneuver angles and interpolating between.
Adding a data table for races and adding metrics related to wind direction like VMG, and TWA
Showing only the selected portion of a GPS track on the map based on the selected area of the chart.
Averaging wind directions across tracks to create race wind estimates. Using race wind estimates to create consistent wind related metrics for comparison between boats in races.
Cleaning up and the design by preventing text overlap, adding padding, and creating consistency across UI elements.
Making pages responsive to improve the mobile user experience.
