Kordia's Maritime Safety Communications Services centre in Canberra will provide High Frequency (HF) communications support to the 2009 Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race by monitoring competitor position reports delivered to the race committee.
The fleet will commence racing from a start line off Nielsen Park on Saturday at 1pm, then proceed out to the heads, turn left and head north to the Gold Coast, finishing just off Main Beach, Southport.
Kordia will use satellite and web-based technologies to link daily radio position schedules (skeds) from its Canberra operations centre, directly to CYCA's dedicated race website http://goldcoast.cyca.com.au/. The daily position reports will be conducted at the race frequency of 6515 kHz on 25 July 2009 at 20:05 and at 7:05 and 15.05 on 26, 27 and 28 July.
CYCA CEO, Mark Woolf commented “The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia is delighted to know that in addition to having primary radio monitoring services provided by the race radio relay vessel JBW, Kordia has agreed to monitor the race frequencies during the course of the race and provide us with the ability to stream the daily position reports via our dedicated race website. On behalf of the CYCA and all competitors, we are very grateful for the support Kordia will provide.”
Christian Hillier, Kordia's Maritime Safety Communications Services (MSCS) Manager said: “We are honoured to work with the CYCA on yet another significant yacht race and be given the opportunity to showcase the value of Kordia's international HF maritime communication system to Australian mariners.”
Kordia currently owns Australia's premier HF network and operates the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) from its two communications sites in Wiluna, Western Australia and Charleville, Queensland.
Kordia also provided HF communications support to the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race in December 2008 as well as the Audi Sydney to Newcastle race in March 2009 and its ability in providing race monitoring is said to be attracted increasing interest from other yacht clubs and blue water races.
