NZME's new podcast series - the Superior Sailor - features interviews with some of the movers and shakers from the sailing world to find out what makes them tick, who their heroes are and why they keep coming back for more.
In episode two, Sir Ian Taylor joins Newstalk ZB'sD'Arcy Waldegrave to discuss the development of his company Virtual Eye and how the America's Cup had a significant impact on its growth.
Taylor is a well-known Kiwi businessman and former television presenter who has been involved with the America's Cup since 1992 - offering viewers a better understanding of sailing through real-time 3D graphics. These graphics can include marks, lay lines, advantage lines and distances between the boats. It also displays timing information from starts, mark rounding and finishes.
"The first place we did it was the America's Cup. The reason we did was New Zealand had started racing in the America's Cup and I got to say, 'it wasn't a great sport on telly, was it'," Taylor said.
"There's a great history behind the America's Cup in 1851... the first race was covered using pigeons. They took the pigeons out, wrote on their legs and they'd fly the results.
"Then started morse code and then into radio, so we have this kind of progression where the America's Cup has used the latest technology all the way through and out here this year it will all be the same with the graphics all over the water."
Animation Research Virtual Eye graphics of America's Cup racing on the Waitemata Harbour. Photo / Supplied
Taylor was first inspired to start up Virtual Eye back in 1989 when professor Geoff Wyvill at the University of Otago said to him digital data will be the currency of the future.
"When we made those graphics back in '92, that was the first time any sport had ever been covered live with virtual graphics in real time," Taylor said.
"It's been a great door for opening things. I remember I was in New York and I was watching golf on TV, and I thought, 'they could use our stuff'. So I got on the phone, they asked what we've done, and the only thing I could think of was the America's Cup and next thing we know we're doing golf for ABC."
