This year Skandia Cowes Week will be trialling new SMS survey technology in a bid to benefit both its competitors and spectators. The service, provided by eDigitalResearch, will be used to gather information from the 8,500 competitors via their mobile phones.

After each race a series of questions will be sent, via SMS, to each competitor asking for feedback regarding forecast accuracies, the course, or the quality of race officials, for example.

The information gained will then be fed back and reviewed by Cowes Combined Clubs, who will be in a position to make any necessary changes to help improve the event. Stuart Quarrie, CEO of Cowes Combined Clubs, commented: “We are very excited to be trialling this new technology. Up until now we have had no way of measuring the opinions of our competitors throughout the course of the week. Now we can take on board feedback?and adapt the racing as deemed appropriate. We are confident that this new system will?make a real difference to the event and the quality of racing that takes place.”