Plymouth Sound. Image acquired by Sentinel-2B on 16th July 2021. Courtesy of ESA/Copernicus.
The British leg of the SailGP calendar took place in Plymouth last weekend, and so we’ve decided to revive our highly infrequent blog series ‘Can you see sporting venues from space?’ Previously we’ve looked for the Rio Olympic venues, and both the Singapore and Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix Circuits, but this week we’re focusing much closer to home with a look at Plymouth Sound.
Plymouth Sound is one of the largest natural harbours in the world, measuring almost three nautical miles from north to south. In the centre is Plymouth Breakwater which is just over a mile long and standing in approximately 11 m of water creating a harbour to protect anchored ships. However, it was not anchored ships that drew the crowds this weekend, instead, it was eight identical fast foiling F50 catamarans reaching speeds of 60 mph.
Following Bermuda and Taranto, Italy, the British leg is the third of nine Grand Prix’s taking place across the world this year. The event arrived in the city a week before the racing to set up and practice. The Technical Area for working on the catamarans was on Trinity Pier & Clyde Quay in Millbay Docks which were originally built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel – who also built the Royal Albert Bridge around the corner which crosses the River Tamar.
GBR Catamaran from SailGP entering the water at Millbay Docks. Image Courtesy of A.Lavender
Four each of the eight competing nations, the Technical Area has a large white marquee where the catamarans are stored and worked on, and these are large boats measuring 15 m in length by 8.8 wide. The catamarans were lowered into the water, and lifted out, by a crane each day – in the picture to the right you can see the GB boat being lowered into the water.
During the week building up to the event, we watched the catamarans going out for practice runs, and then at the weekend the Sound was full of boats taking advantage of the ‘Bring Your Own Boat’ viewing area and seeing this, it got us thinking, as these sort of events do, – ‘Can you see this from space?’
After asking the question, you know we had to find out the answer! The racing took place in the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday; whilst we couldn’t find a perfect match for the races, we did find that Sentinel-2B went overhead at 12.20 pm on Saturday and as it was a beautiful sunny day we have got a great image of the build-up to the race. The wide shot showing the whole of Plymouth Sound can be seen at the top of the blog, and the myriad of boats out on the water can be clearly seen.
Drake’s Island in Plymouth Sound. Image acquired by Sentinel-2B on 16th July 2021. Courtesy of ESA/Copernicus.
There are two lines of boats flanking the racing area, next to Drake’s Island, which can be seen more clearly in the zoomed-in image to the right. There are also a lot of boats in the top left of the image coming out of the marina, and on the wider image another clutch of vessels can be seen on the left by Cawsand Bay.
We’d love to say that we can identify the F50 catamarans on the image too … but we can’t! You could argue that the boats in the Sound with long wakes … could be … the catamarans practising given the additional speed they have, but to be honest this is simply guesswork and assumption.
Millbay Docks in Plymouth, UK. Image acquired by Sentinel-2B on 16th July 2021. Courtesy of ESA/Copernicus.
Equally, if you look at the zoomed-in shot of Millbay Docks to the right, then there is a vessel in the middle which could be one of the catamarans on their way into the Sound. This is more likely as bar a few inflatable safety boats and the large ferry there was nothing else in this area of the weekend!
To the racing itself, the British Sail Grand Prix was won by Australia, defeating France and USA in the Winner-Takes-All Final race on Sunday, having previously won two of the five fleet races on Saturday. USA won the other fleet race on Sunday, whilst Japan and, to the cheers of the home support, Great Britain won the fleet races on Sunday. The next round of the series takes place in Aarhus, Denmark on 20th and 21st August.
So to answer the question – ‘Can you see the SailGP event from Space?’ Whilst, we might not be able to definitively identify the individual catamarans, you can definitely see the event and the spectators out on the water. So for us, the answer is YES! You can see the British SailGP event from space!
