IOMICA Forum

The next AGM is coming shortly and I thought it important to bring up the issue of making the inclusion of on-board battery meters legal under the IOM rules. These devices are currently not permitted, would be an added cost, but don't appear to be a performance advantage. Lurking in the future should we legalize these meters is the ability to send battery status telemetry from the boat to the transmitter. Not sure if that should also be permitted or not. To change the rules, an NCA would need to propose the inclusion of these devices.

ESP NCA is already working on the proposal and we hope to get it approved by our members on time.

Now is the time to be thinking about the future of the onboard telemetry that is looming on the horizon. The basics are there on racing model cars already so while I think that legalizing these meters is a good idea we must be very careful in how we word any such permissive rule or change. Otherwise we might well be faced with something much more complicated later

Val: Couldn't agree more. Any proposed rule change has to be very carefully worded. A problem area that comes to mind--should we permit battery readers that flash a light or make a sound that is audible/visible from the control position? If we think that is permissible, I don't see how we can let out telemetry. Or am I worrying too much?