The Race Tracker – what happened Saturday at the start?

Just as the race starts for the 73rd Swiftsure International Yacht Race were about to get underway, the Swiftsure Race Tracker stopped functioning.

Everyone wants to know why.

Right before the start, over 20,000 people tried to access the race tracker at once, taking down the server that provides the information about locations of all long course boats. Everything functioned as it should – the massive interest in the race caused the jam at the server and it stopped traffic.

Very soon after, Swiftsure’s tech guy (who is in St. John’s Newfoundland) widened the access to allow for more concurrent users and away we went – Swiftsure Tracker was back online, providing thousands of people across the globe with a view of their favourite racers.

Swiftsure – Always a Challenge.