This will give the opportunity for people around the world with an Internet connection to see the live positioning, course, speed and track details of the pilot boats (and swimmers) throughout the Great Channel Swim.
More details will be provided later. Technology is a wonderful thing.
Two of the world's greatest marathon swimmers, Russians Yuri Kudinov (shown on left) and Natalia Pankina are two more confirmed participants in the Great Channel Swim across the English Channel in August.
Yuri is a powerful swimmer with a proven record of success: a 7:06 crossing of the English Channel in 2007 (shown on left) and 3 gold medals in the 25K world championships in 2001, 2003 and 2007.
In the world of open water swimming, there is perhaps no greater rematch than that of Yuri against Channel record holder Petar Stoychev.
Natalia will present a very formidable competitor to the other professional marathon women in the field: Cassandra Patten of Great Britain, Stefanie Biller of Germany and Shelley Clark of Australia. Natalia not only has a successful English Channel swim under her belts - unlike her competitors - in a 8:10 crossing after fighting against tide just near Cap Gris-Nez, but she also very importantly has experienced an unsuccessful attempt. This dual success and failure will both be helpful to Natalia in overcoming any adversities she might face during the Great Channel Swim.
Additional swimmers - both elite pro swimmers and celebrity relay swimmers - will be announced by Nova International.
How far is the Great Channel Swim? 18.1 nautical miles or 20.568 land miles or 36,200 yards or 33,521 meters from Shakespeare Beach, England to Cap Griz Nez, France.
Typically, the elite swimmers - who are very familiar with one another on the professional marathon swimming circuit - closely draft off of one another during their races up to 88K (54.6 miles) - see the example below. But, according to the established rules of the English Channel, there is no drafting on solo swims and a pace swimmer in front of any swimmer is not allowed.
So the world's best marathon swimmers will have to swim by themselves, ultimately and completely depending on their pilots. We wonder what swimmer will be piloted by Michael Oram, a pilot with over 500 swims to his credit including the record-breaking swims of Petar Stoychev (6:57, shown above), Christof Wandratsch (7:03) and Yvetta Hlaváčová (7:25).
We wonder if all the swimmers are going to head off in the same direction or if their pilots are going to take them in different directions. In the English Channel races of the 1950's, the swimmers were all spread out across the Channel, but of course, the pilots of yesteryear did not have the benefit of GPS, AIS transponders, radar, chart plotters or computers. At the mercy of the weather, water and the years on the ocean, they just hoped their course was good enough to find a beach to land on.
We can imagine the closest equivalent to what may happen occurred in August 2007 when Petar Stoychev and Yuri Kudinov went mano-a-mano in the Channel.
According to Michael Oram (shown on left), Petar's pilot on that marvelous day, Yuri and his pilot Dave Whyte on the escort boat Ocean Breeze started 25 minutes behind Petar and precisely followed Petar's course. Michael was simultaneously plotting both Yuri's and Petar's routes on the boat computer, enabling Petar to know exactly his position relative to his top competition. At 15-minute intervals, both Petar and Michael knew when Petar had either gained 50 meters or lost 30 meters.
Using the sophisticated electronics, Michael guided Petar right upon the rocks at Cap Gris Nez, the closest point to England in France. But, Yuri, following behind, was carried a bit down the shoreline due to the tide and took a few more minutes to land on the French shoreline (see a YouTube look at Yuri's finish on the French shore below).
Because the pilots like Michael Oram and Dave Whyte will be able to read each other's courses and speed from the AIS transponders, we can imagine the Great Channel Swim being not only a competition among the athletes, but also an amazing match between the navigational skills of the pilots.
Additionally, there will be 8 men and 6 women in the solo race. The two groups will start an hour apart ... and that hour is going to make a difference although both groups will be on spring tides. With the aerobic conditioning of the athletes (who are capable of swimming 4.85K every hour for 7 hours), the modern navigational tools of modern mariners and the well-honed skills of the pilots, the best pilots can usually plot a course to arrive within 100 meters on the other side of the Channel and within 20 minutes of a predicted time.
But, as Michael, Petar, Yuri, Christof, Yvetta and all the other 1,000+ Channel swimmers know well, anything can happen in the Channel with winds and tides always having the upper hand.
As the race motto says, "Nothing Great Is Easy."
Photo of Lac Memphremagog professional marathon swim by Dr. Jim Miller. Photo of Petar Stoychev below is by Pei Qingsheng.
We understand from the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation that there will be an AIS-receiving station will positioned along the English coast to provide real-time information online about the Great Channel Swim. 
