Not even 24 hours and two boats of the six in the volvo race have returned to Alicante, Spain. Ian Walker, skipper of Azzam and Mike Sanderson, skipper of Sanya are both returned to Alicante. One with a broken mast and the other with delamination. So much for trying to break your boat before the race starts.
Nortek announced today that it has collaborated with the PUMA Ocean Racing team to develop a modified compact Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) for PUMA’s Mar Mostro Volvo Open 70 yacht competing in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012. The project, which was completed over the course of the past year, has resulted in the successful integration of boat speed, leeway and in-situ ocean current readings. Translation: a secret weapon in the battle to go as fast and efficiently as possible.
The message below is the full press release from Nortek and the PUMA Ocean Racing Team — for questions or comments, please chime in on theNortek Facebook page.
“The collaboration between Nortek and the entire PUMA team has resulted in an tool that provides unique information to the sailing crew. They can now measure leeway, a first in sailing, and use it to measure ocean currents much more precisely than ever before,” said Atle Lohrmann, CTO of Nortek.
Nortek started developing this capability during the 2008 Star class Olympic trials with the Norwegian team skippered by Eivind Melleby, also a veteran of the Volvo Ocean Race. Nortek went on to work with the TP52 ocean racing team Caixa Galicia with a predecessor to the existing sensor with Caixa navigator Robert Hopkins.
“This is the biggest advancement in sailing instrumentation since the invention of the GPS,” said Hopkins, who runs performance testing for PUMA and worked with Nortek on the project. “Nortek adapted their new DVL technology to our sailing performance needs, to measure very high speeds along the boat’s track and very low speeds across it. With Nortek’s history of deploying instruments on buoys in hostile Arctic conditions, we knew that we could trust the Nortek DVL in a race around the world.”
Leeway is the sideways skidding angle a boat makes as it sails forward. Leeway can be changed on a Volvo Open 70 yacht by adjusting the daggerboard immersion and canting the keel. The adjustable daggeboards and keel act like wings underwater to counteract the force of the sails. The crew relies on Nortek DVL leeway measurements to optimize PUMA’sMar Mostro performance at all times, providing the core data upon which every other performance measurement is based.“I can’t tell you how important it is to finally know how fast the boat is going in all conditions. We really feel this is the first time boat speed has been accurately measured without using various types of cumbersome and complex tables within the boat’s instrumentation. It’s a huge factor for something as simple as a sail change or as complex as routing,” said Ken Read, skipper of the PUMA Ocean Racing team. “Nortek and our entire team, especially the shore crew, worked diligently to make this project a reality. The technology already helped us to win the Transatlantic Race in July, and it will be a key component as we race around the world.”
The Nortek DVL uses acoustic techniques to measure water velocity along each of the four beams. The sensor is mounted in the bottom of the lead bulb of the keel. The acoustic beams are oriented forward, aft and abeam. Data from each beam is streamed to the on board computer which also receives data from the inertial motion sensor and the keel cant angle sensor. Velocity and orientation measurements are then used to output true forward boat speed and leeway. Real time currents can be directly estimated by differencing the GPS boat speed over ground and the boat speed through the water.
Similar systems were developed for the seismic survey fleet and Nortek recently delivered the first operational navigation system to Fugro-Geoteam in Oslo to be mounted on two Barovane seismic diverters. The diverters keep the towed acoustic streamers separated and like the Puma-DVL, the system measures the angle of attack, the through water speed and ocean currents near the surface. The difference was the space available for the acoustic transponder. “We worked very hard to miniaturize the DVL unit that was installed aboard PUMA’s Mar Mostro,” stated Lohrmann.
The project is an important milestone for Nortek because it demonstrates how well the acoustic Doppler technology performs in very challenging conditions and that the system can be fully integrated into modern navigation systems. The fact that the PUMA Ocean Racing technology team was able to integrate the DVL with other sensors on the boat is a testament to the quality and sophistication of modern yacht racing.
The PUMA Ocean Racing team sets out on the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 on Saturday, November 5, departing Alicante, Spain, for Cape Town, South Africa. The 11-member crew will travel 39,000 nautical miles over nine months, sailing from Alicante to Cape Town, and on to Abu Dhabi, UAE; Sanya, China; Auckland, New Zealand; around Cape Horn to Itajaí, Brazil; to Miami, Florida, USA; Lisbon, Portugal; Lorient, France, finishing in Galway, Ireland in July 2012.
For details about the PUMA-DVL, including images, please visit our websitehttp://www.nortek-as.com/puma-ocean-racing
Here is the diagram of the America’s Cup course for the upcoming San Diego series. It will shut down the port entirely during the event. Granted it is only for a few hours each day and only the days of the event. But no other boats will be moving. In San Francisco it will shut down the commercial port and all commercial traffic.
In Newport, next June it will be no different. For anyone not consumed by the America’s Cup, it is liable to be a nightmare.
Finally, there will be some style and likely good parties, good food as part of the America’s Cup. In sharp contrast, the freeze dried food is being loaded on the 6 Volvo 70’s which leave on the sixth for the first leg of the round the world race.
: www.americascupmedia.com
Luna Rossa and the Circolo della Vela Sicilia challenge for the 34th America’s Cup
Milan, Italy, 02/11/2011
***The following press release is being distributed on behalf of Luna Rossa Challenge 2013:
Luna Rossa and the Circolo della Vela Sicilia challenge for the 34th America’s Cup
Technical and sporting cooperation with Emirates Team New Zealand
The Circolo della Vela Sicilia of Palermo and the team Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 announce that their Notice of Challenge for the 34th America’s Cup, which will be held at San Francisco in September 2013, has been accepted by the Golden Gate Yacht Club.
Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 and Emirates Team New Zealand have signed a cooperation agreement until 31st December 2012 which includes full access to all ETNZ design and performance data for this period. The hulls for the Luna Rossa AC72’ will be built in Italy and all other elements will be built in New Zealand in close cooperation with Emirates Team New Zealand.
Luna Rossa’s 2012 programme includes the opening of a base in Auckland (New Zealand) for the joint training, the participation in all events of the America’s Cup World Series (ACWS) with the AC 45’ wing catamarans and the launch of the AC 72’ wing catamaran for the America’s Cup.
From March 2013 the team Luna Rossa will continue its sporting preparation and technical development of the AC 72’ in San Francisco and will participate to all events scheduled for the 34th America’s Cup.
PATRIZIO BERTELLI, Team Principal of Luna Rossa Challenge 2013, declared: “I am certain that the co-operation of Luna Rossa with Emirates Team New Zealand will produce excellent results, giving to both teams a faster and more effective development both in the technical and in the sporting fields. The choice of the Circolo della Vela Sicilia as challenging yacht club is also significant: I think it is important, in a moment like this, to underline the unity of our country also in the field of culture and sports”.
AGOSTINO RANDAZZO, President of the Circolo della Vela Sicilia, declared: “It is a true honour for the Circolo della Vela Sicilia to challenge for the America’s Cup with a prestigious and beloved team like Luna Rossa. I therefore thank Patrizio Bertelli both for having selected us and also for the reasons behind his choice. I am sure that our challenge will contribute to create a strong spirit of emulation and will attract many young Sicilians to the sport of sailing”.
MATTEO de NORA, Team Principal of Emirates Team New Zealand, declared:
“I am very happy of this co-operation: since 2000, when they won the Louis Vuitton Cup, Luna Rossa is certainly the most loved and respected foreign sailing team in New Zealand. This partnership will increase the technical value of the teams. We look forward to close co-operation on land and intense rivalry on the water.”
GRANT DALTON, managing director of Emirates Team New Zealand, said: “The cooperation with Luna Rossa is another step towards the long-term objective of establishing our team as a provider of technology and services that highlight New Zealand’s marine industry expertise. We look forward to sharing our design office resources and cooperating with two such well-respected names in top-level sailing.”
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The team Luna Rossa was established in 1997 by Patrizio Bertelli with the original name of “Prada Challenge for the America’s Cup 2000”. At its first attempt the team wins the Louis Vuitton Cup – the challengers’ selection series – in 2000, with a record of 38 victories over 49 races. Luna Rossa has participated also in 2003 and in 2007 it reached the Louis Vuitton Cup final. Luna Rossa is currently participating in the Extreme Sailing Series, the Extreme 40’ catamarans circuit, where it is leading the overall standings.
Emirates Team New Zealand is the current holder of the Louis Vuitton Cup and is leading the America’s Cup World Series. Established in 1985 as the New Zealand Challenge, Emirates Team New Zealand has won both the America’s Cup twice and the Louis Vuitton Cup twice. It also participates in the Audi Med Cup and Extreme Sailing Series international racing circuits and will be at the start of the 2011/2012 Volvo Ocean Race with the yacht CAMPER.
The Circolo della Vela Sicilia, founded in 1933, is one of the oldest and most prestigious yacht clubs of the Mediterranean. Its club house is in Mondello, a few kilometres from the centre of Palermo. Throughout the years the Circolo della Vela Sicilia hosted many prestigious national and international regattas, including the J 24 and Star Class European Championships, the Italian Olympic classes Championship and the “Palermo – Monte Carlo” offshore race.
I am troubled that I am even am aware of this news. I am troubled that it is considered news. The world is in flux. There are serious decisions to be made about the future. I am hopeful about solutions being found, but remain disturbed by how pervasive the desire to know about the Kardashians, Lindasy Lohan, Snookie, Brittany Spears. I suppose I am stating the obvious, If we disregarded this information, would it cease to be reported? It is a distortion of values. It is more important to be famous than to actually know anything. What is the truth behind the MF Global demise? How do we solve the issues facing us as a society; that the dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral resigned over the possible eviction of the Occupy London protestors.
A much healthier event taking place right now:
