Team Geared Up » Yachting

Techie Tuesday: Particles and Waves

Alx Cahiz — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:30:13 +0000

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (Team Geared Up) - When you are packing a bag for an extended outdoor trip what is one of the main things you remember to bring? A flashlight. And when does that flashlight suddenly run out of juice? Exactly when you need it most! So how would you like to have a flashlight that lasts pretty much your entire lifetime without ever needing to be recharged? Sounds like a fairytale? Well it may not be. Newly developed micro LEDs will last up to 80 years on a single charge!!! William Henry is applications specialist at Ireland’s Tyndall National Institute who is the brains behind the project. One of the researchers on the project had one running constantly for two-and-a-half years on his desk. Now this is still a ways away from consumer level application and larger hand/head torch level lights would last only 5 years on one charge but the technology does exist. If this were applied to home lighting you could say goodbye to more than half of your electrical bill right there! via New Launches

Next up we have a Japanese inventor who found a way to use the raw kinetic energy of the ocean to to provide means of powering a boat. Yutaka Terao has developed the latest in a long running series of vessels that use the eco friendly propulsion of waves.

The Suntory Mermaid II uses a pair of movable fins mounted under the bow to generate forward propulsion using dolphin like kicks. While the maximum speed is a modest 5 knots, this shouldn’t bother the Mermaid II’s 69 year old skipper Kenichi Horie, as he attempts to sail 4,350 miles from Hawaii to Japan later this month. Let’s just hope that he remembers to turn off the left turn signal after pulling out of port.

Although the vessel isn’t breaking any speed records having this system equipped on a boat with an engine or sail could be handy if they main method of propusion is somehow damaged or lost. It would be interesting if this could also be applied to large scale vessels like yachts or even tankers. via Treehugger

-Alx-

Irishman Damian Foxall To Win World Race

Robin Blandford — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:06:01 +0000

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - TGU Alumni blogger Darran reports that Irishman, Damian Foxall and his French team mate Jean-Pierre Dick will sail into Barcelona tonight in the Paprec-Virbac 2 winning the 1st ever Barcelona World Race.

The Barcelona World Race is a new two-handed, non-stop round the world yacht race starting on the 11th November, 2007 [and to be held every four years]. For the first time, this race will see the world’s best professional sailors from both solo and fully crewed disciplines coming together to compete against each other in teams of two.

Kerryman Damian Foxall has clocked-up more than 280,000 nautical miles in the past 25 years, racing the planetâ€™s most competitive boats.

Damian is sailing in a pair with French skipper Jean-Pierre Dick.

-Robin-

(Image Credit: Barcelona World Race)

47.2 knots of pure awesome-ness

Robin Blandford — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 09:43:48 +0000

SINGAPORE - The Piton posted it so I stole their title, they got it right in one go “47.2 knots of pure awesome-ness”. This video is of The French HydroptÃ¨re when it broke a world record for the fastest sailing speed (not including icesailing) when they hit 47.2 knots. Unreal.

I love the comments:

I wouldn’t want to be on this thing if it pitchpoled.

what happens if you hit a whale?

you die, whale dies

:-)

-Robin-

Rescues: European Storm Kills 23

Robin Blandford — Mon, 28 May 2007 18:43:56 +0000

6 Hikers, 2 Divers, 1 Yachtmans Dead.

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - I have just returned from camping on a wind battered Aran Islands out in the Atlantic and I read Aisling’s Wicklow Round got called off. Maybe just as well too, RTE News are reporting that 23 have been killed in the same storm across Europe. Many include adventurers out ‘doing their thing’.

Six hikers died in Greece while trying to cross a river in the south of the country. They were in a group of 18 people swept away by a flood wave in the rain-swollen Lousios river. Prosecutors charged the hike’s organisers with involuntary manslaughter.

In France, a yachtsman drowned yesterday in extreme weather. The yachtsman fell into the sea from his 21-metre boat in heavy seas.

Off the western coast of Brittany, two divers died that were part of a group of six who were caught up in strong waves.

-Robin-

Rescue: Yacht found, engine running, table set, but no crew.

Robin Blandford — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:07:47 +0000

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - This crazy story is on the Reuters wire….

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian rescuers were on Friday trying to solve the “Mary Celeste” style mystery of a yacht found floating off the coast with its engine running, food on its table ready to eat, but no crew.

The 12-metre (36 feet) catamaran was found 80 nautical miles off Townsville on the northeast coast, but there was no sign of the three crewmen who had set sail from Queensland state bound for Australia’s west coast on Sunday.

“What they found was a bit strange in that everything was normal, there was just no sign of the crew,” Jon Hall from emergency management in Queensland told local radio on Friday.

Hall said the yacht’s sails were up but one was badly shredded. He said the engine was running, there was food on the table, a laptop was turned on, and the radio and global positioning satellite (GPS) were working.

Three life jackets and survival equipment, including an emergency beacon, were found on board, but no life rafts.

Ireland Challenge - Tuesday Race Update

Robin Blandford — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 23:10:47 +0000

Yachts are currently off Northern Ireland. They have ~200 miles to the finish, and all are doing 200+ miles over each 24hr run so we can expect them back in Howth circa Wednesday afternoon at a guess.

Click for larger view of Dolphins off Samsung’s stern yesterday.

Ireland Challenge 2006 - Race Update

Robin Blandford — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 20:11:32 +0000

Ireland Challenge 2006 - Race Viewer shows that Spirt of Sark is in the lead by 4 miles! The fleet is currently on a run with aft winds off Co. Clare.

Ireland Challenge 2006 - Race Update

Robin Blandford — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 11:06:00 +0000

The Ireland Challenge 2006 Race Viewer shows that ‘Spirit of Sark’ is in the lead at 0700hrs this morning and the boats had rounded Wexford. I’d imagine they are around Cork/Fastnet right now.

‘Spirit of Sark’ by Geared Up

Ireland Challenge Starts

Robin Blandford — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 17:57:52 +0000

I was at the start of the Ireland Challenge this morning. And have a selection of photos but you’ll probably get much better ones from John Deane of Howth Yacht Club who was on-scene also. Boats looked amazing, huge!

You can follow the live position of the boats on the Ireland Challenge website. They seem to also have KML files for Google Earth, but aren’t working right now.

Photo by Geared Up

Photos of Open Ireland Challenge Yachts

Robin Blandford — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 19:26:10 +0000

Photo by markhamnolan

Geared Up reader Markham has left a link to some photos of his adventures on the boats used in the Ireland Challenge.