Feature: Ellen MacArthur’s Offshore Challenge - March 2005  

In February 2005, the world watched as Ellen MacArthur fought to complete her incredible round the world solo sailing adventure - an incredible feat of endurance that ended with her smashing the record by over one day. Behind the scenes, Offshore Challenges worked round the clock to manage her campaign in every aspect: media communication, online website, technological aspects and even morale support. Offshore Challenges technology manager Charles Darbyshire takes up the story.

Mark Turner, CEO of Offshore Challenges Group, has a very clear view of the importance of technology into the business of Yacht Racing, especially when talking about solo challenges. He believes that technology is allowing the Offshore Challenges team to create a virtual stadium giving the public access to an arena that still is hostile, remote and mysterious.
Turner's idea is to exploiting technology in order to achieve integration of media channels to better communicate the challenge, because not one medium can work alone to deliver an exceptional return. During Ellen's around the world record attempt, naturally, beside standard communication media (press, radio and TV) an important part of the delivery of information was given to the TeamEllen website, targeted to core audience (sailing fans), allowing them to dig as deeply into the content as they liked. Real time data, even from Ellen's navigation station, was continuously uploaded on the website for viewers to enjoy and get updates every hour. Also, latest news were delivered via e-mail and to mobile phones via sms, java and wap applications.
Web TV also is growing in importance. Offshore Challenges launched OC|TV a couple of months ago, based on new exciting technology developed by Narrowstep, that allows full screen 'TV Mode' playback of video-on-demand and live programming on virtually any PC on a broadband internet connection, anywhere on the planet. OC| TV will focus on the offshore aspect of the sport, and the content will extend over the coming months to cover a wide range of events.
Another very interesting tool used to keep the audience updated and involved in Ellen's attempt, was the Voyager 2020 3D animator. Voyager 2020 is unique in that it creates three outputs for race managers, all from the same core code - ANIMATOR creates 3D graphics for Television, TRACKER provides 2D maps for websites, and VIEWER offers the full 3D animation package for the end-user on his/her PC. This application allows the audience to play back the whole attempt so far, zoom in to within metres of the boat, and back out to a planet view, and switch on weather features such as pressure and wind.
In solo ocean racing, it is very important to always remember that the sailor is the player, the cameraman, the photographer, the journalist, the radio commentator...and every second spent on this is a second less of sleep, speed, weather study. For this reason, Ellen's team main challenge was to get more content for less effort asked from Ellen. And in order to do so in the most efficient way, technology is vital.
The technological tools in Ellen’s trimaran
Ellen's Trimaran <B&Q> was equipped with a bewildering array of communication devices: Fleet 77, Fleet 55, Fleet 33, Iridium, Iridium Pager, and Sat C.
When the design team sat down to draw the lines of Ellen's new boat Castorama B&Q they were joined by a team of technical people intent on bringing the record breaking experience into the home. This would mean high speed data lines useable from any (navigable) place on the planet - to beam back video images, high resolution pictures, and audio capable of being used on broadcast radio.
Working with a range of technical partners, the Offshore Challenges Team got to work. B&G provided the instrumentation to measure everything onboard the boat - from wind speeds and direction to sea temperature, barometric pressure and even battery voltage. Sony helped Offshore Challenges to specify computer hardware, supplied cameras and DV recorders, whilst world renowned satellite communications experts at Thrane & Thrane in Denmark helped develop a communications system the Royal Navy would be proud of. BT Broadband advised on the latest routes through the internet to distribute the content - this was critical, as bringing back data from the boat in a format that can't be distributed immediately via the internet would be a disaster - loosing the immediateness that we are all becoming used to.

Fleet 77
Voice, ISDN & MPDS - Global

The Fleet 77 unit is contained in one of the two large domes mounted aft of the mainsheet traveller on B&Q. The antenna domes were specially constructed as part of the hull structure - ensuring water tight domes, and actually giving the designers something to smile about - increased volume aft in the (hopefully never to be tested) inverted condition.
The Fleet 77 provides global voice, ISDN and MPDS, voice speaks for itself - flick the power on, wait to acquire the signal (a couple of minutes) then dial the number - calls to a conference line for a media interview, a mobile phone for technical or moral support are easy to make, and sound like the boat is just a stone’s throw way - incredible.
ISDN gives those on land a chance to see what's going on onboard the boat. Ellen can dial into Offshore Challenges' Cowes Waterfront base at any time to transmit video footage, or conduct a video conference; using a radio mic, and one of the 12 fixed cameras onboard provides different views of the action, though a slow connection in comparison to current broadband connections it's almost unbelievable to make this connection such a remote place as the southern ocean, (especially given the speed and motion of a multihull in a big southern seaway )
An ISDN line can be used to make a connection to the internet for sending still images, and collecting large weather data files.
MPDS is relatively new - it's very similar in concept to the GSM mobile phone data system, GPRS - rather than paying for the time you are on line you pay for the data you exchange - this is perfect for browsing the internet or checking, reading & then replying to email without disconnecting. It also allows the connection to be 'UP' for longer periods meaning more web camera pictures.

Fleet 55

The Fleet 55 service was the 2nd Fleet service to be commissioned by Inmarsat and although a smaller antenna has very similar features - ISDN, MPDS and of course voice. The main difference is that ISDN & MPDS are not available globally - much of the southern ocean is not covered and during last year's Transat Jacques Vabre race Ellen and Alain on Foncia sailed right across the gap in coverage - losing MPDS for 36 hours of the race - the terminal is however smaller (around 55cm diameter) and much lighter than Fleet 77- significant on a transatlantic race or record attempt.

Fleet 33

Newly launched this is the smallest of the Fleet family - no ISDN with this terminal but MPDS (same coverage area as the Fleet 55) it's the terminal that replace the well proven Mini M - perfect as a back up onboard B&Q and would appeal widely to any cruising boat intent on a Mediterranean summer, Caribbean winter and everything in between. It has found its place onboard B&Q due to its low power and fast acquisition time. The Fleet 33 would remain switched on all the time (whereas Fleet 55 and 77 are powered up when required, and due to their close proximity never at the same time).

IRIDIUM

With Iridium back up and running it seemed impossible to leave the dock without one in the grab bag. The hand held version that we have can be used on deck, or down below when connected to its external antenna, and is a perfect back up solution, especially if a major electrical problem meant none of the other communications route work. The optional data connection is perfect for getting a simple email to and from the boat.

IRIDIUM PAGER

One way paging to the boat - allows our weather routers to pass on information immediately to the boat - a change in expected conditions, or announcing a new GRIB weather file is available is a great way to inform the boat without a sleep interrupting phone call.

Sat C

Our Thrane and Thrane supplied Mini Cs are used for polling - important during a race, but crucial during a distance/time record attempt when every mile counts - a custom add-in to Deckman for Windows can transmit all the boat's information at preset intervals. This allows the broadband 'viewer' to experience the conditions of the southern ocean without leaving their arm chair. The Sat C will also transmit Ellen's biological data from B&Q - the next generation of the devices worn during the Jules Verne record attempt last winter, these will once again measure sleep, energy usage, temperature and stress. All these variables will in the future be available on the internet

Tying it all together

It's all very well having so many routes off the boat, but unless you can use them, they are dead weight. Offshore Challenges has a complex switch box that routes the connections around the boat, meaning headaches during set up, commissioning and testing, but should pay dividends during the actual record attempts, during which we should see, hear, and read more from Ellen than ever before. Meanwhile back at base we are developing with BT Broadband the next generation of delivery - our aim - to bring back video footage of an iceberg and distribute to mobile phones whilst it's still visible from the boat. As Ellen's boats get faster - the harder this is to achieve!

This article was seen first by people who receive the monthly newsletter, join them.