This 32,000-mile Ocean Race has yachts doing research along the way

A little over a week ago, one of the toughest races in the world started off the coast of Africa. Eleven teams, including five International Monohull Open Class Association (IMOCA) class racing yachts, set out from Alicante, Canary Islands for the first leg of the 32,000 nautical mile (60,000 km) route, including a 12,750 nautical mile stretch. bottom. Between South Africa and Brazil through the Antarctic Ocean. The crew has very little to interfere with the comfort of the creatures, save for freeze-dried meals and buckets for the bathroom. Collect scientific data about the condition.

IMOCA class boats are 60 feet (18.3 m) long and feature a single hull made of carbon fiber. In addition to the sails, the yacht has retractable foils that lift the hull out of the water at over 18 knots (33 km/h), allowing for top speeds of over 35 knots (65 km/h). Designers have some leeway in terms of hull and sail shape, but everyone should use the same design of mast, boom and static rigging.

The Mālama is one such boat, manned by the 11th Hour Racing team. In addition to gathering data on climate change, the team worked to minimize the carbon impact of building the yacht itself, using lightweight, sustainable materials such as balsa and composites made from flax. I tried as much as possible. 11th Hour team navigator Simon Fisher said:

“The use of renewable energy onboard is a great example of this,” Fisher explains, noting that Marama’s solar panels will charge 48V batteries, compared to the traditional approach of using a diesel generator and the fuel it requires. Saves a lot of weight. “This is a significant weight saving and we are always chasing everything down to the last gram,” he said.

“When you go out on the boat and look at a lot of the nonstructural elements, things like engine covers that used to be made of carbon are now made of flax, bioresin, etc. We really did that in the process. We took the time to make a few samples and compare the weight and durability,” Fisher said.

Much of it is detailed in the 11th Hour’s Sustainable Design and Construction report (PDF), which describes “the amount of detail that went into measuring absolutely everything,” Fisher said. “So all the elements that went into the boat—what it was made from, the energy it used, where things were sourced from, etc.—are all incredibly well documented,” he told Ars. So the team hopes the data will help other parts of the industry.

IMOCA regulations require boat builders to use carbon fiber as their primary material because it is high strength, light weight and energy intensive. But here and there, the 11th Hour has found ways to reduce its carbon footprint. For example, reusing carbon fiber molds has saved over 170 tons of CO2.₂ From the footprints of the boat. “There were some very good and actually surprisingly simple lessons to be learned from it. So the shipyard where the boat was built is renewable energy toll, which is like half the carbon footprint,” Fisher said.