|
There names are Celtic Explorer, Green Giant, Maltese Falcon, Club Med 2 and A Lady.... and they all have one thing in common: computers. The biggest challenge at sea is information and knowledge. The right information at the right point in time can make a real difference between life and death. If you consider disasters such as CSAV Shenzhen, M/V Republica di Genoa, MSC Napoli or even Titanic, you will soon find out that the right piece of information, from weather to machine control, given to the right person at the right time could have made a real difference, maybe even saved lives. Of course there is always human error but that's an entirely different story...
 Computers are used on board of ships for a lot of things. Weather forecasting reception and analysis, machine control and monitoring, data collection and transmission. Let's consider A Lady, the boat prepared by Fix-I.T. last year and which is now celebrating its first year around the world. The computer on board is primarily used to send and receive weather forecasts, to log information into a blog, record images and send a signal each day that tracks their voyage and current location. This is a very simple setup, using an Apple Computer and an iridium satellite phone's connection, the boat is able to connect to the internet at ISDN speed to send and retrieve emails.
This technology isn't new really, just the computer, and the fact that skippers are now trained to use computers while sailing. In A Lady's case, the advantage of a computer is the possibility to receive freshly interpreted marine weather forecasts, but during the ARC race between Gran Canaria and St Lucia in the fall of 2009 the advantage was to receive information on where to find wind, how to avoid rain, and even the exact position, speed and direction of the competition, a service supplied by Fix-I.T.
One level above A Lady would be Green Giant, equipped with Fleetbroadband satelite equipment. In addition to the above, this ship can also send out video, have a live  webcam, and network multiple computers or monitoring systems. Yet another example of Marine IT would be RV Celtic Explorer, a 65.5m long ship operated by the Marine Institute of Ireland. The ship can accommodate 35 people, including 19-21 scientists. The Celtic Explorer is, in gross terms, six times the size of her sister vessel, the Celtic Voyager. It is fully networked (LAN) like any office in town, an IT room or a Remote Operated Vehicle. All this implies not only data collection but also backup.
Let's consider Maltese Falcon now. The boat was built in 2006 by Perini Navi (Perini Istanbul - YIldiz Gemi, Turkey). This ship is 289.1 ft long and uses a very distinctive DynaRig design, invented in the sixties by Engineer W. Prolls. The DynaRig is effectively a square rig, the mast is freestanding and the yards are connected rigidly to the mast, in this case each mast supports six yards. The yards, unlike a conventional square rigger, have built in camber of 12%. The sails set between the yards in such a way that when deployed there are no gaps to the sail plan enabling each spar's sail plan to work as a single sail. The sails, when  not deployed, furl into the mast. The sail is trimmed to the wind direction by rotating the mast. Underneath there is a keel that plunges as deep as 11 meters. As there is no rigging the yards have no restriction on rotation and this taken together with the curved (shaped) yards, low windage and effective single piece sail combine to give the rig improved aerodynamic efficiency compared to a traditional square rigger. All this is controlled by a set of computers, to adjust the exact positioning of each of her sails, along with the instruments and competence to make any needed course alterations, relative to winds aloft, and sea currents. In fact, the yacht’s large array of instruments matches that of any ocean going luxury liner, featuring large screens locating all necessary information for course, winds aloft, speed, depths, mechanics, radios, weather, and surrounding areas. Her navigational bridge – the command center – however, uses a relatively small portion of the yacht’s vast square footage. Sound complicated? Not at all, in fact it is not even complex to learn; as its first owner, Tom Perkins insisted the sail system should be so simple that any practiced sailor could get it in five minutes. For those wondering how fast she is, let's say she can cross the Atlantic in 10 days...
Bigger and bigger, Club Med 2, is a new generation of cruiser who I personally hope will come and visit Cork one day... The Club Med 2 is a five-masted computer-controlled sailing ship owned and operated by Club Med and operated as a cruise ship. She combines the power of seven computer-operated sails with more traditional diesel-electric power, having four diesel generators that power two electric motors. The Club Med 2 was launched in 1992 in Le Havre, France. Its sister ship the Club Med 1 was sold to Windstar Cruises and renamed MSY Wind Surf in 1998. The ship, one of the largest sailing cruise ships in the world, carrying up to 386 passengers with a crew of 214, sails the waters of the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea in the summertime, and the Caribbean in the winter, finding its way into anchorages larger cruise ships cannot reach. The ship provides ballroom dancing, bridge and music, and sails at night making a stop each morning. To top it all off, there is even wifi on board for laptops and mobile phones!
In Ireland the National Marine College is fully equipped with state of the art computer based simulators which are used to train Navigation and Engineering personnel who work on board ships. The simulators are fitted out with instructor stations which allow instructors to control and monitor exercises as well as to record students' performance for later analysis. Various ship models can be used in different geographic locations with varying environmental conditions in order to create different scenarios for students. Computer based engine models can be connected to the ship's bridge simulators to simulate realistic on-board operating conditions. The NMCI has a GMDSS marine distress simulator suite consisting of 13 networked computers running KONGSBERG simulation software. The equipment familiarisation area is made up of real GMDSS equipment, standalone station simulators, and other training equipment.
 Of course, all this is a bit far from our own boats, but this is because they are paving the way to develop solutions suitable for smaller ships.
When you look at the various functions that a computer can perform on a boat, you have to ask if one computer can do it all. Yes, sure it can, but both primary usage profiles may suffer. For navigation and communication, you want a low power computer (some cruisers leave it on all the time) and you want to keep it isolated from the internet. For photo/video editing and managing your blog, you want a higher performance computer with more memory, disk space, and one that you can easily hook up to the internet in the marina when WIFI is available. If you only have one computer you have no backup in the event of total failure. You might have the data backed up but you have no way of accessing it. You lose access to your communication, navigation, and all your photos, video and music all at once. take the following two computers; one used for Navigation and one for Photo/Video.
 Small Form Factor (SFF) or Car Computers
You can easily build an SFF computer in a protected environment on the boat, including shock mounting and additional air flow for cooling. If you go this route remember that you'll need an external monitor. Another alternative is a laptop, once more the crash recovery factor will be important as well. Since 2009 we have taken the Apple Mac Mini route, it is cheaper than a laptop, the power supply is external to the machine, so the heat factor is less important. A water-resistant Flexible Ergonomic Keyboard (roll up) and mouse are important too. Finally you'll need a large flat panel monitor or TV with DV input, which quickly rotates to face the seating area if you want to watch a movie. Another good reason for choosing the Mac Mini computer, despite the price and the size is the fact that it will run natively all three operating Mac, Windows and Linux. So your workstation can be re-engineered to suite any needs.
Fix-I.T.'s skipper's backpack is composed of an Apple computer, an AIS receiver, a gps, a chart plotter (MACenC), which can work on a 12 volt circuit if needed. 
Add to it your own favourite camcorder or camera, and that's it! Your nav station will follow you anywhere you go, no matter the ship or the destination. Fix-I.T. was brought into marine IT by MaxSea, a once mac based chart plotter & navigation system turned PC based in the nineties. Trained in Bayonne, Fix-I.T. was a Maxsea partner until 2008. The very same year as Maxsea seemed to fade from the irish seas, we started supporting MacEnc: a much better solution. It is a very affordable solution for the sailor who wants to take the Mac aboard for real-time display of position, yours as well as others (AIS integration) on full color marine raster format BSB and Softcharts. Plug your GPS into your Mac and watch as your boat moves along in real-time, plotting a track behind the boat and logging your historic position on a digital chart. Add to it iNavX and your iPod / iPhone acts as a relay station on your vessel.
Another breakthrough for Fix-I.T. and Marine IT in general is the popularity of Automatic Identification System, A.I.S. for short. In June, Fix-I.T. A.I.S. Station Alpha went live with support from ShipAIS in Liverpool (who supplied a receiver), Kestrel Communication in Cork, supplying an antenna and Marine Traffic in Greece (Aegean University). The project is currently hosted by the Department of Product and Systems Design Enginnering, University of the Aegean, Greece. The initial data collection is based on the Automatic Identification System (AIS). As of December 2004, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires all vessels over 299GT to carry an AIS transponder on board, which transmits their position, speed and course, amongst other static information, such as the vessel’s name, dimensions and voyage details. Normally, vessels with an AIS receiver connected to an external antenna placed on 15 meters above sea level, will receive AIS information within a range of 15-20 nautical miles. Base stations at a higher elevation, may extend the range up to 40-60 nm, sometimes even more. Fix-I.T. A.I.S. Station Beta is currently looking for a high location. AIS is initially intended to help ships avoid collisions, as well as assisting port authorities to better control sea traffic. AIS transponders on board vessels include a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver, which collects position and movement details. It also includes a VHF transmitter, which transmits periodically this information on two VHF channels (frequencies 161.975 MHz and 162.025 MHz – old VHF channels 87 & 88) and make this data available to the public. Other vessels or base stations are able to receive this information, process it using special software and display vessels' locations on a chart plotter or computer.
Christoffa Corombo, better known today as Christopher Columbus (c. 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506), departed from Palos de la Frontera with three ships. on the evening of 3 August 1492. His navigation methods were simple, relying on the stars, sun and curvature of the spherical earth.Yet land was sighted at 2 a.m. on 12 October 1492, 70 days later, by a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana (also known as Juan Rodríguez Bermejo) aboard Pinta. Columbus called the island, in what is now known as The Bahamas, San Salvador. All the instruments on board of a boat will never replace experience, common sense and a safe assessment of each individual situation. It is to be believed that technology will keep contributing to safe passage across the seas.
References:
IMO: http://www.imo.org/Safety/mainframe.asp?topic_id=754
AIS on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_System
US Coast Guard: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/enav/ais/default.htm
Marine College of Ireland: http://www.nmci.ie/index.cfm/page/facilities |
