Saildrone Security and our Carbon Footprints
Published: Thursday, June 30, 2022 12:00 pm
By: Mark Reid
A version of this article appeared in the Summer (July/August) 2022 issue of Great Lakes Scuttlebutt.
It seemed like just a short time ago when we rounded the corner of the new millennium and entered an exciting new era of creativity, exploration and entrepreneur innovation as technology has gifted us with unimaginable toys and tools which are now at our disposal.
Unless you dreamed like the Jetsons, even though it felt like you were still living the Flintstones it is amazing to think that we are connected around the world with devices that fit in the palms of our hands and commanded by our fingertips.
Channel that clairvoyance into the yachting and boating industries with advances in GPS, electronic efficiency in everything that has a motor in it to watching fish underwater while sipping a beer with 3 dimensional underwater cameras! Not to mention that wings showed up on everything from sails to keels to foils.
We take a look this issue at unmanned sail drones as they silently patrol the ocean waters assisting our national security concerns as well as tracking species in the marine world while monitoring our ever-changing global environment.
Speaking of leaving little or no carbon footprints this article will also explore hydrogen powered chase boats that seek to revolutionize the way we enjoy the water at speed.
A 72 ft Saildrone Discovery
My exploration into Saildrone happened as I was writing a story on the AC72 America’s Cup Class, which was used during the races in San Francisco for the 34th Cup in 2013. I was looking into the whereabouts of the seven large catamarans that were built for the event that summer and specifically whatever happened to the 2 that the Artemis Team from Sweden constructed.
The AC72 looked spectacular, but it was never intended to foil. The Kiwis unlocked that door and unfortunately couldn't keep it a secret. The Artemis AC72 nicknamed Big Red?
That catamaran tragically broke apart in a sailing accident that claimed the life of Andrew “Bart” Simpson. This led to much needed, but controversial new safety protocols which dramatically reshaped how the Louis Vuitton Cup races and ultimately the America's Cup Match would be sailed.
The Swedish boat never really took off and the team was beset by problems from the beginning. The AC72 class was designed to "skim" at around 20 to 30 knots when it was discovered that ETNZ were able to foil the speeds increased dramatically to more than 40 knots downwind!
A question appeared on the Sailing Illustrated podcast forum that it was thought that Big Red had been broken apart and scrapped. I interjected that perhaps the wreckage was still in storage under lock and key in the East Bay.
There was an article several years ago that indicated as much and at the time I inquired if it was possible to go see the boat.
I was told I could not.
That was the last I had really heard or thought about it, until it came up in discussion. Unfortunately, the first part of the question was never answered. But I heard a company called Saildrone had moved into the massive hangar at the Artemis Team base on Alameda Island on the old Naval Air Station that was based there.
Jenn Virskus, Saildrone’s Content Manager replied to my inquiry and it has led to the most amazing discovery of what that revolutionary, groundbreaking company is about. Not only does the company occupy Artemis’s former base, but the current America’s Cup defender’s Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) are trying to break the Saildrone company founder and CEO Richard Jenkins wind powered land speed record from 2009. More on that later…
“I don't know which boat we have of Artemis's (it was their 2nd boat Big Blue) but we haven't used any pieces of it on any saildrones,” wrote Virskus. “We simply have some pieces stored in the back of our facility.”
"Saildrone has both an Artemis and Oracle AC72, but neither was modified into the Surveyor. One Oracle hull was repainted and modified with outriggers and is sitting in our shop as a decoration, but it was never in the water,” said Virskus. “The Saildrone Surveyor was designed by Jenkins and built in Saildrone's Alameda manufacturing facility.”
For me, the boat shape looked identical to Big Blue’s hull shape and was the same water length. Which led to part two of Virskus’s response: “If you look at pictures of the Surveyor on our website, you'll see the hull is a completely different shape, though yes, it is also 72 feet long!”
“Saildrone provides comprehensive turnkey data solutions for maritime security, ocean mapping, and ocean data,” said Virskus. “Our company provides real-time access to critical data from any ocean on earth, 24/7/365, and uses proprietary software applications to transform that data into actionable insights and intelligence.”
“Saildrone’s fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), powered by renewable wind and solar power, have a minimal carbon footprint and are designed to make ocean intelligence cost-effective at scale,” continued Virskus. “Saildrones operate 24/7/365, without the need for a crewed support vehicle, and have sailed over 750,000 nautical miles from the Arctic to the Antarctic and spent more than 17,000 days at sea in the harshest ocean conditions on the planet.”
Here a few quick facts from Saildrone before we cut into their global security, scientific and environmental missions:
- “Saildrones are wind and solar powered. A trim tab on the tail adjusts the wing angle to the wind similar to how an elevator trim tab controls the pitch of an aircraft. Saildrone has two base vehicles, the Saildrone Explorer at (23 ft) long, the wing is (15 ft) tall, the keel draws (6 ft) and the Saildrone Surveyor whose hull is (72 ft), the wing is (59 ft), the keel draws (13 ft). They are designed for 12-month missions.”
- Saildrones are operated by remote control, with more than twenty science sensors by a mission control operator to collect meteorological and oceanographic data. (See there are jobs for PS 4 and X Box gamers!) The uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) are not for sale, they have and are sailing on all 4 Oceans on missions that vary from missions collecting data related to “weather and climate science, carbon uptake, sustainable fisheries management, animal tracking, satellite calibration and validation, oil detection, and bathymetry.”
- Saildrone designs, manufactures and operates their drone fleet of USVs. The day glo orange wing sails are powered by nature’s finest and most reliable assets, the wind and sun.
- The USVs have a minimal carbon footprint and are equipped with advanced sensors and AI technology to deliver critical data and intelligence from any ocean including maritime domain awareness, ocean data and ocean mapping. Saildrone operations and data collection services are encrypted and secure.
- Recently Jenkins was awarded the Albert A. Michelson Award by the Navy League of the United States.
- The Albert A. Michelson Award honors a civilian scientist or technical innovator that has demonstrated scientific or significant technical achievement.
- Jenkins and his team at Saildrone made waves in the defense community in recent months, demonstrating that their turnkey Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) solutions are a force multiplier, enabling rapid and effective response from high-value manned assets.
- Last year the US Navy’s 5th Fleet began operating a group of Saildrone Explorers in the Red Sea off the coast of Bahrain and later in the Arabian Gulf off the coast of Jordan.
- The MDA data solution uses advanced machine learning (ML). Their proprietary ML model with a 360-degree optical camera can recognize and classify objects in real time with millions of images that are captured every five seconds on missions that can last over seven years.
“We have worked extremely hard over the years to develop this technology. It is fantastic to see it being deployed by the US Navy, and now also recognized by the Navy League of the United States,” said Jenkins. “We are excited to be playing a key role in improving the strength of our maritime forces.”
“The Saildrone USV is an engineering marvel and the company that Richard has built around it is transforming how we think about accessing our world’s oceans. Saildrones are a paradigm shift in autonomous maritime capability,” said James F. Guerts, former assistant secretary of the Navy.
The company’s environmental mission is as critical if not more so than the defense mission as in their partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Saildrone deployed five “Explorers” to collect scientific data from hurricanes. The USVs will be equipped with specially designed “hurricane wings” to enable them to operate in extreme conditions and are designed to withstand winds over 70 mph and waves over 10 ft. as they sail into and out of the ever-changing direction of violent hurricanes as they develop.
Saildrone has launched three USV drones to sail through the North Atlantic’s ever-changing Gulf Stream.to collect crucial data to enable scientists improve weather forecasts and carbon accounting.
The program launched out of Newport, Rhode Island is being managed by scientists from the University of Rhode Island (URI) and the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
“There is a lot of uncertainty in ocean carbon uptake, nearly 4 billion tons of CO2 separates the average of the model-based estimates from observation-based estimates. That’s nearly as much CO2 as is emitted by the US [about 5 billion tons] each year!” said Jaime Palter, from URI. “With more in situ observations we can do better. Increasing our in-situ observations of ocean carbon uptake is critical to reducing uncertainty in global carbon estimates, which is necessary for addressing global warming and holding countries accountable for lowering emissions.”
Saildrones, powered by nature are designed to collect data in these areas without risking human lives and with a zero operational carbon footprint.
“The Gulf Stream also has a big impact on weather forecasts and climate predictions,” said Philip Browne, a research scientist at ECMWF. “We are excited to be able to target saildrones to collect data from this physically and scientifically challenging region to help improve our earth system approach to forecasting.”
“Since our first science mission in the Arctic in 2015, Saildrone has worked tirelessly to measure climate quality data from Earth’s most remote oceans and deliver that data to scientists all over the world,” said Jenkins. “We believe this data will dramatically improve understanding of critical climate processes and enable more accurate predictions of our future, which will in turn help guide global climate policy and decision making.”
A “Wing a Ding” Transition
An odd, somewhat quirky transition brings us from Saildrone to what America’s Cup defending champions Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) and the Project Speed team are up to lately, and it hasn’t been on the water on high powered AC75’s!
It was in March 2009 when Jenkins broke the world land-speed record for a wind-powered vehicle. He reached 126.1 mph (202.9 km/h) in his land yacht Greenbird on Ivanpah Lake, a dry lake in California's Mojave Desert breaking the previous record of 116 mph (187 km/h) by Bob Schumacher a decade earlier in Iron Duck on the same patch of salt.
The Kiwi team are set to set the record straight and have been testing at Auckland’s RNZAF Whenuapai base in different weather and wind ranges with “pilot” Glenn Ashby, who normally is the wing trimmer on Te Ruhtai, but now he is putting their land speed craft Horonuku.
In the indigenous Māori language, this means “gliding swiftly across land. Horo means fast or swift movement and nuku is connected to over earth or land.”
The relationship with the Māori nation is a significant and valued part of ETNZ’s culture as they endeavor to be the fastest wind powered craft on the planet.
The design of Horonuku was built for one and only one purpose and that is the world wind powered land speed record currently held by SailDrone CEO and Founder Richard Jenkins, whose ‘Greenbird’ land yacht hit 202.9 km/h (130 mph) in 2009. Glenn just needs to maintain his speed for 3 seconds to register as a new world record.
“Richard’s record will not be easy to beat,” said Ashby. “There is definitely an element of needing the stars to align when achieving a world record like this where you need the conditions on the ground and in the air to be perfect before we put Horonuku on a ship to Lake Gairdner, Australia to continue testing and tuning on the salt-lake so we are ready to roll when a weather window comes along.”
“In doing our research and digging deeper and deeper into the intricacies of the design challenges, it became very apparent that Richard really did an incredible job with his world record design.” said Ashby. “As a team we explored some pretty creative and innovative conceptual ideas in the quest for more speed, however in the end our design and performance principles evolved into a concept reasonably similar in basic layout to the existing record holder, which really emphasized to us what a huge challenge this will be.”
“Like the America’s Cup we just need to be doing it better across the board by utilizing our experience, skills and tools gained as a team to date,” explained Ashby, “And then, like sailing, there is always the weather gods and doing everything we can to be ready when the right conditions are presented at the location.”
“Obviously the objective is to design a craft that becomes the fastest wind powered land yacht ever.” said Glenn Ashby “And no one would have ever been that fast in a wind powered craft on or off the water. So that’s a pretty bloody exciting thing to try to become.”
The mystery and the key to unlocking all the potential speed possible is uncertainty is the tire technology and the dynamic forces associated with putting rubber on the road as opposed to hydrodynamic forces on foils in the water.
“This is the big unknown for us,” explained ETNZ Mechanical Engineer Tim Meldrum. “Tires on a flat salt surface going at over 200km/h is a whole lot different to foils in the water at over 50 knots!
“The rules stipulate we must run on a flat natural surface. The best ones we know of where it can be windy are dry salt lakes,” said Meldrum. “The tires are the only point of contact to the salt it is a pretty important factor in finding the sweet spot in maintaining sufficient grip with the least amount of rolling resistance.”
“Our craft when compared to a speed record motorized car has a lot of differences,” continued Meldrum. “Firstly our “motor” the wing in our case really delivers a small thrust force compared to a racing combustion engine. So, anything working against that thrust wheel rolling resistance and aerodynamic drag has been a high priority to reduce if we want to hit high speeds.”
“Secondly, our wing creates a lot of side load over the main back wheels – so we need to provide grip to keep it tracking straight. A downforce aerodynamic wing like those used in F1 to assist cornering grip would rob us of too much speed, so we have opted to add variable ballast weight to allow us to tune our grip level.”.
The team’s shot at the world record comes this summer when Ashby and the team are working towards attempting on one of Australia’s vast salt lakes with Lake Gairdner in South Australia or Lake Lefroy in Western Australia.
“The feeling I have in the cockpit every time I air brake the wing and stand on the disc brakes as the end of the tarmac approaches at speed, is one of surrealism,” remarks Ashby. “Knowing that in a couple of months (when we arrive at Lake Gairdner), there will be no braking, no tarmac and no boundaries.”
The Hydrogen Powered Foiling Chase Boat Coming Our Way
In another carbon footprint story, it’s “back to the future” for ETNZ as they move forward with their ambitious carbon zero and clean, renewable energy goals for not only the 37th America’s Cup set for Barcelona, Spain in 2024, but their small corner of the planet as well, as they attempt to set the bar for all of us towards a sustainable future.
The Toyota-powered hydrogen fuel celled chase boat project is an important one for ETNZ who have committed to driving hydrogen innovation in the marine industry through working with clean technologies.
The prototype foiling boat is 10m in length, and approximately 5200kg displacement, the cruising speed will be 30-35 knots with a top speed of around 50 knots and will carry 6 crew members with a range of between 150-180km generating approximately 440kW peak power via a 400V DC system.
“A project like this is not a straightforward one, and we have had to pull together a wide range of suppliers and components for this prototype boat,” explains Project Manager Geoff Senior. “Toyota New Zealand and the Toyota Motor Corporation Japan have been a significant part of the project in supplying the 2 x 80kW pre-production Toyota Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Global Bus Ventures have supplied the Hydrogen Powertrain system design and Gurit have been a valuable partner with the composite materials and engineering.”
“I hope we can look back on this as the start of a hydrogen motorboat revolution,” said Sir Stephen Tindall who represents the team. “Green hydrogen comes from renewable energy like wind, solar and hydro and once the hydrogen is used in the boat, the only by-product is water.”
In early testing the top speed of Chase Zero has been clocked at 50.3 knots (93.16km/h) after its first week on the water.
“We filled the tanks up to 96% so we wanted to take Chase Zero out to test its cruising range and reliability at the same time,” said Skipper Chris ‘Curly’ Salthouse. “We ended up motoring for nearly 6 hours in the end and covered 151.2 nautical miles at an average speed of 33 mph and still had about 10% gas left in the tanks.”
That equates to a day’s run in a regular 36ft chase boat with twin 250hp outboards on it, they would have used 40 gallons of gas at 33mph an hour which translates to 218 gallons of fuel. Which puts Chase Zero’s range at about with four full 8.4kg tanks of hydrogen gas at 178.19 nautical miles at the cruising average at around 35 mph.
So, in many ways, one story leads into another and another in this mad, mad hopefully safe, secure world as we work to reduce our carbon footprint critical to earth’s survival, or at least “mans”.
Image 1: A flotilla of saildrones established a new northern record for an autonomous vehicle while measuring CO2 and Arctic cod abundance in the Chukchi Sea. Photo from Saildrone
Image 2: A nice sundriven photo taken during the US Coast Guard demonstration of MDA capabilities. Photo from Saildrone
Image 3: Two Saildrone Explorers deployed to Holland, Michigan for Lake Michigan on behalf of the USGS Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) to collect fisheries survey data to be compared directly to data collected by the GLSC fleet. Photo from Saildrone
Image 4: Emirates Team New Zealand launches its land speed sail racer Horonuku at the team base in Auckland. Photo from ETNZ.
Image 5: With the City of Auckland in the background the Toyota powered hydrogen fuel celled chase boat project is an important one for ETNZ. Photo from ETNZ
tags: Beyond the Great Lakes, Environmental Impact, Racing, Researching Boats, Sailing
