vendée globe

What marine electronics software and hardware are required for the Vendée Globe?

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The Vendée Globe race, also known as the Everest of the Seas, is the first non-stop solo race around the world without assistance. The 16 ocean skippers (Nov. 19th) will have to sail 25.000 miles around the world and try to arrive first with the help of their own sailing skills and impressive equipment ranging from freeze-dried food to complex solar power plants.

Michel Desjoyaux using MaxSea marine navigation software Today, we’re going to focus on the vast array of marine electronic software and hardware and all the means of communication, navigation and localization that are required on board by the Fédération  Française de Voile and is listed on the IMOCA’s Equipment Inspection for Offshore Racing:

  • VHF fixed
  • Masthead antenna for transmission/reception alternatively on AIS and VHF
  • Spare VHF Antenna
  • HD Camera x 3: 2 fixed (1 inside, 1 outside) and 1 waterproof mobile
  • Radio receiver
  • Hand-held waterproof VHF Radio with batteries charged and spares, next to the chart table
  • AIS transceiver, active and software to visualize AIS cables
  • FleetBroadband 250 or 500 (Inmarsat)
  • Iridium OpenPort
  • Other satellite equipment
  • Boat’s Standard C fitted with GPS card + software for polling and data reporting
  • Antenna free from any obstacle (60 cm) and at sufficient height (55 cm)
  • Radar target enhancer (RTE)
  • Impulse Radar: power >2 kW or Broadband radar
  • Radome at least 5m above the waterline
  • GPS
  • Echo sounder
  • Speedo/Speed indicator
  • 2 EPIRB – Distress Beacons coded and registered in the boat’s name
  • PLB in skipper’s name
  • Individual AIS localization beacon
  • Paper marine charts for the whole course: scale from 1/5 000 000 to 1/10 000 000
  • Paper charts or photocopies or screen prints from a marine navigation software or cartography software for landcalls in (click links to access MaxSea’s equivalent charts):

Skippers Vendée Globe 2012-2013The 2012 edition of the Vendée Globe, a French race who takes place every 4 years, started on November 10th from les Sables d’Olonne and will last for 3 months.

MaxSea International is one of the official suppliers of this sailing event. 

Alternative Routing for the Vendée Globe starting

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The 2012 Vendée Globe Race starts today and racers are already counting on their marine navigation software to find the best possible route according to weather forecasts and some other important factors.

We’ve launched our Routing Module in order to see what’s the best option at the start of the race and this is what we’ve obtained:

Route 1 - Vendée Globe Race

In the image, we can see that at 10am on the 12th, there will be poor wind, which is bad news for the 20 skippers…so we’ve decided to relaunch it using the Alternative Routing feature to see if there could be another more accurate route surrounding that area:

Alternative route feature launch - Vendée Globe Race

Route 2 - Vendée Globe Race

What we’ve got, is a route that goes further in the Ocean, avoiding the Spanish Coast as compared to the previous one:

Route 1 vs Route 2 - Vendée Globe Race

Here’s a reenactment of this second alternative route for the Vendée Globe racers:

We’ll see which one is taken by the skilled sailors…Good winds for all of them!

MaxSea official supplier of the 2012-2013 Vendée Globe

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MaxSea International is glad to be, once again, an official supplier of the Vendée Globe.

Vendee Globe 2012 official poster

Learn how to train like an Ocean Skipper Free GuideMaxSea will supply the legendary French ocean race with software in order to track the race participants. This task will be accomplished thanks to the performance of MaxSea Racing Module and other great features of MaxSea TimeZero ECS, one of MaxSea’s professional software, especially suited for racing boats.

On November 10th, 19 skippers will try to win the 7th edition of the round-the-world solo race and beat Michel Desjoyaux’s record of 84 days 3 hours and 9 minutes to reach the Sables d’Olonne finish line, set during the last edition of the race (2008-2009).

Vendee Globe 2012-2013 19 skippers

You can access a more detailed description on our software’s use by the race management team during the Vendée Globe on the event’s official website.

Thank you for trusting MaxSea!

Follow the race at: http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/

We will be following the race closely on our corporate Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/maxseainternational

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: July 2 to 6

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Remember that you can view these wonderful images every day on our wall at MaxSea International Facebook Page.

Do you want to know who’s the author? 

Have a great weekend!

Past weeks:

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: February 20th to 24th

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: February 27th to March 2nd

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: March 5th to 9th

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: March 12th to 16th

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: March 19th to 23rd

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: March 26th to 30th

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: April 2 to 5 and 10 to 13

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: April 16 to 20

The Transmanche Race told by Sam Davies

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Samantha Davies, the talented british yachtswoman based in France, raced the 220 nm cross-channel “Transmanche” last friday and arrived in a time of 13h30m, 15 minutes from the record set by Sébastien Josse (13h14m), a french skipper based in Brittany.

Sam Davies & Crew - Transmanche Race 2012

The courageous sailor, who’s sponsored by MaxSea and Furuno, didn’t beat the record but had the chance to run many weather routings with the help of her MaxSea TimeZero software. The weather wasn’t good to her Savéol boat, just as the routing predicted, so it was at least a great training for the races to come, particularly the Vendée Globe.

Sam Davies & Savéol - Transmanche Race 2012

The information offered by the Routing module was accurate, a crucial and sometimes painful point in sailboat racing.

Sam Davies close-up - Transmanche Race 2012

Here’s a little abstract of Sam’s post about the Transmanche race:

“Last Friday we raced the Transmanche on board Saveol. The course is simple: L’Aber Wrac’h – Plymouth breakwater – L’Aber Wrac’h. For the IMOCA 60s the race is a “time trial” format, and the record to beat is Seb Josse on board BT – 13h14minutes. I was joined by Erwan Lemeilleur and Roger Capitaine for the race.

 For the few days before the race I had been running weather routings that gave us a time of 13h28 at the best and so I knew that we were in for a good try at the record! The conditions were strong easterly winds – reaching both ways – so strong that the other boats in the race were sent on a different course to avoid the gale force winds. “

Read Samantha Davies’ post: The Transmanche

MaxSea International official sponsor of the Europa Warm’Up race

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MaxSea International is very happy to be an official sponsor of the Europa Warm’Up race, a 3.300 nautical miles adventure in 2 legs: Barcelona-Cascais/Cascais-La Rochelle.

Europa Warm'Up 2012 - Barcelona Port

The race, organised by the FNOB and IMOCA, will serve as the essential final major event before November’s start of the Vendée Globe race around the world, as they announce, it’s the « Last call before the Vendée Globe ».

Europa Warm'Up - MACIF Boat leaving Barcelona's port

It stars 7 IMOCA Open 60 boats (6 French, 1 Spanish): MACIF (who’s also sponsored by MaxSea), Virbac-Paprec, PRB, Banque Populaire, Groupe Bel, Cheminées Poujoulat, and ACCIONA 100% Ecopowered.

Go to our Facebook page to see cool pictures of every IMOCA 60 boat.

The race, who set sail from Barcelona on May 19th, is expected to reach La Rochelle early in June.

Europa Warm'Up - Virbac-Paprec Boat leaving Barcelona's Port

To follow the race visit Europa Warm’Up’s website, Facebook page or Twitter account.

MaxSea et Furuno partenaires de la navigatrice britannique Sam Davies

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MaxSea International et FURUNO FRANCE SAS sont heureux de renouveler leur partenariat avec la navigatrice, ingénieur, maman et fan des réseaux sociaux britannique, Samantha Davies.

Sam Davies - Savéol - MaxSea et Furuno partenaires 2

Pour la saison 2012-2013, Sam Davies bénéficie du résultat d’une alliance technologique, le nouveau PC radar, et devient ainsi une des premières sportives à l’utiliser à bord de son nouveau bateau Savéol, récemment mis à l’eau.

PC Radar MaxSea - Furuno

Cette solution révolutionnaire permet aux coureurs de bénéficier d’un équipement très performant tout en préservant les contraintes de poids et d’espace à bord (connexion directe du PC à l’antenne radar).

Sam Davies - Savéol - MaxSea et Furuno partenaires

La skipper, qui se prépare d’ores et déjà à la prochaine édition du Vendée Globe, a mis son nouveau bateau à l’eau la semaine dernière et a commencé à naviguer à Port-la-Forêt afin de tester Savéol dans des conditions réelles.

Sam Davies - Savéol - MaxSea et Furuno partenaires

Suivez le blog de Sam Davies sur http://www.samdavies.com/, sa page Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sam-Davies/112138698811863, Twitter https://twitter.com/samanthadavies and YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/saveol60

MaxSea and Furuno sponsor British sailor Sam Davies

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MaxSea International and FURUNO ELECTRIC CO. are glad to renew their sponsorship deal with British yachtswoman, mechanical engineer, mum and Social Media heavy user, Samantha Davies.

Sam Davies - Savéol Boat - Sponsored by MaxSea & Furuno 4

This 2012-2013 season, Sam Davies will benefit from a unique joint venture technology, the new PC radar, and be one of the first racers to sail with on her recently launched Savéol boat.

PC Radar MaxSea - Furuno EN

This revolutionary and lightweight solution allows racers to have highly-performing equipment without sacrificing speed and space by connecting her PC directly to the radar antenna.

Sam Davies - Savéol Boat - Sponsored by MaxSea & Furuno

The female skipper, who started training for the upcoming Vendée Globe, officially launched her new boat last week and started her sailing sessions off Port-la-Forêt in order to test Savéol in real conditions.

Sam Davies - Savéol Boat - Sponsored by MaxSea & Furuno 2

Follow Sam’s blog at http://www.samdavies.com/, her Facebook page, Twitter account and her YouTube channel.

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: March 12th to 16th

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Hello!

Friday already? Time goes by so fast…with the launch of our new professional version and the excitement with Sam Davies’ boat launch, we didn’t see it coming!

We want to end this great week with great pictures to enjoy and share:

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Remember that you can view these wonderful images every day on our wall at MaxSea International Facebook Page.

Do you want to know who’s the author? 

Have a great weekend!

Past weeks:

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: February 20th to 24th

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: February 27th to March 2nd

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: March 5th to 9th

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: February 27th to March 2nd

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This week in “Our picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon”, we had a great image of a lighthouse but mostly boat-related pictures. See for yourselves:

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Enjoy these wonderful images every day on our wall at MaxSea International Facebook Page.

Do you want to know who’s the author? 

Have a great weekend!

Past weeks:

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: February 20th to 24th