We’re supporting the Deep Blue Crew – here’s why you should too
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Since we started out almost 30 years ago, we’ve supported a number of local and international causes, all in the name of sustainability.
3000 miles from La Gomera to Antigua
We’re proud to support the Deep Blue Crew in the World’s Toughest Row, which will see the team of four row an incredible 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.
The team will be rowing for 12 hours each day, swapping every two hours between rowing and resting, with the total distance equivalent to travelling the length of Great Britain (from Land’s End, Cornwall and John o’ Groats, Scotland) almost four times.
Powered by the sun
Solar panels on rooftops are relatively common nowadays, but have you ever thought about how small boats can keep all of their navigation, communication and water systems powered up?
The Deep Blue Crew’s boat has solar panels on both the stern and the bow, providing all of the energy the team will need whilst at sea.
How do solar panels work?
Whatever the weather, solar energy is generated when photons from the sun create a flow of electricity in the solar panel, which is why you’ll sometimes see them referred to as photovoltaic panels. Solar panels essentially convert sunlight into Direct Current (DC) electricity, which you can then use to power your home, business or – in this case – boat.
The technology has come on in leaps and bounds – the newest panels generate 500 watts compared to around half that 10 years ago.
A word from Jack Ogden, Deep Blue Crew:
Solar panels are our lifeline when out on the ocean. They power every element of our small yet complex boat, from our communication and navigation equipment to our 'watermaker' which takes in sea water and creates fresh drinking water through reverse osmosis. It even charges our phones so we can get through our night shifts on the oars by listening to cheesy 80 disco music. The panels are wired through an MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking), which then charges two super lightweight lithium batteries (weight saving is essential when the only means of propulsion is pulling on the oars) located deep in the hull.
These panels will need to be cleaned daily as salt crystals accumulate, significantly impacting their efficiency. We will aim to have the batteries near fully charged going into each night as we will have several elements draining power throughout the night, including navigation (anti-collision) lights and our AIS (Automatic Identification System) that aids in preventing collisions at night. As you can imagine, it’s not going to be bright sunshine all the way across, we will therefore need to be very careful with how we use our power during cloudy/stormy days – if they drop below a certain voltage, they can turn off and all of our lifesaving equipment comes to a grinding halt.
My role on the boat is the Technical Lead, which means that anything that breaks is my responsibility to fix. There is an awful lot to go wrong, and small issues can quickly become life threatening if you are unable to find the problem and come up with a solution. We have had to learn a lot of new skills over the past year in order to ensure we can get across safely, including fixing all of the electrical components on the boat.
In summary, a voyage of this kind would not be possible without solar – unless of course we had a sail, which would be lovely but against race regulations.
If you’d like to track us across and see how we are getting on in the race, then download the YB races app or visit the YB Race Tracking website and select World's Toughest Row Atlantic 2024 - it updates every four hours.
Donate today to support the Deep Blue Crew and Tusk, My Name’5 Doddie and the Clocktower Foundation.
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