2.000 miles on the sea: Yacht tracking on FleetMon
in Community, Sponsoring by FleetMon HQFleetMon’s fellow member Rob was on a 2.000 miles trip to transfer the sailing vessel Marathon from Barcelona to Falmouth. He already shared some photos and information with FleetMon, and now, nearly arriving the destination of his journey has provided us with his personal experience report:
“When I was asked if I would like to join the delivery crew on Marathon I considered it to be a trip of a lifetime. It has certainly been that and also fun, exhilarating and hard work.
Being an active member and AIS contributor of FleetMon I saw the trip an opportunity to showcase the Fleetmon Satellite Tracking System.
The heart of the system is a small grey, highly waterproof box. On arrival in Barcelona it was simply a case of placing it anywhere on the vessel. I chose to place it on top of the instrument housing directly below a hatch and merely secured it with double sided tape.It was a dream to use the tracking system – once switched on and deposited on the vessel, it required no further intervention and even reported back the state of charge of its replaceable batteries.
A brief word about the Marathon: Although based on the hull mould for a44ft Feeling, Marathon was custom built in 1990 for the original owner to take part in a single handed round the world race and is of a double thickness fibreglass construction, in this guise it had no engine but was fitted with a generator where the engine now resides; all the sail handling gear on this cutter rigged yacht is set up for easy use with no less than 10 winches (5 either side) within the cockpit and a further 3 on the mast. With roller furling gear on the jib and foresail and up to four reefs possible in the mainsail it is easy to trim the yacht to suit the weather conditions without having to change sails – a system that came into its own in the severe storm we encountered outside La Coruña. Due to the unfavourable wind and weather conditions forecast we had to interrupt our delivery there and temporarily returned home.
My personal high point was climbing the mast to free off some trapped rigging on day 2, one of the trip’s high points were dolphins shadowing the boat off Portugal. A near miss with a large commercial that turned towards us was may be one of the most scary moments.
The trip has been made so much more pleasurable by my fellow crew members but I must highlight our skipper, Dick Smith, senior lecturer and vice principal of the Navigation School at the Royal Temple Yacht Club and highly experienced sailor without whose help and guidance the trip could have been quite daunting!
The Fleetmon Satellite Tracking service enabled family, friends and the registered owner to keep a track of our movements throughout the trip. Some crew members on phoning their family during a stopover to tell them where they were received the reply `I know, you have already been there a day, I am watching you on Fleetmon!´.
The trip has opened my eyes to the possibilities of a satellite tracking for not only large companies but also individuals, wishing to monitor their valuable but movable asset, fleet owners – both commercial and pleasure, offshore race organisers, delivery crews, etc.The detailed data including speed profiles and weather and sea state information and forecast, available both in real time and as an historical downloadable file may be used for live position monitoring, post trip analysis, route planning and performance analysis.”
We are happy you enjoyed your adventure and say thanks for sharing your experiences with us, Rob!
