“ Your uncle Invented the Camera Phone ! ? ” is what I say before a friend introduced me to Philippe Kahn . Back in 1997 , Kahn hacked together a television camera phone to easily beam photos of his new-sprung girl to mob and friends . That piece of traditional knowledge is widget story 101 . What many people do n’t take in is that Philippe is also a fanatical sailor . We ’re not talk cushy megayachts : Kahn plight in top level competitive racing , in 2003 beat Roy Disney to win the Transpac airstream from Long Beach to Hawaii . As we speak , he ’s on the same journeying in a smaller , lissome , double - handed ( two man ) on the Team Pegasus Open 50 , hit a bid for the amphetamine record . We just e-mail him … and mid race , he write back .
It ’s his 10th crossing , but plainly , the weather is knavish than on his other trips , with two tropicals violent storm forming in the area . Despite all that , he resolve our questions , from the centre of the big blue Pacific Ocean , about the boat , and how exactly you persist reasonable and connected in the overt sea .
How do you stick link out in the ocean ?
It ’s hard to typewrite … Small sauceboat , expectant movement , big fingerbreadth … So excuse the typos etc … There are several satellite communication theory systems ; weight and power consumption matter a spate . The practical 1 for a project like this are the Iridium internet and the Inmarsat Fleet-33 system . The bandwidth is limited , to say the least : 2400 baud for Iridium , 9600 baud for F-33s , but Iridium is far more reliable and completely global . The challenge is also that these systems lose their connections . And of course , with that sort of response time , all stock email and download systems give out and get into endless grommet . Latency just kills them as they endeavor to eternally re-start functioning that never complete . We use system that clean - up where they started after a connection is dropped to relieve those short advent . Yes , those scheme are generally ‘ line of sight ‘ and as long as there is not a massive storm it will work well , similar to Direct - TV . Ir and Inmarsat are the main makers . They are not really water insubordinate , but pretty tough . We protect it carefully . Everything is supererogatory on the boat except the F-33 that is a luxury that we enjoy once in a while when it works .
Tell me about the Boat .
The boat is all radical luminance made out of the strongest and lightest pre - preg carbon paper fibre , the same methodologies of fabrication as the Boeing Dreamliner . The pocket-size cabin - pod that you may see on the draught has a ceiling - top made out of kevlar so that it is not a Faraday John Cage . As the rest of the boat is made of carbon copy and there are many sensitive parts , like high preciseness stabilized range , run networks for sharing info between sensors and devices is tricky . We end - up using Cat 5 wiring , ethernet - manner . And that is what connects the sat telephone set to the laptops and how I am share these emails with you . This is like a small starship . In fact , that is what people say when they see the boat . It ’s made for two guys who want to exercise severely and take some endangerment to compete with full crewed yachts with tens of professionals sail . So it is light and plan to make everything achievable by two .
How are you turn on you pitch ? What variety of electric automobile are on the sauceboat ? Does the exercising weight pain your public presentation ?
The sauceboat has high performance batteries that get recharged by start the main locomotive engine as a generator . We execute the engine a couple of hours a day to get enough charge . free weight is the foe in these variety of boats . So we keep everything to the bare lower limit .
What would the departure be without all the electric ?
The Sextant is a exceedingly ready to hand Gizmo . Yes , you could get a $ 99.95 GPS and remember that you know where you are , but you would n’t know about the star , the planets , the moon and the Dominicus as you do if you are skilful at find your position anywhere in the humans with a sextant . And that is really where we are , in the midst of the stars and the planets . That ’s where we last …
I combine my Tamaya sextant with their celestial figurer so that I do n’t need to carry all the site diminution tables . I narrate you , at a party with smart hip multitude , you get more attending with a sextant than you dumbfound care with an iPhone a calendar month ago . Kid love it . Sophie , our 10 yr erstwhile , is always eager to go and take a planet or a mavin site . It ’s really fascinating to her .
I have a Suunto spotter with a barometer , my sextant and always with us a hand bearing compass . If all fails , that will work . It ’s important to sleep with how to use those tools and like them .
How are you and atomic number 27 - sailor Richard Clarke taking shifts ?
We really are flexible . Right now , I ’m on watch , cut back , checking , navigating , taking attention of thing , writing email … I ’m lease Richard sleep as long as he ask to because conditions are passably static . When things get hirsute , none of us gets any eternal sleep . It ’s an example in slumber deprivation .
[ From the web log : “ by the agency , we get both less than 4 hr of eternal rest every 24 hours ” ]
The blog is interesting to take , come from someone interested in gear ( and sailing ) , but more than that , for eccentric who want to get away from their desks without getting off from their toy . ( Gadgets & Ocean = A courteous life . ) At some point during the race , Kahn went further in the south than anyone else in the race to see if he could take reward of the winds from some a brace of tropic storm . ( I imagine . ) Over Nox , the wind buy the farm completely , becalming the sauceboat , while other fourth dimension , there was so much turbulence that lot of pee was wash washing up on pack of cards . And a day ago , all the electronics on the boat go haywire and they had to supplant them all with a pair of laptop . The web log talks a muckle about the gear Richard and Philippe are using , switch up their playlists on their iPods and iPhones . ( I recall that ’s an iPhone first , being in a race . )
When Philippe gets back , I ’m going to have to drill him about his current labor , in stealth right now , over atFullpower . No one knows what it is , yet , but I ’ll let you know as presently as I find out . [ Transpac 2007 Open 50 Double Handed Record Attempt ]
Disclaimer : Philippe is the uncle of a friend of mine , and I ’ve break apart on the fellowship sofa a few times in Tahoe .
Philippe Kahn founded Borland , invented the Camphone , anddecodes human motion . He ’s also a fellow outdoorsman , split timeskiing Tahoeandsailing in Santa Cruz . He ’ll divvy up his Transpac 2009 soaring race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50 . He and Richard Clarke set the race book for a duple handed team in 2008 with a time of7 Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , 15 hours , 17 minutes and 50 instant , besting all boat in overall time for that year .
[ Previous Pegasus Sailing spot on Gizmodo , Pegasus ]
https://gizmodo.com/fullpowers-motion-sensing-concept-knows-what-youre-doin-5271408
CameraphoneFullpowerPhilippe KahnSailBoatSailing
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