Monthly Archives: July 2021

by Fredrik Rydin 18 Jul 00:17 PDT 3-5 July 2021

J/121 Jolene with owner Fredrik Rydin and co-skipper Johan Tuvstedt completed the Scandinavian offshore race Gotland Runt (round Gotland Race) as winners of the Shorthanded class.

Gotland Runt is the largest annual offshore race in Scandinavia gathering some 200-300 participants every year. The start is in the centre of Stockholm and the first 40.0nm of the 350.0nm race runs through the beautiful Stockholm archipelago before going offshore at Sandhamn for the remaining 310.0nm round the island of Gotland and back to Sandhamn.

The race was cancelled last year due to the pandemic situation and also this year it remained somewhat uncertain to what extent the race could be carried out. Thanks to some easements in the governmental restrictions as per 1 July it was possible to run the race with almost 200 participating boats provided that the starts where divided over two days.

Here is Fredrik's report:

"Our SRS Shorthanded Class with 26 boats started on Saturday together with the ORCi class, the Multihulls and the Classic yachts.

The weather forecasts predicted light north easterly to easterly winds, which meant a light beat out through the archipelago and then a reach out to Gotland. Downwind on the east side of Gotland and a light upwind/reach leg back back to Sandhamn and the Finish line. Summer time in Scandinavia means unreliable forecasts and very local weather, so with Gotland Runt you do not really know what weather scenario you will end up with in real life. This year, the reality turned out to be not so far from the predictions.

Race day morning the winds were north easterly 10-12 kts. The breeze was predicted to gradually come down during the afternoon in the archipelago and then pick up again offshore. After some discussions amongst the two of us, we decided to start with the J2. Changing headsails is a costly maneuver when racing doublehanded, especially since we have soft hanks on our jibs. Our plan was to change to J1 later in the day during a short leg with the free flying Code Zero.

Start was at 11:40 for our class. With Jolene being the second largest boat in the class on handicap we were expected to be in the front. The only boat rating higher than Jolene was the German X-46 JuxeBox. We got off to a good start and managed to defend our lead against JuxeBox out through the archipelago. After some three hours and numerous of tacks we did the planned change from J1 to J2. The breeze was then down to 2-4 kts at times and the additional power of the J1 was desperately needed.

At 7pm we were the first boat out of the archipelago part in our class and it later turned out that we also were in the lead on corrected time, which we were very happy about. The smaller, lighter boats often have an advantage in light and tight conditions in the archipelago, but our active sailing and focus on boat speed had paid off.

Out on open sea heading for the northern tip of Gotland we had TWA of approximately 120 deg. and 10-13 kts of breeze. For us that meant A3 spinnaker. Leaving the archipelago behind we could now also get some well-needed rest.

Offshore doublehanded sailing is very much solo sailing with two people. Maneuvers, tactical decisions, sail changes are done together, of course. But, in between that we try to get as much rest as possible, with one person driving the boat while the other is taking a nap. One hour turns work well for us.

We had to make a couple of sail changes during the night between A3, A2 and Jib Zero. We were at the reporting point at the north end of Gotland around 6:00 AM in the morning on Sunday. Still in the lead. It is always a tactical challenge to decide whether to stay close to shore east side of Gotland or to go further out in the sea. From our experience, in the rather light conditions that we were facing now one is more likely to park without any wind at all close to land so we decided to keep some distance. It was a nice comfortable downwind leg under A2 and a staysail all the way down to Hoburgen, which is the very south point of Gotland.

We kept a close eye on the AIS and the boats going closer to shore and it seemed that the breeze was somewhat lighter in there so our decision to stay a bit out was probably the right one. We made a couple of gybes on our way down to Hoburgen and rounded the mark as first boat in our class at 6:30 PM on Sunday. We had a comfortable lead over JuxeBox (the X-46) and we had also managed to keep our closest competitors, the SunFast 3600 Groovie, and Farr38 Pandion, at sufficient distance to maintain our lead also on corrected time.

Half of the race distance was now behind us, but still the most difficult part ahead. The homestretch up west side of Gotland, rounding a mark just outside Visby and then back to Sandhamn and the Finish line promised challenging conditions with almost no wind at all during the night outside of Visby. This is a very familiar situation for everyone who have sailed Gotland Runt before. And, it turned out to be just as frustrating as we had feared. The weather routing suggested that we stayed as close to land as possible all the way up to Visby.

We started our way up to Visby with TWA 60 and 12-13 kts of breeze. Fantastic sailing. Code-zero, full water-ballast tanks and speed around 9 kts. We could see on the AIS that the boats ahead were going really close to land. Skirting very very closely the 3.0m depth curve. We followed suit. The wind started to weaken during the evening and with some 20.0nm left to Visby we were down to 1-2 kts of breeze. We managed to avoid parking completely, but it was frustratingly slow at times. Slowly the wind started to build again after midnight and we rounded Visby mark at 3:50am Monday morning.

The leg from from Visby to Almagrundet Lighthouse was a 100.0nm reach in TWA 95 to 115 deg. with wind speed in the range of 11-15 kts. Again we had our Code Zero up and full water ballast for the entire leg and it was a drag race with focus on keeping the polar targets above 100% all the way. Once we had the Code Zero up and in good order, we could take turns, and get a couple of hours well-deserved sleep.

We crossed the finish line late afternoon on Monday and took the line honors in our class. We had also managed to maintain our lead through out the entire race on corrected time. Fantastic achievement and a very happy crew!"

See original here:

J/121 Jolene's report on winning the shorthanded class in the Gotland Runt Race - Sail World

One of the UKs most ambitious robotics projects has proven the concept for robotic teams repairing offshore wind farms. The project paves the way for human-robot teams at wind farms within 10 years and wind farms designed for robotic maintenance by 2050 a scenario that will be vital to the UK achieving its Net Zero targets.

The 4 million MIMRee project, which was funded by Innovate UK, has concluded this month and reported on its drive to develop an autonomous robotic team for inspecting and repairing offshore wind farms. Two years since starting the project, the MIMRee team, which includes academics from the University of Bristols Flight Laboratory in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, say they have successfully proven and demonstrated the core technologies at the heart of the concept.

Under the MIMRee scenario, a Thales autonomous mothership detects defects in wind farm blades using an onboard inspection system that can scan the structure of wind farms blades while they are still turning, sometimes at speeds of 200mph at their tips. The mothership then signals the blades to stop and launches a specially adapted drone that can transport a six-legged blade crawler onto them to effect repair.

The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, which has led the project, believes that within 10 years this scenario will be feasible at offshore wind farms with robots working semi-autonomously (that is, under the remote supervision of humans and only requiring technicians for intervention offshore when essential).

By 2050, such a system could be capable of planning its own missions and conducting them autonomously at wind farms of the future that are built for repair by resident robots. ORE Catapult estimates that this move will shift workers from hazardous environments at sea to onshore control room roles and reduce the cost of energy by 10% (including a 27% reduction in operating expenses).

This is not just a way for the sector to reduce costs, it is essential if the offshore wind industry is to achieve the scale of expansion needed for Net Zero, said Ben George, who leads ORE Catapults Operations and Maintenance Centre of Excellence (OMCE).

Today, conditions at sea make human-only missions subject to safety risks, delays, cancellations and extensive turbine downtime. This will not be a feasible way of running the super-sized offshore power stations of tomorrow that lie in deep waters hundreds of miles from shore.

The inspiration for the project was drawn from space exploration, the epitome of an extreme environment. Professor Sara Bernardini, who previously worked on mission planning for space mission operations, including the NASAs Mars Exploration Rovers programme, developed the AI system that controls how the MIMRee robots work together and communicate with humans.

Space provides a good example of humans working with robots. The current Mars exploration programme uses a team of robots, from helicopters to rovers, that can withstand extreme conditions. Astronauts are deployed selectively, where human ingenuity is most needed and risk to life is lowest. Likewise, future offshore work will be about humans being in the control room, developing and managing robotics and learning the skills required to work in teams with them, comments Professor Bernardini.

Drone technologies were adapted to take-off and land on the autonomous vessel when it is moving at high speed while it is carrying the blade crawler. This phase of the work was led by the University of Bristol, University of Manchester and Perceptual Robotics.

Professor of Aerial Robotics at the University of Bristol, Tom Richardson, said: The record breaking performance of renewables in the UK energy sector is a brilliant national success. MIMRee brought together industry and academia to tackling the key robotic challenges underlying the future support of this technology.

Another crucial technological breakthrough was developing a robots ability to repair blades. The BladeBUG robot was lent to the project by BladeBUG Ltd, a London start-up that has previously achieved the worlds first robotic blade walk at a working offshore wind turbine.

Wootzano Ltd fitted their patented electronic skin, used in harsh environments such as nuclear decommissioning and applied it to the feet of the crawler robot. The Wootzkin allows robots to navigate around slippery wind turbine blades monitoring for slips and avoiding falls whilst carrying out repairs.

The Royal College of Arts Robotic Laboratory developed the repair module that is capable of cleaning and recoating damaged blades.

Ben George concludes: This project has proven that such a system is possible and can handle the extreme environments at sea. We have tested each of its components in real-world settings, including at our offshore demonstration turbine off the coast of Scotland. Weve also developed a hardware-in-the-loop simulation system that allows individual robots to connect to a simulated environment so we can fine-tune their team behaviour before they go into field. It is highly significant that these technologies are being developed and demonstrated first in the UK this puts us in pole position for a fast-growing global export market.

Dr Paul Gosling, Chief Technical Officer for Thales in the UK, said: Increasingly we are seeing the technologies around robotics, autonomy sensing and AI providing solutions enabling activities involving harsh environments to be undertaken using unmanned systems. The MIMRee work is a perfect example of a UK team of experts using this evolving technology to benefit society and the environment in the future. I am delighted Thales was able to contribute its expertise in the form of the autonomous mothership and camera sensing technology to make this activity a success.

The Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Bristol

The Department of Aerospace Engineering was established following an endowment from the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1946. The Department benefits from the concentration of aerospace industry in the south-west of England and a key feature of the Department's research is its close links with the industry, as well as Government departments and research establishments. The Department also plays a significant role in the UK National Composites Centre, located on the outskirts of Bristol.

Industrial links include partnerships with Airbus, Vestas, Rolls-Royce plc and Agusta Westland Helicopters, in which the Department acts as the lead department for the University as a whole. The Department also has close working relationships with BAE Systems, Defence Science Technology Laboratory (DSTL), QinetiQ, Embraer and many smaller organisations both within and outside of aerospace.

These relationships have been an important element in the success of the Department obtaining support for its research, nearly all of which has some form of industrial linkage. The Department also has strong international links, with a presence in many past and current EU research programmes over the years, which has given us joint research programmes with numerous Universities, research organisations and companies across Europe and the World.

Bristol is ranked top for Aerospace Engineering in the Guardian University Guide 2021

More here:

July: MIMRee Project | News and features - University of Bristol

SOCAR and Technip Energies have signed a cooperation agreement which, among other things, will see the two companies working on a joint pilot project for powering upstream operations in Azerbaijans sector of the Caspian Sea with electricity produced by a floating wind turbine.

If the project moves forward, it would represent the first offshore wind turbine installed in Azerbaijan.

Under the cooperation agreement, SOCAR and Technip Energies will jointly study sustainability measures in the offshore upstream activities, including CO2 emission reduction, improvement of power efficiency and associated optimisation in the total cost of ownership.

In terms of the pilot project, some of the main objectives are to determine the prospects for supplying renewable energy to Azerbaijans upstream sector which is currently powered by natural gas and reducing natural gas consumption and increasing gas exports.

Rovnag Abdullayev, SOCARs president said energy efficiency was an important part of the companys strategic plans and that its goals are to reduce operating costs, increase energy efficiency and ensure the sustainability of the companys operations.

According to Marco Villa, Chief Operating Officer of Technip Energies, the new collaboration is in line with Technip Energies energy transition ambitions, as well.

Azerbaijan started getting onto the offshore wind map back in April, when the countrys Ministry of Energy signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Finance Corporation (IFC)to cooperate on offshore wind development.

The aim of the cooperation is to assess the potential of offshore wind in the country and the development of a roadmap, and later, tender management related to relevant projects, the definition of partnerships with the private sector, and the implementation of auxiliary investments.

The work stipulated by the MoU will be implemented within the IFC Offshore Wind Development Program, funded by the World Banks Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP).

Preliminary analysis provided by ESMAP states that the technical potential of offshore wind energy in Azerbaijan is estimated at a total of 157 GW 35 GW for fixed-bottom projects and 122 GW for floating wind.

Read more:

Floating Wind Project Unveiled in Azerbaijan - Offshore WIND