1999
2004
Opposite: having sailed 15,000nm and spending 196 days at sea Saildrone 1020 approaches New Zealand’s South Island to complete a non-stop lap of Antarctica. Aside from bouncing off a few bergs along the way SD1020’s sensors revealed that the Southern Ocean becomes a big source
2006 2008
of atmospheric CO2 when winter storms disturb sedimentary fossil deposits. Note the asymmetric fixed ‘square rig’. Above: precedent… a replica of Victoria – the first manned object to complete a circumnavigation in 1522. Having begun the Saildrone project using a monohull configuration Jenkins pursued a lengthy flirtation (above) with a keeled-trimaran platform. Though potentially faster it proved slower to self-right after inversion and the programme reverted to today’s refined monohulls. A 20-year journey (left) started with 10 years spent breaking the landsailing record (his record of 126.1mph still stands), then finding a home for the same rig technology with Saildrone. Based in Alameda, Saildrone Inc now employs 50 coders alone and is backed with $100million of Silicon Valley venture capital… a long way from breaking speed records while living in the back of a van
2009 2012
averaging 3-4kt, meaning there is no way to escape at least a part of the winter in the Southern Ocean. Do we try to speed it up and inevitably make it more fragile, or double down on strength and robustness? Three years later, in 2018, we had sig-
nificantly toughened the design and were happy with the increased storm tolerance. Dipping our toe in Southern Ocean
one of those vehicles, SD127, into the Pacific. This vehicle sailed out under the Golden Gate Bridge for ‘long-duration testing’ – and, although we never admitted it, the objective was to be the first unmanned vehicle to circumnavigate the globe, our first real attempt in what would become a long road… SD127 did great for the first few months.
It reached the Equator in less than 100 days and Cape Horn in just under five months,
but then reality dawned. While these vehicles had done significant testing in the Northern Hemisphere summer, the South- ern Ocean winter was an entirely different animal. Winds of 60kt+ and huge breaking waves made short work of SD127, rolling the vehicle and breaking the wing. We lost contact shortly after rounding Cape Horn. While yacht races choose the summer
months to dip into the Southern Ocean, the Saildrone is not nearly as fast, only
waters once more, we deployed a vehicle out of Hobart, Tasmania. It sailed 500nm south of Hobart, to sample the circum - polar current, but soon met the same unforgiving conditions of huge winds and breaking waves, breaking the wing again, cutting the mission short. This time we did not lose contact. We headed for repairs in New Zealand
and recovered the vehicle in Bluff on the South Island. There was a recurring theme in terms of conditions: winds in excess of 55kt and waves of more than 10m. In these conditions waves start to break,
SEAHORSE 39
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