UFO detection

Our Review
When we look for some of the best boating equipment and new techniques, we look at the edges of the sport. The single-handed round the world racers are one such example. They lead in Navigation software and weather routing, they lead in sail handling, they lead in communications and energy consumption and generation.

Open 60 skipper Marc Guillemot has benefited from French defence giant Safrans sponsorship plus the new technology they have brought to his boat. One that we are looking at here is the UFO detection device, (unidentified floating object). Whether you are in the southern ocean and have to worry about icebergs or whether you are in warmer climates and have to worry about fallen overboard containers, the UFO could help you detect these objects before its too late.

The UFO detects temperature differences between a floating object (greater than 2sq M) and the water. This is new technology so it is not perfected, however the issue of collisions in the ocean is a big one and maybe we have some light at the end of the tunnel re safety.

” Safran Sixty boat web site ” “

At sea, the risk of collision with an iceberg, a growler or a “UFO” is a perpetual worry for the lone sailor. To prevent these dangerous encounters, engineers from the Research & Technology department of Sagem have developed a system capable of detecting objects smaller than the ones picked up by conventional radar. The system, which is derived directly from products made for the security market (videosurveillance cameras), also calls on technologies developed for defense applications, for example the missile tracking systems in service on naval vessels.

How does it work?

An infrared micro-camera weighing a few tens of grams is fitted near the top of Safran’s mast. Designed to operate in extreme conditions, it is protected by a small porthole with integral deicing for the freezing temperatures of the Southern Ocean. This camera is able to detect any object at least 2 meters square whose temperature differs from that of the water. Tiny gyroscopes track movements of the boat and the camera to help stabilize the images. A computer analyzes the images and sends them to the skipper via a video display in the cabin, the system also being equipped with visual and aural alarms. Usable both day and night, the apparatus can detect a UFO up to 800 meters ahead of the boat, at an angle of 10 degrees to either side of its directional axis.

According to Marc Bousquet, the project’s leader in the Research & Technology department of Sagem, the detector should “give the skipper a minimum of thirty seconds to react to any obstacle.”

A shared technology

Fitted in a trial version for the English Transat, the full system was operational in time for the Vendée Globe. Once the technology has been completely proven, the detector could be offered to other ocean racing competitors (60-foot monohull, record-attempt trimaran, etc.). With this miniature system the Safran group, which already supplies infrared surveillance systems for security purposes in merchant vessels (for help in dealing with piracy), could well extend its market to include luxury yachts.

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