The Voller Energy crew onboard the Emerald yacht are celebrating ashore after travelling 2,700 nautical miles from Gran Canaria to St Lucia in a very respectable 20 days.  The crew finished in strong winds at 20:45 on Friday, December 14^th being presented with a basket of fruit and bottle of rum. The Emerald crew has achieved 11^th overall in Cruising Class G and are now preparing the yacht to be shipped back to the UK during 2008.

Looking back on the crew’s last week at sea there were consistently high winds and rough seas, the realization of finally seeing some land urged the crew onto their final finish.  Justine, the Emerald’s blogger has been busy keeping us updated on the crew’s activities.

Friday, December 7th

Another big night on the big seas. We all went to bed a little nervous last night as one of the ARC boats slightly ahead of us had emailed ARC race control that they were experiencing winds gusting up to 50 knots. Race control forwarded the warning to all participants and we were right on course for it.

George Carins, fuel cell specialist and part of the Voller Energy crew has had the important task of managing the fuel cell during the passage.  One of Voller Energy’s aims from the Atlantic passage is to analyse the data produced by the fuel cell.

George explains, ‘the fuel cell is constantly monitored by Voller Energy software, the data captured is downloaded onto a hard disc and then sent back to the shore team via files attached to emails’. The laboratory engineers then analyse the data which will be used in the final product development stage scheduled to take place in first quarter of 2008.

This week George has also become a superb fisherman catching some very impressive Dorados that have been a real treat for his crew mates.  The crew even managed to reel in a blue fin tuna later in the week.

Monday, December 10th

The landing of another large dorado fish just in time for supper. It was duly filleted by George, fried and served with new potatoes, peas and sweetcorn.

Unfortunately the crew have had to decrease their power usage this week, the Emerald fuel cell shut itself down in a controlled fashion after detecting a fault.  This safety mechanism is an integral feature of the fuel cell.

Tuesday, December 11^th

Over the last couple of weeks the fuel cell system has been running on demand in the background, quietly satisfying our power requirements. Unfortunately, the system has now detected a fault and shut itself down in a controlled fashion. There are a number of controls built into the system that will shut it down safely if it detects any problem with its operation. The immediate reason for the shutdown was not obvious. However, once we and the engineers at HQ have had a chance to fully analyse the fault codes and system data then we will have a fuller understanding of what actually happened. Although the problem is almost certainly minor and given that we are nearly there, we have decided that on the advice of mission control in Basingstoke not to re-start the system.

Whilst we the crew are a little sad at losing the system for the remainder of the trip and will have to be a little careful about extravagant use of power (sadly perhaps less movie viewing) we are very proud to have been a part of this exciting engineering trial. We are confident that as a company Voller have gained important engineering and use pattern data which will be invaluable to our work in developing the final commercial product scheduled for delivery early in 2008.

Food cravings have hit an all time high this week with dreams of fresh produce ashore.

Wednesday, December 12th

Mark is looking forward to his 32oz steak at the Big Chef restaurant, if he manages to get through it all he gets a certificate! James has worked out that all being well we should arrive around 5.45am on Saturday morning. A big full English breakfast all round on arrival I think, with real bacon instead of tinned ham!

The finish line is now only 50 miles away and the crew are celebrating a birthday onboard, everyone is delighted as the Emerald is 5 days ahead of schedule due to the strong winds that have followed them across the Atlantic.

Friday night was a delight for all the crew as they successfully sailed across the finish line at 20:45,

Friday, December 14th

Finally at 8.45pm on Friday night, in high winds and rain showers we made it all the way to the beautiful island of St Lucia. After crossing the line and being shown to our berth we were presented with a basket of fruit and a bottle of rum which was very welcome. Then it was a quick change and everyone out for some 'light refreshment'.

We've all enjoyed the wonderful experience of the ARC and are proud to have been involved in the exciting engineering trial of the Emerald Fuel Cell. On a personal note, thank you for reading about our exploits and I hope we've kept you entertained.

Stephen Voller, CEO Voller Energy congratulated the crew, ‘I am very delighted that the crew has worked so well together on their Atlantic crossing.  The ARC Rally was of particular importance to Voller Energy in running an engineering trial for our new Emerald fuel cell.  The fuel cell worked when requested for the majority of the passage providing valuable data that has been sent back to our Basingstoke laboratory for analysis.  The fuel cell shut itself down near to St Lucia demonstrating its controlled safety mechanism, the fault data from the shutdown will be analysed by the fuel cell specialists, it is certain to be a minor fault.  This information will then be used to produce the final version of the Emerald fuel cell, on track for commercial launch during 2008’.

Further details on analysis of the Emerald fuel cell data collated during the ARC Rally 2007 will be released shortly.

 

See Atlantic Rally for Cruisers images:

 

Last Updated ( Monday, 17 December 2007 )