DON’T CALL, I’M SAILING

While we might not always want to be contactable when enjoying time away from the stresses of everyday life, with ever-improving technologies it is becoming harder to claim a lack of signal when at sea.

In last month’s All at Sea, these Diary pages looked at the amazing odyssey of Terry Jones, who was setting out, not just sail around the world, but to do this in such a manner that would allow him to stop at all the interesting places that the Vendée Globe and Volvo racers never reach.

When All at Sea interviewed Terry ahead of his departure, he was asked about how he would be keeping in touch with those back home, but his whole approach to his adventure was deliberately low key. It was not simply a case of Terry being ‘low tech’, but a lot of what he wanted to do was to escape from being further ensnared by the ever-present connection that we now have with the world, courtesy of modern communications.

In a further connection with recent Diary entries, just two months earlier we featured the life and developments of Samuel Morse whose code, when used with the emerging technology of ‘wireless telegraphy’, fi nally connected boats to other boats – and more importantly, back to the land, with the capability of reaching out across the wide distances of the ocean.

Morse key transmissions would in time be replaced but Radio Telephony, which gave us the opportunity to speak, and now few boats go afl oat without the basics of a VHF handset. If that is not enough, for most coastal sailors, your everyday mobile phone will still be getting a signal, which can make getting away from it all even harder.

Web Reliant However, the modern world in which we live is now dependent on being connected to the World Wide Web, and though this has been possible now for a number of years, all too often connectivity was more akin to the early days of dial up, with snail like transmission speeds that were a saving grace for those who thought that by being afl oat you could completely escape from work.

Yet today, with so much of life being conducted online, being able to access the internet, at any time, from any place, brings with it so many more positives than negatives. Up-to-date weather at the press of a key, the revised ‘traffi c light’ status of any potential destinations (something we did not used to have to worry about), technical ‘how to do’ support for everything from a failed water maker to DIY health care, all these are a small price to pay for the possibility that the ‘offi ce’ might still try to reach you.

Satellite Comms In truth, having global connectivity is nothing new, and for many years now larger luxury yachts have sported the large white domes that protect the sensitive aerials that link the boat up to a satellite communications system. The world leader in proving these services is Inmarsat, who own and operate the most powerful and diverse network of satellites that support global connectivity. Inmarsat itself has an interesting history, as it was formed back in 1979 to fulfi l a need that had been identifi ed by the International Maritime Organisation for a specifi c satellite platform for the marine industry.

However, such was the pace of development in the technologies on offer and the demand for new services, that some nations were fi nding it diffi cult to meet the necessary fi nancial commitments.

The number of domes on yachts (not even super yachts) has increased, and though this tells us this boat is well connected, it does little for its aesthetics. Image: David Henshall

At $300m and with an expected service life of 15 years, Inmarsat are well placed to remain the fi rst choice supplier for sat-comm services, but with other networks developing their own platforms, we may soon be spoilt for choice. Image: Inmarsat

What used to be rocket science is now a simple ‘plug and play’ solution that can be adapted to almost any size of craft. Image: Inmarsat The best solution was to ‘spin-off’ Inmarsat as a commercial concern. From its London Headquarters, Inmarsat was now free to bring the latest satellite technologies, not just to commercial marine traffi c and the super yachts, but increasingly to mid-range yachts.

Satellite Network This connectivity comes courtesy of a network of 14 satellites, positioned in what is called a ‘geo-stationary’ orbit, holding in a fi xed position more than 35,000km above the sea level. The signal passes from the boat to the satellite over a number of digital highways or ‘bands’, before being relayed back to a huge dish antenna at one of the many Inmarsat earth stations, which all have their own gateway connections to the internet. The information requested then takes the return journey, from the earth station to the satellite, before being beamed back to the receiver on the boat.

Such is the demand on Inmarsat to not just maintain but to enhance their network that between now and 2024 a further seven satellites will be launched, with these feeding not just the marine trade but the airline industry as well, with more than 17,000 aircraft connected in real time (it was via contact with the Inmarsat network that investigators were able to get some idea of the route taken by the missing MH-370 airliner that vanished on route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing).

Off shore Racing The vast majority of users, though, are at sea, with more than 160,000 vessels using the Inmarsat platform, from the regular commercial traffi c to the round the world racers, who can now feed real time video of their progress. This enhanced connectivity has revolutionised how offshore racing is projected to the media and hence out to the global watching public.

What before had been exciting coverage of the start, then a near blackout until the fi nish, is now an exciting sport that is easily followed, to the point that it becomes almost compulsive viewing. When Kevin Escoffi er’s PRB yacht broke up and sank during the Vendée Globe, we were able to watch the incredible boat handling skills of Jean Le Cam, as he rescued Kevin from the liferaft, despite the action taking place some 1,400km southwest of the Cape of Good Hope.

Leisure Market As the capability to offer ever more accessible services has grown, so has the recognition that if satellite communications were to be made attractive to the leisure sailing market, the whole package would have to be prepared in such a way that it became a ‘turnkey’ solution, where you literally ‘plugged in’, switched on and were immediately in contact with the outside world.

The domes covering the antennas have reduced in size so as to not interfere with the sailing performance of a yacht and some clever packaging has seen Inmarsat happy to differentiate between those who are truly heading offshore on ocean crossings and those who, whilst blue water sailing, will remain within a tighter continental range.

The technology that we have at home has been harnessed too, so that the satellite receiver also acts as a Wi-Fi hub that you can access with your laptop or smartphone from anywhere on board the boat.

It is hard to overstate the step change that services like Inmarsat’s Fleet One will bring to the leisure yachting market. For starters it may well change the way we view emergencies, as distress and medical calls are routed across the platform free of charge.

Stop The Delay However, the bigger changes to communication when out afl oat are being driven by the way we look to connect with social media today. Until now, Inmarsat have had almost a clear run at providing this sort of service, but their offer does come with one small issue, as their use of high orbit geostationary satellites means that there is a small but unavoidable delay as the signal bounces back and forth between earth and space.

Launched into the frame now are both Elon Musk’s Starlink network and the UK backed One Web system (which featured in the Diary entry on GPS earlier this year), both of which will rely on a large number of satellites in what is termed a ‘low earth’ orbit, only 450km above the earth, with the shorter distance effectively solving the delay issues.

These platforms are already being seen as the solution to the problem of providing high quality broadband to areas that are diffi cult to reach on land, so it will surely not be long before a marinised version becomes available to the yachting community. Once that happens, in addition to making your family and friends green with envy (rather than seasickness) as you share pictures and ‘wish you were here’ messages from wonderful destinations and new horizons, you will also be able to indulge in online gaming whilst afl oat.

Just do not answer the phone when work All images: Andrew Wisemandiscover they can still reach you….