Around the World of Sailing

30 January 2002

This weeks features:

Finish Line

Knut Frostad Skipper of Djuice Dragon: "We are heading
back into my favourite part of the race - the Southern
Ocean. It's not only my personal favourite but the boat's
favourite as well and I know we're in for better things.
I love the cold, the dark, the threat of icebergs and
being able to push the boat to its limits where every
piece of equipment is screaming to its furthest and
you're at your nerve's end every second of the day."

Water Level Update

Weekly Water Level Update
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/atwos/2001/oc/1024/frw.htm

Below you'll find water level info that pertains
to Lake Michigan and Huron.
For information on other lakes see:
http://huron.lre.usace.army.mil/levels/weekly.html

Reference Point
Difference from Chart Datum -2
Difference from last month -3
Difference from last year +9
Difference from long term average for January -15
Difference from Record High -47
Difference from Record Low +15
Forecast for 25 February 2002 -1

Rowing Reporter

The Rowing Reporter is a weekly column of commentary and
observations by Ike Stephenson, Marine Informationist. It
concentrates on the home waters of Around the World of
Sailing, Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake.
****************
New Occasional Long Format
This is the first of an occasional addition of
the Rowing Reporter that will be a single topic and a
little longer in format. Please send comments on this
to ike@torresen.com
************************
Transparency and back story Statement:

This article had 2 origins. One is in the January/February
issue of Ocean Navigator, located online at
http://www.oceannavigator.com/public/action/ArticleAccess?doc=cvfddgcv.

The other is in my father's farsighted decision to purchase
an Uffa Fox book(autographed no less!) when his son was just
a toddler. Having read Uffa Fox's story I was able to combine
the old and new of airborne lifeboats for this story.
Disclosure: Torresen Marine is a Yanmar dealer.

References Consulted
Uffa Fox: A Personal Biography, More Joys of Living,
See also http://www.uffafox.com, http://www.ise.bc.ca

------------------------------------

Airborne Lifeboats Reborn
Note: Online version contains a photo and drawing.

The Canadian Defense Department and the Search and Rescue
Secretariat are working on developing a lifeboat can be
dropped from the air. The boat is based on a rigid
inflatable boat. Power is via Yanmar diesel. Perhaps
most uniquely the boat can be guided to people in the
water via remote control using GPS and video.

An interesting but not original idea. Trained as a
historian I've come to believe that there are few
original ideas. People who make advances are good
at synthesizing what exists and morphing them into
what are taken to be new concepts.

In the Case of the Search and Rescue Air-Launchable
(SARPAL) the antecedent is the parachutable airborne
lifeboat designed by noted British designer Uffa Fox.
Fox was inspired by the fact that his stepson had
been captured by the Germans during World War II.

Fox was a man with a constantly ticking mind. His
initial plans for the lifeboat came at a daily tea
and were made on paper with strawberry jam as his
medium. By midnight the day of the tea, a model
was being dropped from an upstairs window as a test.

Fox slept for 4 hours and then headed to London to see Lord
Brabazon person in charge of aircraft production. The Lord
trusted Fox's unorthodox genius and approved the plan.

The airborne life boat was to work in conjunction with a
Hudson airplane. These were twin engine planes powered by 2
1620 Cubic Inch piston engines. Range was 1500 miles. The
English placed a large order for 350 of these in 1939 helping
what's now Lockheed Martin to succeed. The lifeboat would
hang from a bomb hook, similar to a torpedo.

The boat was to be twenty-three feet and Fox's team worked
24/7 on this project. Uffa Fox moved his bed into his
office and slept with this project.

Within 3 weeks the first boat was complete. For finish it
has a quick varnish and some gray paint. The boat was a
thoroughly safety conscious life boat including features
such as watertight compartments, dagger board for sailing,
watertight bulkheads and self-bailing slots. There was a
navigation locker with charts and tide tables. The medical
locker contained a traditional sailors cure: rum.

Thumbnail of drawing of the Airbrone Lifeboat showing many details such as dagger board, engine with sail drive type installation, battery etc.

Construction was of wood in either elm or mahogany. As
allies America was given access to the concept. The US
version was built in molded plywood and baked in an
autoclave. Today autoclaves are used to manufacture carbon
fibre spars.

The first use of the boat was in May of 1943 when a Halifax
bomber crew was rescued via a dropped lifeboat. Eventually
plans were produced for 24,30,40,45 and 50-foot versions.
The 50 footer was envisioned for use in the Pacific theatre
of operations.

The boat had both sailing rig and auxiliary engine. The
engine was a twin cylinder Britannia Middy- 2 cylinder gas.
The rig was main, mizzen and jib.

Airborne Lifebot Under Sail

Finally came the time for full-scale trials. Uffa Fox was
put in a rubber dinghy in the Solent simulating a downed
pilot. The drop went fine and they climbed aboard started
the engine and stepped the mast and sailed to shore.

During the war Fox lived at Puckaster on the Isle of Wight
and he and his employees had their own lifeboat station.
Later Fox actually raced one of his airborne lifeboats in a
Royal Ocean Racing Club race.

Perhaps the most famous parachute airborne lifeboat rescue
came in early 1944. A British flying crew ditched 200 miles
from the Scilly Isles in the North Atlantic. Eventually an
airborne lifeboat was dropped with them 180 miles from land.
After 4 days and 4 nights on the water they safely made
landfall.

The urgency of war and having countrymen held prisoner is
not available as rationale for the SARPAL. Rather it is
being developed to lower the risk of heavy weather rescue.
Sometimes rescue must be done out of helicopter range. The
SARPAL extends the range of rescue services. In heavy
weather typical life rafts may not be effective requiring
rescue swimmers to take on extraordinary risk in the water.
The SARPAL is a technological answer to these problems.

A poster featuring SARPAL

The 21st century version is more complex and slower to come
about. The SARPAL will drop from a CC-130 aircraft. The
CC-130 airplane is used for search and rescue powered by 4
piston engines. These planes have range in the thousands of
miles. They are also a Lockheed product. The boat is
smaller at 16 feet to the WW II versions 23 feet. There is
no possibility of sailing to land. Rather a Yanmar 20 HP
diesel is the propulsion option. 5 knots is the speed where
Uffa Fox's version traveled at 6 knots. This will allow 24
hours of endurance with a range of 120 miles.

The differences in the actual boats are minor. The major
difference in lies in how the boats are controlled. Fox's
boat required pilots to turn into seamen.

The SARPAL largely takes this out of the equation. Once the
boat is dropped, operators in the aircraft have 4 cameras of
video. The cameras are located forward in both color and
infrared, aft and cover the interior. The video system is
described at
http://www.visionlb.ca/ISE/Sarpal/SarpalVision.html.
Navigation is to waypoints via GPS.

Once aboard victims have the following equipment:
inflatable PFD's, paddle, a desalinator and drinking water,
food and a fire extinguisher. The World War II version had
a manual instructing how to step the masts and rig the
sails. Uffa proudly proclaimed that the manual described
sailing to windward in just 3 paragraphs!

Although SARPAL may not be an original idea it is good that
it is under development for the safety of all those who go
to sea. Another application might be for offshore sailing
races that pass deep into the Southern Ocean. To satisfy
that market SARPAL would have to grow a sailing rig!