MechChem Africa March-April 2023

Sailing the seven seas with Keller 21Y pressure sensors A Keller 21Y pressure sensor is at the heart of an hydraulic system powering the tilting keel of skipper Isabelle Joschke’s IMOCA sailing boat, which set out from France in the Vendée Globe ‘20-‘21 race around the Antarctic. This article describes the role of the Keller sensor, which is available in South Africa from Instrotech. S ailing has existed as a means of trans port for millennia and the spirit of sportsmanship is as old as humanity itself. This combination has given rise

to some interesting sports, such as regattas. At the Vendée Globe ‘20-‘21, for example, a non-stop, round-the-world regatta that takes place every four years, a total of 167 solo sailors started on the Clipper route. The route begins in Les Sables-d’Olonne, a town on the Atlantic in western France, and travels over the Atlantic Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. The route then travels clockwise around the Antarctic via Cape Leeuwin - the most south-westerly point on the Australian continent - over to Cape Horn, Tierra del Fuego, southern Chile, and then back to Les Sables-d’Olonne in France. Entrants navigated 44 000 km between November 2020 and February 2021. Regatta rules allow participants to moor with an an

Skipper Isabelle Joschke and her IMOCA boat, the MACSF.

chor, but not at a dock or next to another boat. Besides that, they receive no other external assistance, excluding weather updates or route information. Only if the participants

encounter a problem early on, are they per mitted to return to the beginning for repairs and start again. The restart must, however, be within 10 days of the official start.