Popular Science - Riding across the ocean
Katie Spotz never had a high opinion of her physical fitness. Nevertheless, this 22-year-old girl from Ohio decided to become the youngest of all brave men who have ever tried to cross the Atlantic Ocean on oars.
“At school, in all sports events, and always on the bench,” says Katie. True, when she was 18, she ran a marathon distance and realized that fortitude meant much more than simple physical training. Spotz cycled 5000 km by bike across the United States, and then became the first to sail all 566 km along the Allegheny River. After hearing about the attempts to cross the ocean on a rowing boat, she realized that this is an ideal way to draw attention to the billion people who suffer from a shortage of clean drinking water. Donations to Katty Spotz ( rowforwater.com ) will help Blue Planet Run build water treatment facilities around the world. It remains only to swim across the ocean.
A. Boat lines
Phil Morrison, who designed the drawings for a 19-foot boat (5.7 m), said that an optimal compromise had to be found in this design. “The boat turned out to be relatively long and narrow, so it’s not very hard to row on it,” explains Morrison, “but if it is already done, it will lose stability.” Unlike traditional rowing boats, this one has two sealed compartments - one for sleeping and the other for equipment and products. Both of these superstructures must protect the girl from the wind when she is engaged in rowing.
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B. Food and water
From a 45-liter tank of salt water, you can get 6 liters of fresh water, which a girl needs for every day. The tank can be replenished by opening the cockpit cock. From the tank the hose goes to a desalination plant, which can produce 20 liters of fresh water per hour. True, the installation consumes a lot of energy, and its resource is not unlimited, so Katie Spotz intends to turn it on every other day for 20 minutes. The girl is planning to eat sublimated products at the rate of 5000 kilocalories per day, nutritional bars and various fruit-and-nut dry mixes like Trail Mix.
C. Movement
If you took to cross the ocean in a rowing boat, the sail can no longer be used, so the boat will move on carbon-fiber oars. The seat is mounted in the middle of the cockpit and rolls along the rails back and forth - it helps to choose the optimal angle of attack when the oars enter the water and the stroke is more efficient. The rower sits facing the stern, his legs fastened to the footboard at the bottom of the cockpit. From the right foot through the superstructure to the steering mechanism stretches the cable, so that you can steer in the process of rowing. If Katie encounters a strong head wind, against which it is impossible to get out, a floating anchor can be thrown from the stern - it will open in the water like a parachute and will slow down the drift downwind.
D. Route
Katie will leave at the end of December (at the time of preparing the article has not yet left) from the Senegalese port of Dakar and will row to the west. The journey across the Atlantic (4,000 km) should take from 70 to 100 days. Finishing is expected in Cayenne (French Guiana). True, the boat is quite heavy, so perhaps the girl will not be able to withstand the wind and the north-western currents. Then it can be attributed to the rocky parts of the coast. She may have to run the extra 800 km to Georgetown (Gaina). As Catty Spotz says, “the hardest part of the journey will be the arrival.”
E. Power and communications
All devices are powered by solar batteries with a capacity of 85 and 65 W - they are fixed on the roofs of superstructures. Two 12-volt batteries are charged from batteries, and they provide energy for radio communications on meter waves, satellite navigation, and side lights. The auto-identification system transmits the coordinates of the boat to the surrounding ships and warns the rower if other ships are too close. There will be an iPod for music and a laptop for weather forecasts and blogging. In extreme cases, there is a satellite phone.
F. Ballast and buoyancy
If the boat is overwhelmed with a high wave, there will be enough air in the superstructures to let the boat float to the surface. However, without a ballast that weighs down the bottom, the boat can turn upside down and lock the girl under water. “In order to turn over, the boat would not be in a stable position,” explains the boat designer Morrison, “rather bulky superstructures are required. This is better than the additional ballast, which is an unnecessary, unnecessary weighting of the boat. ” Here the ballast are the stocks of products, batteries and desalination plant, which are fixed in the boat at the very bottom. The girl herself can be considered a ballast - with strong anxiety, having climbed into her sleeping room, she will be fastened to the bed. In the aggregate, all these forces should always turn the boat in the correct position - keel down and deck up. An additional ballast can be considered a 45-liter tank with seawater, although stability has already been observed without it. As Morrison says, “there is enough ballast in this boat to even out a roll, even with an empty tank.”
© Mark Schrope
“At school, in all sports events, and always on the bench,” says Katie. True, when she was 18, she ran a marathon distance and realized that fortitude meant much more than simple physical training. Spotz cycled 5000 km by bike across the United States, and then became the first to sail all 566 km along the Allegheny River. After hearing about the attempts to cross the ocean on a rowing boat, she realized that this is an ideal way to draw attention to the billion people who suffer from a shortage of clean drinking water. Donations to Katty Spotz ( rowforwater.com ) will help Blue Planet Run build water treatment facilities around the world. It remains only to swim across the ocean.
A. Boat lines
Phil Morrison, who designed the drawings for a 19-foot boat (5.7 m), said that an optimal compromise had to be found in this design. “The boat turned out to be relatively long and narrow, so it’s not very hard to row on it,” explains Morrison, “but if it is already done, it will lose stability.” Unlike traditional rowing boats, this one has two sealed compartments - one for sleeping and the other for equipment and products. Both of these superstructures must protect the girl from the wind when she is engaged in rowing.
')
B. Food and water
From a 45-liter tank of salt water, you can get 6 liters of fresh water, which a girl needs for every day. The tank can be replenished by opening the cockpit cock. From the tank the hose goes to a desalination plant, which can produce 20 liters of fresh water per hour. True, the installation consumes a lot of energy, and its resource is not unlimited, so Katie Spotz intends to turn it on every other day for 20 minutes. The girl is planning to eat sublimated products at the rate of 5000 kilocalories per day, nutritional bars and various fruit-and-nut dry mixes like Trail Mix.
C. Movement
If you took to cross the ocean in a rowing boat, the sail can no longer be used, so the boat will move on carbon-fiber oars. The seat is mounted in the middle of the cockpit and rolls along the rails back and forth - it helps to choose the optimal angle of attack when the oars enter the water and the stroke is more efficient. The rower sits facing the stern, his legs fastened to the footboard at the bottom of the cockpit. From the right foot through the superstructure to the steering mechanism stretches the cable, so that you can steer in the process of rowing. If Katie encounters a strong head wind, against which it is impossible to get out, a floating anchor can be thrown from the stern - it will open in the water like a parachute and will slow down the drift downwind.
D. Route
Katie will leave at the end of December (at the time of preparing the article has not yet left) from the Senegalese port of Dakar and will row to the west. The journey across the Atlantic (4,000 km) should take from 70 to 100 days. Finishing is expected in Cayenne (French Guiana). True, the boat is quite heavy, so perhaps the girl will not be able to withstand the wind and the north-western currents. Then it can be attributed to the rocky parts of the coast. She may have to run the extra 800 km to Georgetown (Gaina). As Catty Spotz says, “the hardest part of the journey will be the arrival.”
E. Power and communications
All devices are powered by solar batteries with a capacity of 85 and 65 W - they are fixed on the roofs of superstructures. Two 12-volt batteries are charged from batteries, and they provide energy for radio communications on meter waves, satellite navigation, and side lights. The auto-identification system transmits the coordinates of the boat to the surrounding ships and warns the rower if other ships are too close. There will be an iPod for music and a laptop for weather forecasts and blogging. In extreme cases, there is a satellite phone.
F. Ballast and buoyancy
If the boat is overwhelmed with a high wave, there will be enough air in the superstructures to let the boat float to the surface. However, without a ballast that weighs down the bottom, the boat can turn upside down and lock the girl under water. “In order to turn over, the boat would not be in a stable position,” explains the boat designer Morrison, “rather bulky superstructures are required. This is better than the additional ballast, which is an unnecessary, unnecessary weighting of the boat. ” Here the ballast are the stocks of products, batteries and desalination plant, which are fixed in the boat at the very bottom. The girl herself can be considered a ballast - with strong anxiety, having climbed into her sleeping room, she will be fastened to the bed. In the aggregate, all these forces should always turn the boat in the correct position - keel down and deck up. An additional ballast can be considered a 45-liter tank with seawater, although stability has already been observed without it. As Morrison says, “there is enough ballast in this boat to even out a roll, even with an empty tank.”
© Mark Schrope
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/82095/
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