Monday 26^th November 2007

So Who Are Voller and What Is A Fuel Cell?

Voller Energy is a aiming to be the number one energy provider in the Marine market, providing a reliable alternative to the traditional diesel generator with its Emerald Fuel Cell System.

Fuel cells work by converting the chemical energy in hydrogen to electrical energy. Hydrogen is combined with oxygen from the air across a special membrane. The outputs from the reaction are electricity, heat and water. No toxic emissions are produced.

So Why Have Voller Entered A Yacht in the ARC (Atlantic Race for Cruisers) ?

The Emerald yacht has Voller Energy’s new Fuel Cell System installed for the crossing. This will be the first yacht in the world to cross the Atlantic with a Fuel Cell System running on LPG, Propane or Calor Gas. The objective of entering the boat into the ARC is not only to create a world ‘First’, but also to test and improve the system under extreme conditions, thus providing our future customers with a system that has been proved in all conditions.

Preparation For The Race

The crew had been selected to bring a range of skills and experience including boat handling, navigation, media, radio, safety and catering, and together with skipper Mark Tilley both the crew and the boat have undergone 3 months of preparation including some specific training, upgrading of the boat and of course the fitting and preparationary testing of the fuel cell. The preparation culminated at the end of last week with the final three crew members arriving in Gran Canaria on Friday.

Saturday was spent making last minute preparations to the boat and shopping for the final provisions (including 250 litres of bottled water!). With everything washed and stowed, including fruit and vegetables in some very clever netting strung up by George and James, and the final upgrades and repairs made to the boat, we were ship shape and ready for the off.

Sunday, as with the previous two days, saw very windy conditions. This coupled with the ‘Acceleration Zones’ around the Canaries – areas where the wind funnels between the islands creating high wind speeds – made for a blowy start with several yachts suffering incidents both before and during the start. In addition, once underway we seemed to be surrounded by squalls, isolated areas of rain cloud containing not only rain but high winds. Needless to say we got wet more than once but morale remained high despite several grey sea-sick looking faces.

Dinner in the evening was a very tasty affair. In preparation for the bad weather Justine and Becci had put together a basic beef stew from various tinned provisions on Saturday. George and Mark livened it up with the addition of fresh onions, garlic, herbs, chilli and George’s secret ingredient, Marmite! A very welcome and satisfying meal.

The day ended with the crew dividing off into their watch teams; Justine with James; Becci with George and Mark on his own. Each watch is four hours long and works in rotation with a split afternoon watch to make sure the night watches are evenly shared. When not ‘on watch’, crew members are free to sleep, relax or undertake any other jobs on board.