With support from Furuno Electric, they completed a round-the-world voyage in a yacht race.
Here are the people who achieved it ↓
On the left is team owner Mr. Nakagawa, and on the right is TEAM MILAI skipper Mr. Suzuki.
By the way, Mr. Nakagawa is from Nishinomiya.
What Is TEAM MILAI?
“TEAM MILAI” is a sailing team that competed in “Globe40,” a two-person round-the-world race. Sailing basically means yacht racing
This time, Furuno Electric provided equipment for TEAM MILAI’s yacht as a sponsor. And actually, Furuno Electric has previously provided equipment to people in the sailing world as well.
Kenichi Horie ↓
Jiro Shinbo ↓
The Round-the-World Race Was Full of Trouble
At the start of the race, things were going smoothly, and TEAM MILAI was in first place for quite a while.
But after that, problems kept coming one after another.
- The rudder was badly damaged in an orca attack
- There was trouble with the keel, which works like an airplane wing, after it began making strange noises
- The sail was damaged and had to be repaired by sewing for 30 hours straight
Despite all that, they were still moving along in second place overall.
But then, while sailing toward Brazil through a windless strait surrounded by mountains…
They crashed into an unidentified floating object!
The boat was damaged, so they headed to the nearest port, about 1,000 km away. After emergency repairs, they moved on to Argentina, but the full repair work took 35 days!
So at that point, they shifted their focus from rankings to sailing safely and enjoying the journey…
And successfully completed their round-the-world voyage
Furuno Electric’s world-class equipment.
The GPS antenna is a device that operates the autopilot, and apparently it never had a single error.
“I truly felt what excellent equipment it was,” he said with deep appreciation in front of everyone from Furuno Electric.
A future sailor (someone who rides on yachts) asked a question:
“What was the tastiest thing you ate while sailing?”
The sweet answer was:
- Ochazuke
- Rice with bonito flakes
So wholesome.
Here are a few more fun “wow, really?” tidbits from people who sailed around the world. Perfect trivia for tonight
- The first three days are rough because of seasickness. The rhythm is two hours of sleep, then two hours of work. (Mr. Nakagawa)
- You spend more than a month in a space about the size of three tatami mats, so you don’t really walk on the boat. That’s why you do strength training. Kind of like going up and down stairs
- There’s no toilet, kitchen, or shower. But you can boil water
- For nine months, they basically only ate retort pouch foods, but they were super healthy
- Onishi’s alpha rice lasts for five years
- You see dolphins all the time, so they stop feeling rare. You get used to them. They swim alongside the boat a lot
- Rain clouds are really scary. You can see them during the day, but not at night. Furuno equipment can help predict them
- The toilet is a bucket. You do your business while holding down a moving bucket
- In general, English works pretty well overseas
- One country they enjoyed was Cabo Verde, an island nation in Africa. Apparently, the last time it rained there was four years ago. (Mr. Nakagawa)
- One country they enjoyed was Argentina. Why? Because the meat is delicious! The lean meat is great. The people are kind. The environment is nice too. (Mr. Suzuki)
- The key to winning the race is how you decide the course using routing software
- 20 km/h is fast for a boat
- They sailed 60,000 km. (A round-the-world voyage is 45,000 km)
A diagram of the moving bucket.
Finally
The reason they could talk about such a tough voyage with so much humor was surely because they had the support of Furuno, known around the world, and Furuno here in Nishinomiya. We hope they’ll keep developing cutting-edge technology and equipment in the future.
