Page 41: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 1994)

COMSAT Drives Information

Highway Across Seven Seas ... And Beyond

When yachters pushed off from

Charleston, S.C. on September 17th to start the world's longest and re- portedly the most dangerous around-the-world race, they relied on telephone and data services be- ing provided by COMSAT to keep in touch with people back on shore.

The race is being sponsored by

The BOC Group, a British multina- tional gas and health care com- pany, and other companies, among them COMSAT and IBM. Known as the BOC Challenge, it is a test of single-handed sailing skills, endur- ance, and survival instincts, mea- suring about 27,000 miles long and taking competitors nine months to complete.

COMSAT-developed mobile digi- tal technology allows the produc- tion of smaller and smaller satellite terminals. Such terminals now al- low recreational yachts as small as 35 ft. long to be equipped for satel- lite telephone and data communi- cations services. In the BOC race, yachters will be able to telephone their sponsors on-shore, race offi- cials at headquarters, and their families and friends, wherever they are on the high-seas, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

COMSAT is also making a track- ing service available for interested race watchers on shore. Dialing a fax machine will enable them to access up-to-the-minute positions of the racers and other news and information.

As reportedly the largest owner and operator of the international

Inmarsat organization, which op- erates a geostationary satellite sys- em orbiting the earth, COMSAT laims it now regularly provides lobal communications services to nd from anywhere in the world.

COMSAT claims its transoceanic itellite communications services •e unhampered by weather, range, nation and nonexistent telephone frastructure. Next on the hori- a for COMSAT is everything from hanced access to the Internet by jrs on the high seas to new infor- tion services that can be obtained matter where you are on earth, or more information on COMSAT

Circle 9 on Reader Service Card v Cruise Ferry, RoRo /ice Between Panama

Colombia way to better suit it for trading in the

Caribbean, will commence a regular cruise ferry service between

Cristobal, Panama and Cartegena,

Colombia under the banner of

Crucero Express, S.A., a new com- pany which is being established by

Promotora de Navigacion to market and operate this trade.

MN Jupiter is 14,264 grt, certi- fied to carry 1,600 passengers. The service will commence in December 1994 with the first sailing from

Cartegena.

Litton Wins $18 Million

Navy Navigators Contract

The Guidance & Control Systems division of Litton won an $18 mil- lion contract from the U.S. Navy for production of 22 surface combat ship navigation systems and spares.

The sets, called AN/WSN-5 Iner- tial Navigation Sets, are installed two to a ship and provide position, velocity, heading and roll and pitch information to a variety of vital ship functions. WSN-5 systems are also linked to the GPS space satellite network.

The systems provide data to

Tomahawk cruise missiles for pre- launch alignment of Litton-built guidance and navigation systems in the missiles. In addition, the WSN- 5s provide data to the Aegis combat systems installed on the Navy's

Ticonderoga (CG-47)-class guided missile cruises and new Arleigh

Burke (DDG-51)-class guided mis- sile destroyers. • • ^ : - : ^ - * ... • 2 © AHEAD. (2) ZERO-SPEED. Full steering effect in this mode. (D ASTERN.

We've just taken another step ahead by going astern.

When you're firmly established as a world leader, it can be easy to become complacent.

But for HamiltonJet, quite the reverse is true... literally.

As the first to introduce the split duct deflector for superior astern thrust and vessel manoeuvrability, HamiltonJet has just advanced this concept another step.

The result is the patented HSRX servo- hydraulic follow-up control system. This major advance in applied hydraulics features a unique rotary valve integral with the deflector actuating cylinder.

The new HSRX gives full follow-up movement with enhanced reaction time and precision at the zero-speed position... simply. And all with inboard hydraulics for long life and easy maintenance.

HamiltonJet.

Definitely not astern in going ahead.

Highly Specified. Hamilton Jet

Manufactured In New Zealand by CWF Hamilton and Co. Ltd, P.O. Box 709, Christchurch, New Zealand, Ph: 64-3-348-4179, Fax: 64-3-348-6969.

Worldwide Distributors — Italy, Spain, UK, USA, Canada, India, France, Germany, Holland, Australia, Finland, Hong Kong,

Indonesia, Korea, Norway, Greece, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Denmark, Phillipines, Panama, South Africa. cv omotora de Navigacion of na, S.A., a wholly-owned sub- ry of Flota Mercante olombiana, is in an agree- with Color Line A/S of Oslo, y to bareboat charter its pas-

RoRo ferry MTV Jupiter for d of three years beginning in r 1994. The agreement also s a purchase option.

Jupiter will be renamed

Express under Bahamian , after a short refit in Nor- 1994 Circle 245 on Reader Service Card 27