Intel And French Skipper Francois Gabart Team Up With 100-Foot Trimaran Macif

Several world-class sailors from around the world are currently racing single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean, including Francois Gabart and his massive new 100-foot trimaran MACIF.

Gabart is the current world record holder for sailing around the world alone, having won the prestigious Vendee Globe with a previous boat in 2013. He and French skipper Thomas Colville in the trimaran SODEBO are out in front after two days of racing.

Intel and Gabart have been collaborating on a technology partnership over the last few years and are expanding the relationship in 2016 with the new MACIF. Gabart will be attempting to set transatlantic sailing records with the MACIF during the coming year, following the legendary Transat bakerly between Plymouth, U.K. and New York City that started May 2. The fastest boats are expected to arrive in New York within six to seven days.

In addition to being designed with the aid of powerful Intel Xeon-based servers, the MACIF is outfitted with a ruggedized http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=Core i7-based mini-computer, which powers the navigation system and serves as the central brain for the boat.

A unique binaural immersive audio system for communicating ship to shore was also designed by Intel engineers and researchers at Aachen University in Germany, and there are a variety of additional technology enhancements to the boat coming in 2016.

Source: Intel