Britain’s America’s Cup Challenge Hit By Lithium Battery Fire
March 2, 2024
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
.
Trust Britannia to come up with a lithium battery fire!!
.
https://www.ineosbritannia.com/.
.
It is ironic given that the team has made such a big deal about being zero carbon:
.
.
And doubly ironic that they are sponsored by INEOS, whose owner, Jim Ratcliffe has for years moaned about how Net Zero policies have been crippling his business!!
33 Comments
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
I wonder why they need an apparently big battery aboard a racing sailboat?
As a guess. A lot of computing, navigation equipment and electrical winches?
Just electronics I think. Not sure that electric winches would be allowed, probably not fast enough anyway. The sort of thing you have on a big yacht with plenty of batteries and possibly a generator (rather than just charging via the motor).
https://www.reapsystems.co.uk/americas-cup-yachts-battery-systems
Apologies, you’re quite right on that boat AC40 (40 foot training boat), everything is electrically driven. More physical effort from the crew on the actual race boat AC75 it seems.
But Jim has continued to talk submissively about Net Zero when he must know it won’t work.
This is the Americas Cup not the Admirals cup which is a much lower level of non the less high tech yacht racing. We should applaud Sir Jim Ratcliffes dedication to British sport and remember he has been a champion fracking which Michael Gove with the Government have thwarted his every attempt to carry out this very necessary exploration of our natural resources
Yes, Edward Heath was part of 1971 winning Admiral’s Cup team in Morning Cloud II. He won the 1969 Sydney to Hobart race in Morning Cloud I.
Hardly “Britidh sport”. The ultra-expensive pastime of a handful of people.
I am not sure if it was Edward Heath or the Canadian newspaper proprietor Roy Thomson, who described the hobby of ocean-yacht racing as, “about as cheerful as standing under a cold shower tearing up banknotes.”
Incidentally, Solar Cycle 25 is developing similarly to Solar Cycle 24. So, no Maunder Minimum this time round.
Paul
Love your articles but NB Americas Cup is a different event to the Admirals Cup.
Kind regards
Steve (yachty)
Sometimes the wisest response is to gurgle with laughter.
I clicked through. ”Each panel has a potential solar generation capacity of 670W per hour.” That from an energy firm!
I often see things like that from energy companies, I once saw EDF do it describing Hinkley Point C. I generally email the company to gently take the p out of them. Have you got a link to where it was printed – I’d love to have a go at them!
Line 3 of
https://www.ineosbritannia.com/en/articles/595_Inside-Tech-Low-Carbon-Renewable-Energy-Installation.html
More detail here, double capsize and batteries under water for too long.
https://marineindustrynews.co.uk/americas-cup-brits-test-boat-fire-capsize/
Looks like two separate fires. On 8th after the capsizing twice. Then again, spontaneously on 16th when they had to flood the compartment.
https://youtu.be/wl9J_Qd-erg
Oops, 8 Feb 2023 and 16th Feb 2024, probably not connected, apart from the batteries of course. Cause of first being flooded, cause of second who knows?
A rather sad thing. However, high profile fires such as this are helpful in the interest of shutting down the useless destruction of society. Some poor bloke with a scooter fire in his apartment just doesn’t make big news.
It might if he dies and the fire engulfs the rest of the building.
As an off topic aside I lived on the Americas Cup yacht Endeavour for about a year in 1952/3 before moving back to Scotland. This was Tommy Sopwith’s J Class yacht from 1934. I don’t remember a great deal about the experience as I was under 4 years old when we moved off.
After losing in dubious circumstances I think that he left her moored in Moodies Boatyard in Swanwick where she gradually decayed and possibly sank.
In the 1980s the hulk was bought by a lady, Elizabeth Meyer, who did a lot of restoration. My mother had kept a couple of small fittings as momentoes which she returned. I have a letter MsMeyer wrote to my mother to thank her. I think that she’s changed hands two or three times subsequently.
Was that “losing in dubious circumstances” the origin of the saying by some reporter: “Britannia rules the waves but America waves the rules”?
Why are they called Sienna and Athena?
The whole thing us such BS. There’s no way these meaningless races are Net Zero.
They were originally Endeavour and Endeavour II. It is common for boats to change name when sold.
They were built by Camper & Nicholson. I think this firm built all the J-class. The J-class boats each fell into dereliction at one time or another, except for Shamrock V. They were beautiful but completely useless for anything except racing.
Plenty of carbon after the fire!
Peter
Solar Roads are the future!
oh….
Zero carbon? I thought the whole thing was made of carbon ( plus a bit of Kevlar)
61 MWh in a a year! The electricity consumption of a tiny hamlet of 12 houses. What was that worth on the wholesale market? 10 thousand Euros? REVENUE not profit. On an investment of 5 million Euros. What is the next category of business stupidity and awfulness, beyond “epic fail”?
State investment?
Segoline Royale never noted for her maff skills (unless it’s self enrichment related) – firmly in the Dianne Abbott absurd arithmetic leftoid camp. She’d vote for Pi to be officially set to 3 without any horrible decimals.
Perhaps she could handle 22/7 (close enough for most purposes).
Investment? No, throwing taxpayers cash down the drain.
Indeed, ‘sarc’ omitted, nothing the State does with our money qualifies as investment.
Zero carbon in a boat made from carbon fibre ?
/ in a boat made from carbob fire