Can’t stop the future...

Marine electronics and PLC specialists Olectric Systems and Mick Dunn’s Maxicant Marine have had a couple of busy years. Blue Robinson spoke to Mick Dunn and Grant Gosschalk at Maxicant’s rural workshops outside Sydney about some of their recent projects

SH: What were the big differences from your first to second-generation Volvo 70 installations?

Grant Gosschalk: The PLC was built much more onboard the boats for the 2005-6 Volvo. For the 2008-9 race the systems we have designed are more modular so more adaptable to alter functions if need be; we designed, supplied and installed the PLC systems custom to the teams’ requirements on Green Dragon, Telefonica Black and Blue and the Russian boat.

The systems we supplied were the same for Telefónica Blue and Black at delivery, but I am sure the crews set up the systems differently for their own sailing styles. The Volvo teams were given access to all the variables – so they were more self-sufficient and able to adjust limits and centre values, including keel cant speeds. I guess we gave the crews more user interaction – via a touch screen – is the best way of putting it.

The touch screen evolved because on previous raceboats, to change the settings for, say, keel angle you had to access a line of software and write in a new figure. If you typed the decimal point in the wrong place, it could cause a big – potentially damaging – problem. But with the touch screen system we retain a governing safety factor, giving crew a choice of between, let’s say, 0° and 40° keel movement.

The other evolution is we advised the teams on better locations for the PLC itself...

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