Similar systems already exist, but they are not compatible with ocean racing, because of their weight, size and energy consumption. The originality of this project is that it cuts to a minimum the volume and weight, while offering the same level of performance.

This Mini Lab that will be installed aboard Bernard Stamm’s boat comprises three boxes, capable of measuring in real time oceanographic data. The first box includes 4 sensors, measuring the temperature of the sea, the degree of salinity, how cloudy it is and the amount of oxygen that has been dissolved. The second unit measures fluorescence, which will reveal the biodiversity of the phytoplankton over the ocean biosphere. The third box measures the partial pressure of CO2 or PCO2, an element which is vital in understanding climate change and in particular the acidification that is occurring in our oceans.

The first scientific results
Thanks to the support of engineers, specialising in metrology and the technical unit at the Insu and the IUEM, the Minilab equipment underwent preliminary testing in the aquariums at Océanopolis (temperate, polar and tropical zones), in the range of temperatures that Bernard Stamm’s boat will encounter. For Cédric Droguet, technical director at the Lausanne Polytechnic (EPFL), the results are encouraging and the equipment could well be up and running aboard the boat by the end of the year.

Data of use to scientists
As soon as the system is working, the data will be made available to the French Marine Institute (Ifremer) and the biology centres in Villefranche sur Mer (Mediterranean) and Wimereux (English Channel). The results of the data that is collected will then be used in international research programmes concerning, for example, the acidification of the oceans. Other data will allow satellite imagery to be compared to the results obtained out on the waters along the Vendée Globe course in some very sensitive zones, where people rarely go.