28th Mar 2007 10:30
Blue Ocean Wireless, an Irish company focused on providing GSMcommunication capability to the merchant maritime sector, and Inmarsat(LSE:ISAT), the leading provider of global mobile satellitecommunications, today announced their sponsorship of Britishyachtsman, Tony Bullimore's attempt to break the solo round the worldsailing record. £ Domhnal Slattery, Chairman of Blue Ocean Wireless commented, "Weare delighted to announce our sponsorship of Tony Bullimore in hisattempt to break the solo round the world sailing record in the BlueOcean Wireless Round the World Challenge." £ He added, "Our commitment, at Blue Ocean Wireless, is to provideseafarers and crews of merchant maritime vessels with the capabilityto use their existing GSM handset in deep ocean water. Tony will besailing across the world's deepest oceans in the most remotelocations. Our service will provide Tony with access to asatellite-enabled GSM network in these locations, connecting to theInmarsat services with a standard handset, for voice calls and SMSmessaging." £ Robert Johnson, Director of Maritime Services for Inmarsat said,"Inmarsat has championed the benefits of crew communications for manyyears and, as a Master Mariner and someone about to embark on thischallenging record attempt, it will be very close to Tony's heart too.We are pleased to join with Blue Ocean Wireless, who are developingsome truly innovative uses for Inmarsat services, in this excitingsponsorship. We hope it not only raises our profile and that of Tony'srecord attempt, but also sends a message about the positive impact onmorale that crew communications can offer." £ Tony Bullimore commented "I am delighted to have the support ofboth Blue Ocean Wireless and Inmarsat in my attempt to break the roundthe world record. It will be a challenge and it is important to havethe most robust communications systems on-board. Knowing that I haveboth access to the Inmarsat system and the Blue Ocean Wireless networkmeans that I can maintain contact with my support team throughout thejourney in any conditions and from any location." £ Press Conference £ Blue Ocean Wireless and Inmarsat are hosting a press conference tolaunch Blue Ocean Wireless and host a live interview with TonyBullimore today, March 28, at 10.30am at the offices of Inmarsat plc,99 City Road, London EC1Y 1AX. A live dial in facility for thoseunable to attend is also available on +44 20 7138 0813. £ Blue Ocean Wireless Round the World Challenge: The Course £ Tony Bullimore is on stand-by to begin the Blue Ocean WirelessRound the World Challenge to break the 70 day barrier for sailing solonon-stop around the world. From Tasmania, the 27,000 mile course willtake Bullimore straight down into the Southern Ocean where thewesterly winds in the Roaring Forty latitudes will slingshot himacross the first 5,000 mile stage to Cape Horn. He will then followthe South American coast northwards to the Equator, from where he mustpick his way through the calms of the Doldrums and those associatedwith the Azores high pressure system, to round the island of Floresbefore returning southwards to the Cape of Good Hope. £ Once in the Indian Ocean, the British yachtsman will rely on hisweather router to help him to avoid the worst of the Roaring Fortywinds that will speed him towards Cape Leuwin marking the Western tipof Australia and past the point where Bullimore famously spent 5 darkdays capsized during the 1997/8 Vendee Globe Race. Once across theAustralian Bight, he must navigate his way around Bass Strait and backto Hobart. £ The course has been sanctioned by the World Sailing Speed RecordCouncil (www.sailspeedrecords.com) which will time Bullimore's startand finish from Tasmania and monitor his progress around the world.The distance is exactly the same as if he started from Ushant on thenorth west tip of France where Dame Ellen Macarthur, the currentrecord holder began her 71 day, 14 hour, 18 minute voyage last year. £ About Blue Ocean Wireless £ Blue Ocean Wireless is an Irish company focused on expandingcommunication capability in the merchant maritime sector. Blue OceanWireless is a joint venture between private investment firm, ClaretCapital, and Irish technology communications company, Altobridge. BlueOcean Wireless will provide, for the first time, GSM connectivity forseafarers in deep ocean water, where no other network exists, whichallows users to make and receive voice calls, send and receive SMStext and email messages and browse the internet using their existinghandset. Blue Ocean Wireless' offering is based on Altobridge's uniquepatent pending Aeronautical & Maritime Gateway Platform technology.This technology can also be applied to Superyachts, other merchantvessels and used, in conjunction with RFID technology, to track andmonitor shipping containers while they are in transit. £ About Claret Capital £ Claret Capital is a private investment firm based in Dublin,Ireland and was founded by Domhnal Slattery in 2005. Claret Capitalmanages the assets of a small number of ultra high net worthindividuals and families and has a global investment mandate. The firmhas completed investments in the Private Equity, Real Estate, Mediaand Technology sectors. Claret Capital has also founded a number ofnew ventures including JetBird, Europe's first low cost on demandprivate jet airline. JetBird has ordered 100 aircraft from Embraer andis the launch customer in Europe for the Phenom 100 very light jet. £ About Inmarsat £ Inmarsat plc (LSE:ISAT) is the leading provider of global mobilesatellite communications. Since 1979, Inmarsat has been providingreliable voice and high-speed data communications to governments,enterprises and other organisations, with a range of services that canbe used on land, at sea or in the air. The company's services aredelivered through a global network of over 500 partners, including theworld's leading telecoms groups, operating in 180 countries. For theyear ended 31 December 2006, Inmarsat plc had total revenue ofUS$500.1 million. £ About Tony Bullimore £ Born in Rochford Essex in 1939, Tony Bullimore is one of theworld's best known yachtsmen. Tony's sailing career spans more than 4decades and 400,000 racing miles, 90,000 of them covering toughtransatlantic races. He has won the Round Britain Race, The RoundEurope Race, and has twice scored class honours in transatlanticraces. He won his class in the Fastnet Race in England and the RolexMiddle Sea Race in the Mediterranean, and recently came second in theOryx Quest 2005 non stop round the world race from Doha, the GulfState of Qatar. Copyright Business Wire 2007Related Shares:
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