Met-Ocean and Heeling Analysis During the Violent 21/22 October 2014 Storm Faced by the Sailboat ECO40 in the Gulf of Lion: Comparison Between Measured and Numerical Wind Data

On 19 October 2014 Matteo Miceli, a known italian oceanic sailor, left the Port of Riva di Traiano (Rome, IT) with the italian sailing boat ECO 40, for the Roma Ocean World Project. This ambitious challenge consists of a non-stop sailing alone around the World in energy and food self-sufficiency. ECO 40 is a Class 40 oceanic vessel (LOA of 12,0 m) that has been equipped with a data acquisition system for measuring both the met-ocean parameters recorded (apparent and real wind speed and wind direction, atmospheric pressure, current velocity, air temperature, sea temperature, etc.) and the kinematic characteristics of the boat itself (i.e., speed and course over ground). Furthermore, the boat has been equipped with three high precision GPS receivers, provided by Leica Geosystem, for measuring the motion of the boat and an inertial platform. Due to these high-precision instruments it is possible to fully measure and characterize the six degrees of freedom of the boat, and accordingly to use her as a sailing wave buoy. Within this paper we present the analysis of the met-ocean data measured by the boat during the storm occurred in the Gulf of Lion on the 21–22 October 2014 that ECO 40 has faced just few days after her departure. Furthermore, by analyzing the GPS signals by means of an innovative application of differential kinematic positioning technique, a detailed analysis of the boat heeling during the Gulf of Lion event has been carried out. The boat heeling measurements have been used to correct the measured wind data that have been compared with the hindcast time series.