Global tech company Dell has partnered with the 2017-18 edition of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race as an official fleet partner.
The partnership has resulted in Dell fitting Latitude Rugged laptops and tablets - along with battery chargers and docking bays - to each of the 12 participating ocean racing yachts.
The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is an 11-month nautical race around the world. The yachts are operated by trained amateur crew members and the race is divided into eight legs. The organisers own a fleet of identical yachts, the Clipper 70, and provide qualified skippers to lead each team. This year the race is in its eleventh edition and has 712 people, representing 41 different nationalities taking part.
The Latitude Rugged Extreme notebooks and Rugged Extreme tablets are specifically built to withstand the severities of use in such extreme environments. The devices are fitted with an FHD Gorilla Glass anti-glare touch displays that still work with gloves and wet hands. The tablets also have a 16GB memory, offers up to 19 hours of battery life and comes standard with agnostic 4G LTE to ensure access to any available LTE network.
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race founder and chairman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said he is very impressed with the technology and durability of the devices during the race so far. "The race and its crews experienced some tough conditions during the South Atlantic crossing from Punta del Este, Uruguay, to Cape Town. The often-damp conditions and shocks experienced in a yacht, traversing oceans is the toughest test for computers, so having the very best rugged performance technology on board each yacht helps the teams perform at their very best."
The devices on board are used for a variety of purposes including storing and editing images and footage shot while racing across the world's oceans, to tracking and providing weather and navigation data.
Chris Buchanan, director of client solutions at Dell SA, adds that the company is proud to play a pivotal role in the race. "Anyone who has even sat in a small boat knows that being on water isn't easy. But to face nature head-on and sail around the world is beyond imagination. We're proud that Dell can play a role in this race - it shows our products are as world-class as the crew who dare to dream and take part in the Clipper Race."
The race started in August in Liverpool, England, bound for Punta del Este, Uruguay and then proceeded to Cape Town, South Africa. Yesterday it left the Mother City for Fremantle, Australia.
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