Installation of submarine cable for televised sail race.
Jubatus are proud to be involved with this unique project.
SailGP is an international sailing competition using high performance F50 foiling catamarans, where teams compete across a season of multiple grands prix around the world. The 3-day event was held in Sydney Harbour in January 2019.
To capture the excitement of sailing vessels racing at more than 60kph around the harbour course, specialist broadcast facilities were needed. Two submarine fibre optic cables were installed from the television collection point on Shark Island to the media centre on land at Rose Bay, a distance of 1500m. And, the cables had to be removed after the race and stored for use during the next event.
Solution: Jubatus selected Hengtong Cable (HSUC A2LW 48 fibre) for the task, which was installed by the contractor The Diving Co (NSW). This cable is light weight and strong, allowing it to be installed and recovered for re-use each January for the next five years. Despite the tight schedule, Jubatus supplied and tested the cable successfully. Testing was performed at each stage of the project with the cable passing with no discernible data loss.
The installation involved a barge and tug boat combination as shown in these photos.
As the cables will be re-used, the termination boxes were kept in situ and the cables were recovered into specially-built storage baskets.
The next SailGP boat race will be staged in Sydney Harbour in 2020.
