Intel and French Skipper Francois Gabart Team up with Trimaran MACIF

Twenty-five world-class sailors from around the world set off today on a solo 3,000-mile race across the Atlantic Ocean. Competitors include Francois Gabart and his massive new 100-foot trimaran, MACIF. Gabart is the current world record holder for sailing around the world alone, having won the prestigious Vendee Globe with another boat in 2013.

Intel and Gabart have been collaborating on a technology partnership over the past few years and are expanding the relationship in 2016 with the new MACIF. Gabart will be attempting to set trans-Atlantic sailing records with MACIF during the coming year, following the legendary Transat bakerly between Plymouth, England, and New York City, which started today.

In addition to being designed with the aid of powerful Intel® Xeon®-based servers, the MACIF is outfitted with a specially hardened and waterproof mini-computer, a Core™ i7-based NUCthat powers the navigation system and serves as the main “brain” for the boat. A unique binaural immersive audio system for communicating ship-to-shore was also designed by Intel engineers and researchers at Aachen University in Germany, and there are a variety of additional technology enhancements to the boat coming in 2016.