Sea trails of a fibre Bragg grating based `smart´ mast

The smart mast project was focused on the development of a distributed optical fibre strain sensor system suitable for embedment in large, carbon fibre composite structures. This paper describes the first ever sea trials of a fully integrated, optical fibre strain sensor system, aboard the brand new super-yacht ´Jacquelina´. Sensor measurements from the yacht´s ´smart´, AeroRig^(R) mast under full sailing conditions are presented together with an appraisal of this unique data