Sailbot - robotic sailboat

bbg said:
Interesting story about a race across the Atlantic by unmanned robotic sailboats.

I assumed these things would be a meter or two long, but this entry will be 5.5 m.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technol...boat+first+cross+Atlantic/10745954/story.html
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I see that Dingle is "an island off the coast of Ireland".. Who knew?

Also that "The boat can sail at a speed of 10 knots". A 5 metre boat?


But. "One of the biggest worries is weather — hitting really bad weather and having damage to the boat and also hitting obstacles like icebergs and boats and other things,” is not reassuring.

Yeah. Obstacles like 8-12 metre GRP boats without ais transmitters.. Crunch..
 
My thoughts as well, but the route is not on the typical path for most cruising boats crossing the Atlantic.
 
Davegriff said:
Ah... The eternal optimism of youth methinks...
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Do you think so? In some ways, building and programming a sailboat to make its way across the ocean should not be overly difficult. With GPS, wind instruments, autopilot and weather information from a satellite, it should be able to do the sailing bit very easily.

If it were me, I would make sure there was a computer on board with routing software, get the system to download new GRIB files every 12 or 24 hours and run a new optimum route to the finish line. Then sail that route. Pretty easy.

I suspect the biggest problem is failures of physical systems. If a reefing system jammed and a storm came up, the sails could get shredded. A piece of plastic on the rudder could overload the autopilot and burn out the motor.

I hope there is a follow-up to this because it would be very interesting to see what happens in the end.
 
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