Was is a sprog on a cat? No it was driverless!

[shmoo]

Saw this cat weaving in an out of the moored boats - fast and lively. Looked like it was heading for the main channel, up which I was motoring. Made mental note "must get cylinder, must. Then noticed <u> it had no driver </u>. Thought "oh my god, driver is MOB. What to do? Mayday Relay?". But no, dawned on me, its a radio controlled model. About 1.5m long and 2m mast and doing about 10kt! Whatever next.

What's the colregs situation? Could I have run it down? Assuming I could catch it, which is unlikely.

 

[Noddy]

I used to teach flying and have altered course to give way to another aircraft before realising it was an aeromodel.

Terrifying though - the 'pilot' is on the ground and may not be looking ahead. Treat like a guided missile.

Note: If you could catch sight of the pilot (in the cockpit) and he reminds you of a garden gnome or action man the alarm bells should start ringing.

 

[Landale]

I've just finished skippering a chase boat in a robotic yacht comp and also as a judge see web page

IIRC they are regarded as buoys - they are usually covered in enough signs and flags to leave you in no doubt!!

However in the right conditions they appear to be full sized vessels /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

The autonomous robotic ones are many miles away from a conventional R/C one, I was very impressed with the entrants.

I can't recall the correct ColRegs interpretation but you keep out of their way /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

 

[Talbot]

IMO has not caught up with the 21st Century and Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) yet. They have been used in several theatres of war by the military - including UK who used USV minesweepers, and by Israel and USA (amongst many others). Some of these even have weapons. The interpretation used so far (and echoing the UAV interpretation) is that they have to obey all rules and regulations as if they are manned craft. Considerable work has been done to solve the air space management problems of UAVs and these are now operating around the world.