Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday September 14 2018, @06:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the scale-it-up! dept.

Sailboats have been traversing the Atlantic Ocean since before 1592[*], sailing through sunshine, wind, and rain. The one thing that they've all had in common has been a captain to pilot the ship across this vast watery expanse, at least until now. A company called Offshore Sensing has sailed an unmanned vessel all the way from Canada to Ireland.

The ship, called the Sailbuoy, attempted the journey last year as well but only made it about halfway before the mission was abandoned. This year, however, the voyage was finally completed, and this craft is officially the first unmanned ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The journey took about 80 days using sails and a small set of solar panels to drive the control electronics.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2018/09/07/unmanned-sailboat-traverses-the-north-atlantic/

[*] I suspect they intended to refer to 1492 — Christopher Columbus' first trip to the "New World". Technically, though, the statement was before 1592 which is correct, which we all know is the best kind of correct. =) --Ed


Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday September 14 2018, @08:06AM (6 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Friday September 14 2018, @08:06AM (#734735) Journal
    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 14 2018, @08:57AM (5 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @08:57AM (#734747) Journal

      Seems large enough for about 10-20 kg of high value smuggling stuff.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 14 2018, @10:56AM (4 children)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday September 14 2018, @10:56AM (#734769)

        Makes me think of a message in a bottle, but with higher odds.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday September 14 2018, @12:31PM (1 child)

          by MostCynical (2589) on Friday September 14 2018, @12:31PM (#734801) Journal

          where the bottle knows at which beach to stop

          --
          "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
          • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 14 2018, @01:36PM

            by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday September 14 2018, @01:36PM (#734808)

            I don't think they're this good, yet. This is the first one to make it across at all, several before it failed.

            --
            🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday September 14 2018, @04:46PM (1 child)

          by bob_super (1357) on Friday September 14 2018, @04:46PM (#734895)

          Yep. I'm pretty sure that Japan demonstrated the ability to send vast amounts of unmanned ships and other random floating stuff across the Pacific a few years back. Lots of them made it to the West Coast as predicted.
          Best one I read about was a motorcycle in a container.

          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 14 2018, @10:42PM

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @10:42PM (#735118) Journal

            see also [wikipedia.org]

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Friday September 14 2018, @08:54AM (1 child)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 14 2018, @08:54AM (#734746) Journal

    The ship, called the Sailbuoy, attempted the journey last year [hackaday.com] as well but only made it about halfway before the mission was abandoned.

    Reminds me about the Soviet swimmer who attempts to cross the Atlantic. After reaching the three quarters of the distance mark, he gets tired and swims back home.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by MostCynical on Friday September 14 2018, @12:34PM

      by MostCynical (2589) on Friday September 14 2018, @12:34PM (#734802) Journal

      "Dad, dad, I've changed my mind; I don't want to go to New Zealand"
      .
      .
      .
      .
      "Shut up and keep swiimming"

      --
      "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @11:07AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @11:07AM (#734772)

    Must be the worst boat name in the long history of sailing.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Friday September 14 2018, @11:22AM

      by Gaaark (41) on Friday September 14 2018, @11:22AM (#734781) Journal

      Sailbuoy McBuoy-face!

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 14 2018, @02:42PM (3 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday September 14 2018, @02:42PM (#734842) Journal

    Congratulations to the team. It's a cool feat.

    NOAA says, "80% of our oceans are unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored." Devices like this should help us bridge that gap.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday September 14 2018, @04:48PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Friday September 14 2018, @04:48PM (#734899)

      > help us bridge that gap

      "Nah. You don't have to bother. Really. Nothing to see here. Promise!"
        - the local fauna

    • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Friday September 14 2018, @06:29PM

      by Nuke (3162) on Friday September 14 2018, @06:29PM (#734947)

      NOAA says, "80% of our oceans are unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored."

      I could map that 80% for you right now. It is a featureless area of blue.

    • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday September 14 2018, @10:57PM

      by captain normal (2205) on Friday September 14 2018, @10:57PM (#735127)

      First time I've heard of these Sailbouy guys. Now these guys, https://www.saildrone.com/ [saildrone.com] have been sending these autonomous sailboats across the Pacific for more than three years now.

      --
      When life isn't going right, go left.
  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Friday September 14 2018, @06:25PM (3 children)

    by Nuke (3162) on Friday September 14 2018, @06:25PM (#734945)

    I have designed sailing yachts, and that design looks terrible. The centre of effort of the sail is so far forward, way ahead of the centre of lateral resistance of the underwater part of the hull. That does not matter when the wind is behind, but if the wind is on the beam (meaning from the side) the rudder will be fighting at quite an angle to keep the boat from falling away from the wind. No wonder it took so long (at about 2mph it seems).

    • (Score: 2) by dw861 on Saturday September 15 2018, @07:56PM (2 children)

      by dw861 (1561) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 15 2018, @07:56PM (#735393) Journal

      So any suggestions as to why they went with the design that they did?

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Nuke on Sunday September 16 2018, @09:23AM (1 child)

        by Nuke (3162) on Sunday September 16 2018, @09:23AM (#735594)

        Perhaps trying to minmise shadow on the solar panels, but I would not have thought it made much difference.

        Here is a single-sail model racing yacht based on the full-size Laser class (the rig is sometimes called a "catboat") :-
        https://pull01-apsltd.netdna-ssl.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/c/l/cllaser.jpg [netdna-ssl.com]

        You can see how the sail area is more-or-less centred over the underwater lateral area, as in normal yacht design. It is about 1m long, but scaled up to 2m it would be comparable with the Sailbuoy. This model has the usual fabric sail, but that could be replaced by a wing sail like the Sailbouy used for greater un-manned reliability. (Wing sails are banned in most yacht racing classes.) A 2m model yacht would be capable of sailing at 8 kts in good breezy conditions - and we are told the Sailbour had them. I notice the Sailbouy crossed from west to east, which is with the prevailing wind in the North Atlantic; it would take longer the other way.

        • (Score: 2) by dw861 on Monday September 17 2018, @03:44AM

          by dw861 (1561) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 17 2018, @03:44AM (#735844) Journal

          When I posed the question, all that came to my ignorant mind was shade as well. So, it is comforting to see that possibility voiced by somebody actually in the discipline.

(1)