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