Robots: Autonomously across the Atlantic

Crewless sailing boats are being worked on around the world, with the best-known projects being the Roboat from Austria and the American Saildrone which has already completed a 2100-mile Pacific cruise from San Francisco to Hawaii. But compared to the plans of Plymouth University, the projects seem like toys.

With a length of over 32 metres and a width of almost 17 metres, the "Mayflower" is the largest project of its kind. Planning, construction time and testing are geared towards the autonomous crossing of the Atlantic in five years' time. The unusual trimaran will then emulate its famous namesake and sail from Plymouth in England to Plymouth in Massachusetts to mark the 400th anniversary of the original Mayflower's crossing. The realisation of the ambitious project, named Mars, is to be made possible by the partnership between Plymouth University and the shipyard MSubs and the design office Shuttleworth Design become possible. The multi-million euro project is part of a university campaign called "Shape the Future".

The first images show a trimaran with very slim hulls, a large curved deck area and two masts that lean aft in a sporty manner. Incidentally, the brothers John and Orion Schuttleworth made the decision to have the unmanned watercraft sail not out of a love of sailing, but out of technical calculation: "The premise of wanting to use renewable energy was reflected in the design of the trimaran. The surface area required for solar cells to keep the boat constantly under power is simply too large. The surface area exposed to wind and waves would jeopardise safety at sea. That's why we developed a foldable wing system to increase the surface area for the solar cells by 40 per cent in calm weather."

Brett Phaneuf, Managing Director of MSubs, has big plans: "I ask myself the question: if there is a rover on Mars that collects data for research on its own, can't we also sail across the Atlantic or even around the world with an unmanned watercraft? We hope to answer this question with Mars."

The shipyard boss estimates that the crossing will take around ten days. However, speed is not the aim of the mission; "Mayflower" is intended to collect data and provide empirical values for autonomous sailing. The measurements will be collected by drones on board.

Further information: www.shuttleworthdesign.com

A look into the past of unmanned sailing is offered by the video of the Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences with the Relationship project from 1997.

Unmanned sailing at the end of the 90s