Sailbot-scale boats are way too small to do the Microtransat. I love to see the effort, as I know first-hand the challenges of making a boat sail autonomously. But my prediction is that the only way anyone will complete the Microtransat is with a large hull and a tried-and-proven rig, like an Optimist dinghy. But like I said, I love seeing people excited about robotic sailing, so congratulations on your work so far!
Source: I'm part of the autonomous sailing team that won the 2012 World Robotic Sailing Championship (WRSC) and made Best Student Team last year. Our boat is 2,5 m long with around five years of work poured into it and I guarantee it can't cross the Atlantic unless it catches a lucky break.
Our team is switching up the way we design the boat greatly this year! The boat will be 5.5m long, as opposed to our 2m competition boat, and the rig will be a windsurf sail. You can read more about this at http://ubcsailbot.org.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 20.6 ms ] threadSource: I'm part of the autonomous sailing team that won the 2012 World Robotic Sailing Championship (WRSC) and made Best Student Team last year. Our boat is 2,5 m long with around five years of work poured into it and I guarantee it can't cross the Atlantic unless it catches a lucky break.