Hi all…

It's been while since i posted. I am getting ready to leave for the Multihull Boat show in the South of France. It's The trendy Boat show in France…
I received a mailer with the innovations that will be presented at the show. Among them, there is one that is impossible to miss. I said to myself it had to come one day. Here it is…
Catana (the French performance cat builder) announced they will introduce, on their BALI line, a 40ft cat that sails/drives itself ALONE – a little bit like the driverless cars that are tested by Google and Tesla. I was so intrigued that I called one of my contacts at the Catana Group, and she told me how this is going to work.

Say you are at anchor at Cane Garden Bay, and want to go to the Bight. You will input just those 2 informations on an iPad-like interface, along with the time you want to leave. The boat will have a Navionics-based navigation system which will automatically determine the best route, around the obstacles etc. So far, no big deal… (I have this on my iPhone with my $9 Navionics app). Where it becomes VERY interesting, is that, once it is time to leave, the engine(s) will self-start, the master-control system will weigh anchor and just…go, completely self-driven. Once out of the anchorage, the boat will settle into the wind, and the mainsail will raise itself. Again, ON ITS OWN.
The boat will then automatically start its navigation, constantly monitoring the wind angle and adjusting the mainsail accordingly. Once settled, the jib/genoa will come out and there you go!! The skipper has not done ANYTHING except inputing the information at the beginning.

The boat will be equipped with a radar system to detect a collision course with another vessel and automatically take appropriate action. Upon being about 1 mile out of the target, the systems will re-start the engines, drop/furl the sails and drive to the anchorage. At this stage, the skipper will be driving the boat with a finger on a touch-screen system to the perfect anchor spot (for the time being, mooring balls STILL have to be picked up manually … Sorry!). The anchor will drop itself and settle it properly before shutting down the engines.

I cannot begin to imagine the new perspectives that this will open for charter companies… I will be able to see all this live at the Boat Show and report to you guys from France.

April Fools to you too!

No, this happens to be true. Check out this report:

Autonomous Sailing Hits the Water

Dan <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />

Rick rolled!!
When I first starting reading the post (well done OP!) I was laughing about what my response was going to be because we chartered a Bali 4.3 and we couldn't get it to do half that stuff with us sailing it!! I especially loved the reference to touch screen. Ours didn't work all week and had to have an iPad at the helm. Awkward to say the least. You picked a good boat to punk!! Not to mention, beautiful delivered post, very believable <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

All right. It was an April's fool thing. Not too successful this year... The concept makes sense on paper, but if you start carefully think about it, it's probably not feasible. For ex., what about avoiding fish traps, swimmers in an anchorage, etc.
See you guys next year... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Good one Michael! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

mappy <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />