Sailing drones
- Thread starter Alan Gomes
- Start date
-
- Tags
- drones
Sounds like it is coming from somebody who doesn't sail in the open ocean.Once again, fear trumps reason. Or, you can rearrange those words to your liking.
Because unlike the drones, which will be evenly distributed across the ocean, ships and sailboats tend to be concentrated into specific "lanes" based on geography, wind, and current, vastly increasing their probability of a chance encounter.
Last edited:
I have a 24' boat, i wonder if their sail system would mount up, for once i might be able to sail to my proper destination. Let me know if you capture one!
I'm mystified. When I singlehanded I slept in the day time. My boat is easy to see in daylight and I don't have to worry that one of nav lights may have gone out or rely on some tech like AIS. It makes absolutely no sense at all to me to sleep when my boat is shrouded in darkness.
It screams of 'boys and their toys.' It's a little more unruly but not unlike a Remote Control boat.
I put two solar powered lucy lights under the dodger pointed forwards. It really lights up the boat forward and makes the boat easier to see at night then it is at daytime...much easier. A white boat with white sails against a white cloudy or light blue background vs white sails in blackness and two fairly bright lights that can be seen 6 miles away for sure (boat called me from 6 miles away).
I sleep in the cockpit so when things go wrong, I don't have to fumble for a light to see it while it is still making the noise. It also gives a tad bit of background light for the cockpit. I really like it this way. I have 4 of those lights and use two a day. With a full day of charge it will burn all night, but just to make sure it has enough charge I rotate them so they have a day off in between.
I sleep in the cockpit so when things go wrong, I don't have to fumble for a light to see it while it is still making the noise. It also gives a tad bit of background light for the cockpit. I really like it this way. I have 4 of those lights and use two a day. With a full day of charge it will burn all night, but just to make sure it has enough charge I rotate them so they have a day off in between.
Last edited:
NotCook
.
- Dec 29, 2008
- 806
I, too, am with Capta on this one. Single handing or not, at night it is hard enough to be constantly vigil, and during the day there is enough to to distract you while trying to keep a ship running smoothly. Just how many "extremely remote" events should be tolerated before it is considered a "problem"?
"Man vs. Sailbot". So this is it then. Evil is about to roam the seas as a legion of shiny blind zombie death craft...War I say!
You are thinking as though the other boats looking at you are sailboats. "A white boat with white sails against a white cloudy or light blue background" is not what I see when I'm looking DOWN at a sailboat from a bridge 50 to 120 feet above the sea. Your boat is not against the sky, it's against the sea and trust me, it's a lot easier to see and identify it's course in daylight.
And this; "It really lights up the boat forward and makes the boat easier to see at night then it is at daytime...much easier" doesn't interfere with YOUR ability to maybe see another poorly lit vessel out forward of you?
I'd much rather see, but never be seen by a ship (or any vessel for that matter) than rely on his actions to avoid me.
Aye, the dream of every captain... I only wish I were qualified to weigh in on this aspect.
Still, this sort of math bothers me...
I believe it might fall into, "Lies, damned lies, and statistics." It does not account for the patterns and habits that might concentrate manned and unmanned vessels in the same area (like, I don't know, FISH?) Hmm, perhaps a string of fake fish tied on the "sailbot" sterns might cause them to just follow each other in circles.
When I was circumnavigating, I worked it out that if I could not see any vessels from my cabin top at sea, I would be just beyond mortal jeopardy from the faster vessels plying the seas at that time (1970-1979) 15 minutes later. I would therefore set an old fashioned kitchen timer for 12 minutes and grab a few minutes rest out of the weather. In point of fact, one military vessel came from over the horizon to close enough that what woke me was a squeak in his large radar antenna, in less than 6 minutes. If you sleep at sea, without having someone on watch, you are without a doubt putting yourself in mortal danger.
I was so intrigued by the potential hazards of these things that I failed to attribute their honorable purpose: more global warming grant money. I guess if you can't tap another big grant to stick another thermometer on another asphalt roof next to another a/c exhaust somewhere, then saving the planet with wonderful little wind and solar powered ocean roaming drones must be the ticket. Ach! Another government boondoggle in the making.
Edit: true, initial investment from private "social" investors, but read on. Last para.:
“They completely failed to see the last one coming,” he said, noting that climate scientists acknowledge they don’t have the spatial resolution to make accurate predictions. “They have a pressing need for more data.”
(Spatial resolution indeed)
Edit: true, initial investment from private "social" investors, but read on. Last para.:
“They completely failed to see the last one coming,” he said, noting that climate scientists acknowledge they don’t have the spatial resolution to make accurate predictions. “They have a pressing need for more data.”
(Spatial resolution indeed)
Last edited:
If it was night time and you were lit up like a football field he wouldn't have come so close
And that is my point. As a single handler, and to some extent, couples as well, it is darn near impossible to see everything. Tell me you haven't been on watch and went down to use the head and spent more than 6 minutes down there. So, we do the best we can. In my case, that is lighting up my boat brightly at night so it sticks out like the full moon on a clear night so that everybody can see it a long ways off and within time, know the direction too if they don't have AIS. This may not be best for you but it is for me and has worked very well for me. I learned the trick from the shrimping boats on the Texas coast. I could see them from 10 miles away it seemed with my eye closed The only people I am in danger of running into is other boats or obstacles that do not have a lookout. I'll take my chances with the handful of us out there. 10,000 24/365 a day blindly sailing vessels, well, that just makes me want to get crew....who can shoot as well as watch
If it was night time and you were lit up like a football field he wouldn't have come so close
And that is my point. As a single handler, and to some extent, couples as well, it is darn near impossible to see everything. Tell me you haven't been on watch and went down to use the head and spent more than 6 minutes down there. So, we do the best we can. In my case, that is lighting up my boat brightly at night so it sticks out like the full moon on a clear night so that everybody can see it a long ways off and within time, know the direction too if they don't have AIS. This may not be best for you but it is for me and has worked very well for me. I learned the trick from the shrimping boats on the Texas coast. I could see them from 10 miles away it seemed with my eye closed The only people I am in danger of running into is other boats or obstacles that do not have a lookout. I'll take my chances with the handful of us out there. 10,000 24/365 a day blindly sailing vessels, well, that just makes me want to get crew....who can shoot as well as watch
Of course this all assumes the bridge is manned.
And I'm not just talking about cases of current vessels with autopilot on and no adequate watch.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-ships-challenge-375-billion-industry-freight
Change is coming, and the world of recreational sailing rightfully takes a back seat to commerce and science research.
We will have to adjust, like humans have done for eons.
Companies won't risk allowing their expensive research drones and cargo ships being damaged.
The methodology and technology that we'll all be using will be worked out eventually.
This reminds me of the threads, where people freak about autonomous cars. It will come one day.
Just like when horse riders/and sailors complained about cars/steamships.
It's not like this stuff is all happening tomorrow, or even getting off the ground in the next 10 years. There's a big difference between a prototypes or a few initial test models and full implementation.
Last edited: