About the Microtransat
The Microtransat Challenge is a transatlantic race of fully autonomous sailing boats. The race aims to stimulate the development of autonomous sailing boats through friendly competition.
The 2012 transatlantic race is open to competitors for the duration of the year.
Other Upcoming Events
Sailbot 2012 hosted by the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, June 11th-14th 2012.
The 5th World Robotic Sailing Championships in Cardiff Bay Yacht Club, Cardiff, Wales, UK, September 17th to 21st 2012.
History of the Microtransat
The Microtransat Challenge was originally concieved in 2005 by Dr. Mark Neal of Aberystwyth University and Dr. Yves Briere of the Institut Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE, formerly known as ENSICA) in Tolouse, France.
The first Microtransat competition took place on a lake near Toulouse, France in June 2006. Three teams (Aberystwyth University, ENSICA/IUT de Nantes and INNOC) took part.
The second competition took place on the Irish Sea off the coast of Aberystwyth, Wales, UK in September 2007. This was intended to give competitors a sample of what sailing at sea was like. Four teams (Aberystwyth University, ENSICA/IUT de Nantes, INNOC and Queens University) took part.
A spin off competition, the World Robotic Sailing Championships was organised by INNOC (The Austrian Association for Innovative Computer Science) and took place in Austria in May 2008.
The 2nd World Robotic Sailing Championships were organised by the University of Porto and took place in Matosinhos, Portugal in July 2009.
The 3rd World Robotic Sailing Championships were combined with the Sailbot compeititon. This event was hosted by Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and took place in June 2010.
The first transatlantic race started from Valentia, County Kerry, Ireland in September 2010. Only the team from Aberystwyth University were able to launch during this time. Their boat has had problems and was last reported off the north west coast of Ireland but stopped sending position messages. The course taken by their robot can be seen at http://www.microtransat.org/tracking-2010.php
The 4th World Robotic Sailing Championships were organised by the University of Lubeck and took place in Lubeck, Germany in August 2011.
The second transatlantic race started in September 2011 with a start line stretching North/South from a point approximately 160 km west of Brest, France to a point approximately 200km west of Bideford, England. Only the team from ENSTA-Bretagne in Brest, France were able to launch. Their boat sailed for 8 days in total. Unfortunately it stopped making progress towards the start line after 2 days and gradually moved away from the start line, without having crossed it. The boat was spotted by a customs aircraft 2 days later, the aircraft was able to take a picture of the boat showing that one of the sails had sustained damage. The team then decided to rescue the boat and were able to recover it 4 days later. The course taken by the boat can be seen at http://www.microtransat.org/tracking-2011.php
