cat sailors are now obsolete...

Great, let the boat sail itself, I can watch it from a comfy beach chair in a drunken stupor.

But seriously now, the coolest thing I've seen in a long time.

looks a bit like the winjet mark IV rig



Who can tell a bit more about this kind of rigs?

Well it does look neat..

I would rather see something like a diaper that changes itself.

I hope no tax dollars went into this.

can I get an amen?

Amen!

Two things to note:

1) That's one less Stiletto for the rest of us to sail

2) I wanna see it do the wild thing

I want to see it self right.

That looks like it can sail around by itself in the harbor, but the video talks about "deep ocean" and "heavy weather"

That thing will get trashed in any significant weather, and if they make is hardened enough to do law enforcement, it will be way to heavy.

They would probably use it for monitoring/surveilance, not heavy duty law "enforcing". <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Lots of use for an autonomus, fast and cheap boat to patrol a stretch of sea. Especially down in the gulf I would think?

I've heard it stated that steam replaced sail because coal was cheaper that man power. If fuel costs continue to rise and significant inroads can be made in automating sail, will we see a second age of sail?

Pretty scary, though, to think that there is any kind of big boat out there, whether sail or power, that has nobody onboard -- especially when I am out there in a small sailboat or powerboat or kayak or rowboat that might get run over by it because somehow my boat doesn't show up on their radar. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

So,
What would the govt be looking to monitor? Terrorists and drug runners at the top of the list. One of the guys on the video is a General, these arent guys looking to track sea turtles.

Half dozen rounds into that wing and its toast.

Plus it wont survive any serious weather.

It might be better used a a drone to let the sailing community watch sailing events. Put a bunch of high power cameras on it, pay to drive, pay to view. Make a fortune off all us desk jockey's.

Bill,

most scouting vehicles are very lightly armoured and armed. Agility and warning are the key goals. If you shoot up a boat like that, you will attract notice and a response, and that is probably the whole idea. For the rest, I would not know.
I definately would not like any autonomous vehicle around me except for the kind running on tracks. At least for now.
The USA (and probably others) are developing armed autonomous "robots", and that is really, really, scary in so many ways.

Pete,

I think we will see more sail and sail assisted in the future. Shipping is very economical compared to air, truck or train freight, but they are always looking to save money there as well. At this time bunker oil is still cheap enough to make sails a future development avenue.

thats pretty cool...and scary at the same time