Sailbot 2012 in Vancouver

We are back from Vancouver safe and sound.  Those that drove out to Vancouver had a very fast drive.  Driving from St. john's to Vancouver in four and half days.  The total distance is close to 8000 km and includes a 4-6 hour ferry.  

The competition was a great experience for the team.  While we beat our score from last year, we got last place overall. However, the boat was durable and performed well under all conditions.  We now have a stable platform to test code with and the mechanical and naval students can focus on a whole new build.  Many of the systems which have been worked out on this build are transferable to any new boats we build. The biggest take away from the competition is to have the boat in the water early, have it in the water lots and streamline your software development cycle.

We are now waiting for the boat to finish shipping back to St. John's and revamping our fund-raising strategies for the coming year.  It is an exciting time to be involved in the Sailbot class as teams are getting close to perfect scores.  The competition is prime to evolve.  A big congratulations to the UBC team for winning Sailbot 2012.

Arctica Rounding the Mark