#MarkSetBot - A robot buoy could change forever the way yacht clubs mark their racing courses.
That’s the promise of MarkSetBot, an invention by US sailor Kevin Morin which adapts two already existing technologies for a whole new purpose, as Sailing World reports.
MarkSetBot is essentially a standard race marker fitted with a GPS receiver and a trolling motor of the kind found on fishing boats.
By inputting co-ordinates via the cellular network — as simple as picking a point on a map — the MarkSetBot uses its motor to move into, and more importantly stay in the chosen position.
Testing in winds up to 17 knots and one-metre waves has shown the device capable of holding its position within a five-foot radius without the need for an anchor, according to Morin.
That’s impressive enough, but the bigger news for yacht clubs is that changing a course layout — to compensate for shifting winds, for example — could be as simple a matter as tapping a few points on a screen and watching the markers move themselves into place.
Sailing World has much more on the story HERE.
