Feature Team: Mostly Autonomous Sailboat Team (MAST)
Marc troubleshooting at the World Robotic Sailing Championship 2008 (Breitenbrunn, Austria)
Manager: Marc Burnie
Email: sailboat@engsoc.queensu.ca
Team homepage: www.qmast.ca
Queen’s MAST is a student team that designs an autonomous sailboat from conception to construction. MAST competes in both Sailbot and the World Robotic Sailing Championship competitions, which tests the boats by racing them through a collection of waypoints. During the race each boat must steer, hoist and trim sails based on wind, GPS and water speed measurements without human intervention.
MAST is one of the several teams from around the world that are preparing to build the first sailing vessel to cross the Atlantic completely autonomously. Currently, MAST is constructing a 4 meter vessel for the trans-Atlantic competition and designing a new 2 meter for the Sailbot and World Robotic Sailing Championship competitions, which will both be hosted by Queen’s next summer.
If you are interested in joining the team e-mail:
sailboat@engsoc.queensu.ca. No previous experience is required.