The Microtransat Challenge

The Microtransat Challenge was launched in 2005 to encourage the development of fully autonomous model boats capable of crossing the Atlantic either east-west or west-east.

There are two boat classes:

  1. Sailing Class: Only wind power is allowed for propulsion.
  2. Non-Sailing Class: Any other propulsion method is permitted.

Two autonomy levels are also defined:

  1. Fully Autonomous Class: No changes to the boat’s course are allowed during the crossing, but it can receive and process public data such as weather forecasts.
  2. Unmanned Class: Data transmission to the boat is permitted, even if it changes its course.

Our boat is unmanned and competes in the Non-Sailing Class and the Unmanned Class: it navigates on its own, but we can send it new waypoints and commands from land.

To date, around 40 boats have taken part in the Microtransat Challenge. So far only two of them have made it across, both in the Sailing Class: SB Met of Team Sailbuoy and PC13 of Oshen. No boat has finished in the Non-Sailing Class yet – with our boat, we want to be the first.

The full rules are on the official website: microtransat.org

Start and finish lines

A boat starts by crossing the start line on one side of the Atlantic. Before it departs, each team picks a target point on the finish line on the other side. The boat has finished as soon as it gets within 25 km of that point – from any direction – and logs or reports a position inside that circle.

Direction
Start and finish lines of the Microtransat Challenge The eastern line runs off Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands, the western line off Newfoundland, the US east coast and the Caribbean. Boats start by crossing one of the lines and finish within 25 kilometres of a target point they chose on the line on the other side of the Atlantic. North America Europe Africa South America Start lineFinish line Finish lineStart line
  • Start line
  • Finish line
  • Typical route
  • Target area (25 km radius, not to scale)