Re:The Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project
by contingencies on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:44PM
(#22931643)
Very rough scale with respect to sailing vessels around 30-55 foot length... multihulls (fast = 20 knots, common = 15 knots, many = 10 knots), monohulls (fast = 12 knots, common = 8-10 knots, many = 6-8 knots). For an ocean-going trimaran, their 10 knot speed is not fast. It is quite likely the vessel's apparently near-fixed "wingsail" represents a very conservatively-rigged configuration that is biased for stability instead of speed.
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Thinking about it in the context of the colregs, 10kts is above the hull speed of a 40ft sailing yacht, and is probably plenty fast enough to sink that yacht in a collision.