Imagine the sight of a handsome 28-foot sailboat, adrift at sea. Her sails are down, her crew nowhere onboard, and with every minute the current is pushing her closer to dangerous rocks.
Suddenly, she hoists her own sails. As the wind fills her sails, the Ghost Ship takes control of her own rudder and starts on her course from Fair Isle, north of Scotland, to Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
No, your eyes are not fooling you. This is a boat built to sail without a crew. According to Sail Magazine:
Remote-controlled hydraulics operate the furling gear and trim the sheets. The navigation system features a set of sensors that link key data - including the boat's position, wind speed and direction, boatspeed, and depth - to a laptop running navigation software.
The project is a collaboration between the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Southampton and performance artist Chris Burden.
The next step, says Dr. David Labbe, project manager, is to "completely automate the sail-control system." He continues, "Imagine being able to sail without actually knowing about sails? It only takes a little Ghost Ship to dream up a world of possibilities."
