Danyc0/SailbotReview

## SailbotReview
Sailbot 2014 -

On the first day of competitions we tried to compete in the fleet race, which is designed to be done on Remote Control, with our high wind sails for added speed, which retrospectively was a big mistake as it gave us huge amounts of weather helm and we ended up sailing into some rocks, leaving us with a Did Not Finish.

The next day we did the fleet race again but had the same problem as the day before and got another Did Not Finish. On day two we also entered the Station Keeping challenge  with our smaller set of sails and we managed to get a good time of 5:14, but it was on RC so we only got half marks. This was also our last chance to compete in the Accuracy challenge but we were having strange problems with our control system so we didn't make it in time.

Day three was the group presentations. The judges for the presentations included the creators of Saildrone and the founder of Sailbot (Who also happens to be one of the design team for the New Zealand entry into the Americas Cup!). Due to lack of a decent internet connection we ended up having only one photo in the presentation which let us down massively.

Day 4 was the final scheduled event, the long distance race, which was 9.3km long and has a 6 hour cut off. Last year we did very well in this event and although the distance was only 6km before, we still were hoping we'd still be in with a good shot. Things however did not go to plan, we didn't get our autonomous control system ready in time due to us getting completely inconsistent values out of our compass. To get any points before the 6 hour cut off we decided to try and do the long distance on RC for half points. This was not to be however as on our first leg of the race our sail winch cut out from the force of the wind and we had to return to shore. When we took it out of the water we found the boat had puddles of water inside, but due to us having two layers of waterproofing, the electronics was uneffected.

On the last day of the competition we were given a tour of Cal Maritime to see all the facilities they had to offer and the results were anounced. We ended up with a score of 17.5/50 with the University of British Columbia placing first with a score of 50/50 (for the second year running) and our closest competitors, Virginia Tech, beating us by one point with 18.5/50.

We still have very little idea at this point what's wrong with our compass, but we have a feeling it might be installed upside-down, however that shouldn't really explain the kind of data we're getting back.
	Sailbot 2014 -

	On the first day of competitions we tried to compete in the fleet race, which is designed to be done on Remote Control, with our high wind sails for added speed, which retrospectively was a big mistake as it gave us huge amounts of weather helm and we ended up sailing into some rocks, leaving us with a Did Not Finish.

	The next day we did the fleet race again but had the same problem as the day before and got another Did Not Finish. On day two we also entered the Station Keeping challenge with our smaller set of sails and we managed to get a good time of 5:14, but it was on RC so we only got half marks. This was also our last chance to compete in the Accuracy challenge but we were having strange problems with our control system so we didn't make it in time.

	Day three was the group presentations. The judges for the presentations included the creators of Saildrone and the founder of Sailbot (Who also happens to be one of the design team for the New Zealand entry into the Americas Cup!). Due to lack of a decent internet connection we ended up having only one photo in the presentation which let us down massively.

	Day 4 was the final scheduled event, the long distance race, which was 9.3km long and has a 6 hour cut off. Last year we did very well in this event and although the distance was only 6km before, we still were hoping we'd still be in with a good shot. Things however did not go to plan, we didn't get our autonomous control system ready in time due to us getting completely inconsistent values out of our compass. To get any points before the 6 hour cut off we decided to try and do the long distance on RC for half points. This was not to be however as on our first leg of the race our sail winch cut out from the force of the wind and we had to return to shore. When we took it out of the water we found the boat had puddles of water inside, but due to us having two layers of waterproofing, the electronics was uneffected.

	On the last day of the competition we were given a tour of Cal Maritime to see all the facilities they had to offer and the results were anounced. We ended up with a score of 17.5/50 with the University of British Columbia placing first with a score of 50/50 (for the second year running) and our closest competitors, Virginia Tech, beating us by one point with 18.5/50.

	We still have very little idea at this point what's wrong with our compass, but we have a feeling it might be installed upside-down, however that shouldn't really explain the kind of data we're getting back.