[svHyLyte]

Using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for forward reconnaissance of potentially difficult anchorages/passes may be becoming a possibility:

 

[Faster]

Pretty amazing!.. wonder who's going to do traffic control once everyone gets one of these and the Amazon drones start delivering!!

 

[MarkSF]

Just saw this story on Latitude 38 :

Latitude 38 - 'Lectronic Latitude

(see under "Toys and Tools for Cruisers")

 

[erps]

Are there any members who have a video camera permanently installed on their mast with a feed to their chart plotter? I always thought that might be a way to see the rock I was about to hit.

 

[TQA]

Putting a depth sounder on a RC boat with some telemetry to feed back the depths feels like it would be more useful.

It could be made to zig zag ahead of the mother ship and show actual depths on an overlay on the chart plotter.

This would save quite a few groundings if used on the south coast of Grenada alone.

Me, I guess I will still be standing up and looking over the dodger while I enter on a day with good light.

 

[Frogwatch]

Two weeks ago, I became interested in using a lightweight autogyro deployed from a moving sailboat to "look ahead" via a Gopro camera. The towed autogyro would not need power to fly and an autogyro is very efficient. However, this doesnt seem like a real good application. Maybe lifting an antenna would be a good app.

 

[svHyLyte]

Putting a depth sounder on a RC boat with some telemetry to feed back the depths feels like it would be more useful.

It could be made to zig zag ahead of the mother ship and show actual depths on an overlay on the chart plotter.

This would save quite a few groundings if used on the south coast of Grenada alone.

Me, I guess I will still be standing up and looking over the dodger while I enter on a day with good light.

A year or two ago I wrote about a couple we met that had done exactly that with a Hummingbird Wireless Fish Finder of the type one casts out with a fishing rod. It was installed in the hull of a modest sized RC boat that the lady controlled from the bow where she could give directions to her husband at the helm via a Cruising Solutions wireless headset. The arrangement seemed to work pretty well.

The UAV I referenced would be good for checking out anchorages and other spots and could also be used in conjunction with the wireless fish finder in a UFV (unmanned floating vehicle) or even in a "dipping sonar" manner, just by hanging it off the UAV's skids with a length of fishing line. No?

FWIW...

 

[hellosailor]

A Parrot quadcopter, with a 1/2 ounce fishing weight and eight or ten feet of fishing line dangling beneath it, perhaps?

 

[PaulinVictoria]

I wonder how many UAVs will be lost to friendly fire, or not so friendly when one comes buzzing into a quiet anchorage.

 

[seabreeze_97]

Seems to me these UAV's, particularly the longer-legged ones, would be ideal for searching for endangered missing persons. I mean, if they can look for, and actually attack people in other countries, why not have a couple for search and rescue?
And Frogwatch, Yves Gelinas did something similar, albeit without wireless....they called it film back then, aboard his boat (Jean du Sud) many, many years ago. He used a kite.

 

[Petrouschka]

I think that sounds like a fun idea, plus you could record some spectacular sailing footage from overhead.

This video was filmed from a similar UAV, just to give an indication of the capabilities. Watch it in 1080P if capable...

 

[Ferretchaser]

I thought we all had one of them as standard .... How do ya think I got this picture ??

ATB

Michael

 

[hellosailor]

"This video" appears as a blank white box here, under MSIE10. With no URL, no image properties displayed for it. Lots of linked videos do that, any idea why? What that link should look like as a URL?

 

[svHyLyte]

A Parrot quadcopter, with a 1/2 ounce fishing weight and eight or ten feet of fishing line dangling beneath it, perhaps?

The "dipping sonar" approach I referred to above, would use the Hummingbird Smartcast RF25 with the transducer float hanging from a length of fishing line attached to the UAV's skids:

 

[Fstbttms]

Using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for forward reconnaissance of potentially difficult anchorages/passes may be becoming a possibility

These quadcopters are waterproof and can land in, and takeoff from water. Mount a GoPro camera and a wireless depthfinder on one:

Home page

 

[oceangirl]

I'm with sea breeze, search and rescue.
Remember the kids washed off the rocky shore in Spain? Deploy about five in all directions , have a better chance of at least spotting them before they succum, maybe have it deploy a floatation with mark.
Remember the Nina, she could still be out there. Deploy a few hundred. If we can buy them for toys, and "anchorage spotters" then we should be able to get it together to save some lives, eh?

 

[hellosailor]

HyLyte I'm all for the Hummingbird, but until you get the weight down to the same half-ounce as a fishing sinker...Remember, payload determines your speed, range, costs, and anything else about your drone. And the size of the yacht necessary to launch and recover it.

 

[Brewgyver]

Seems to me these UAV's, particularly the longer-legged ones, would be ideal for searching for endangered missing persons. I mean, if they can look for, and actually attack people in other countries, why not have a couple for search and rescue?
And Frogwatch, Yves Gelinas did something similar, albeit without wireless....they called it film back then, aboard his boat (Jean du Sud) many, many years ago. He used a kite.

Of course, several of the highly advanced military drones in service over the last couple of decades are capable of such duty, and could be tasked to SAR. There have been cases of them being used for other purely civilian purposes, such as the Predator used by the California Air National Guard to assist with the Rim Fire in and around Yosemite just a few months ago.

However, the type of Radio Controlled (RC) Quadcopter in this thread has flight times measured in minutes, typically not much over 10 minutes. To extend flight times, you can use a higher capacity battery (measured in MAH, miliamp-hours), but there is a point at which the several curves of lift capacity, battery capacity, and total aircraft weight put a finite limit on flight time.

 

[svHyLyte]

Of course, several of the highly advanced military drones in service over the last couple of decades are capable of such duty, and could be tasked to SAR. There have been cases of them being used for other purely civilian purposes, such as the Predator used by the California Air National Guard to assist with the Rim Fire in and around Yosemite just a few months ago.

However, the type of Radio Controlled (RC) Quadcopter in this thread has flight times measured in minutes, typically not much over 10 minutes. To extend flight times, you can use a higher capacity battery (measured in MAH, miliamp-hours), but there is a point at which the several curves of lift capacity, battery capacity, and total aircraft weight put a finite limit on flight time.

The flight time of the UAV referred to in my original post (#1) is reported as 25 minutes out of the box by the manufacturer.

 

[Fstbttms]

Do a Google search. You'll find many companies selling RC quadcopters to LE and other agencies for SAR operations.