The International Robotic Sailing Regatta (SailBot) is a robotic sailing competition held in North America in which teams of university, college and high school students compete. The first event, in 2006, was hosted by Queen’s University, at Kingston, Ontario and was inspired by the success of a senior project at the University of British Columbia to build a robotic sailboat. Since 2008 teams have annually competed throughout the US and Canada, with teams traveling from as far away as Europe and Brazil. The goal is to create an unmanned sailboat that navigates through a variety of challenges with limited, if any, human control. Students are able to use this friendly competition between schools to apply their engineering knowledge in a multi-disciplinary task that requires mechanical, electrical, software and engineering management skills to deal with this highly variable environment.
The competition is oriented to boats competing in the SailBot Class (up to 2 meters in length) but smaller boats are popular due to their easier logistics. There is an Open Class (which are boats up to 4 meters in length) oriented toward non-school teams. Occasionally boats above two meters in length enter in preparation for the MicroTransAt Challenge (max 2.4 meters length) or the World Robotics Sailing Championship (up to 4 meters in length). Many teams use the MaxiMOOP as their first platform due to its convenient size (1.2m), light weight (20 kg), much greater payload capability than an RC boat and improved seaworthiness.
SailBot Perpetual Trophy
Past SailBot Events
2024 – Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA
2023 – Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA
2022 – Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
2021 – (not held due to COVID-19)
2020 – (not held due to COVID-19)
2019 – Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
2018 – Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
2017 – Annapolis, Maryland, USA
2016 – Kingston, Ontario, Canada
2015 – St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
2014 – Vallejo, California, USA
2013 – Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA
2012 – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
2011 – Annapolis, Maryland, USA
2010 – Kingston, Ontario, Canada
2009 – Annapolis, Maryland, USA
2008 – Annapolis, Maryland, USA
2007 – (not held)
2006 – Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Note! Details of past events are in some cases quite lacking! If you have additional information, please send it to us!