MAYFLOWER PILGRIMS VOYAGE - MAS's direction of travel is the reverse of the Scout and Voyager autonomous Atlantic attempts that took advantage of trade winds. The Mayflower will be heading into prevailing winds. If sail powered, she would need to tack. But powered by a diesel engine, there is no need for that. Energy from nature is used to power the onboard AI and satellite communications. Any surplus could aid propulsion.

We are following this exciting scientific adventure, hoping that the all alloy Mayflower makes it from Plymouth in Devon, UK, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the USA - a journey of approximately 3,160 nautical miles - without any technical hitches. 

We will be reporting the facts with our own observations. You can find out more about progress on the official websites (urls below).

Following the nineteenth day of autonomous navigation, on the twentieth day of the attempt to cross the Atlantic ocean the MAS 400 ........ 

We are looking forward to be able to say that the Mayflower arrived safely, but if delayed or overdue for any reason, we'll continue to follow on the twenty-first day ans so on .... with our fingers crossed for the intelligent trimaran ....

TRANSATLANTIC EVENT CALENDAR 2021

The IBM Mayflower MAS 400 is an autonomous trimaran powered by a diesel engine, piloted by a solar powered artificially intelligent computer system developed by IBM called 'AI Captain.'

JOURNEY TIME

The original wooden 30-meter Mayflower took 66 days to carry the Pilgrims, Founding Fathers from the U.K. to what is now the U.S. The voyage would have involved a lot of tacking, because sailing ships cannot sail directly into the wind. But the new sail-less aluminium boat should take two to three weeks (14-21 days) depending on how strong the prevailing trade winds are.

LINKS & CONTACTS

https://mas400.com/

http://www.promare.org/projects/
https://newsroom.ibm.com/then-and-now