News

14th April 2010: First Test Drives with Model Sailboat

Today we executed the first test drives with our model sailboat “Estelle“. The Sailing Team got the permission to sail on the “Woog“ in Darmstadt. In addition to the basic handling and maneuverability we also examined the response of the boat to different payload. The installed actuators for rudder and sail adjustment proved to be powerful. In future test drives further components like sensors can be connected to the on-board electronics and will be tested.


2nd December 2009: Fa. Robbe sponsors model sailing yacht

The company “Robbe Modellsport” provides us with a model sailing boat for our project. It is a so called “Estelle”, a 1.10m long model yacht with an overall displacement of 4,2kg and a sail area of 48dm2. The Estelle has certain essential advantages for our intention compared to a bigger sized boat. She has good cruising abilities at slow wind and can be transported easily. That’s important for test runs in the area around Darmstadt which offers not the best sailing conditions. The rigging (Slup) consists of a main and a fore course and is therefore similar and comparable to usual sailing yachts. We are now in the position to test hard- and software on board and start modulating it to the actual environmental conditions.  

5th October 2009: First-year students' welcome day

Today a University organized welcome celebration for the first-year students took place. Approximately 2000 visitors attended this event. Beside presentations and speeches the students could inform themselves about many academic groups on several info booths. Many first-year students showed interest and asked a lot questions. In addition to several possible future members we could also welcome the president and the chancellor of our university at our booth.

25th September 2009:  Interboot 2009

On this annual fair in Friedrichshafen am Bodensee are exhibitors on every important water sport topic: Sailing boats, motor boats, surf- and diving equipment as well as accessories for vessels like navigation and autopilots. Team members were on-site and gained some very useful experience as well as further connections to the industry.

6th July 2009: World World Robotic Sailing Championship

This year the World Robotic Sailing Championship takes place from the 6th to the 12th of July in Portugal. More news can be found on the official website. We will follow the competition closely and are curious to see how the attendants and our next year opponents will acquit themselves. The championship exists only since a few years and attracts more participants each time. One can see that autonomic sailing is developing continuously but has good future prospects of improvement too. Even mainstream magazines are therefore reporting about the event.  

30th June 2009: Cooperation with university departments

During the last weeks we were able to convince some departments of the TU Darmstadt to assist us with the project as a “Partner “. For our members it is now possible to write their Bachelor or Master thesis about a project-related topic at one of the departments or to collect other benefits in connection with the sailing team there. Independent communication with the departments is needed for that.

5th June 2009: Team structure changed

Due to the growing team size we decided to split up the work into several sections. New members have now the possibility to choose between organizational work, software and electronics or to help the construction team. In additon to that a controller workshop is offered to deepen ones skills in electronics, microcontroller and c-programming.

24th April 2009: Hannover Messe (exhibition)

With over 6000 exhibiting companies in this year the Hannover Messe is the biggest exhibition for most parts of the mechanical engineering industry.

In a small group we presented for several days our project directly to companies to gain support by possible industrial partners and sponsors.
We were able to enthuse the firms and companies for our project and did not only convince them on a business but also on a personal level.


24th March 2009: A first contact

After long researching and balancing reasons of advantages and disadvantages of certain boat types, we finally chose a yacht of a special class of construction and found somebody near Darmstadt, who owns that type of boat.

On that way we had the opportunity to examine it carefully. We used the time to take a lot of photos and to document technical details. This was a huge motivation for us, given that our vision became concrete at length.


1st March 2009:  Sailing Team is Campus Group of the month

Out of about 50 campus groups our team has been selected to be the campus group of the month march of the Technische Universität Darmstadt. A link with an actual photo of us can be found on the official sites of the TU.

3rd February 2009:  Information Meeting

Today's meeting was a complete success!
About thirty interested people followed our invitation to the former main building of the Technische Universität Darmstadt and learned about our association, the project and some technical details of the boat. Also a manager of FAR e.V. was present today.
After a presentation held by Martin Hartwig, Johannes Matejcek und Robin Klose many visitors asked questions about the concept and the technical implementation.
After the official part coffee and cake were provided and the actual members of the Sailing Team Darmstadt were open to questions and suggestions of visitors. Some students seized this opportunity to join our team. Again, we would like to welcome all the new team members and we are looking forward to good teamwork.

6th January 2009:  Announcement of an Information Meeting

We are going to hold a non-binding information meeting in S1/03/100 on Tuesday 3rd February at 6:15 pm at which our poject will be presented. We will talk about the Microtransat Challenge and of course about some technical details of our boat.
After the official part there will be enough time to answer questions.

Everybody who would like to know more about the Sailing Team Darmstadt and might be willing to join our team is warmly invited.

30th October 2008:  Founding of the Association 

In the evening hours of October 30th 2008 seven students at the Technische Universität Darmstadt convened solemnly in the old main building in order to found the 'Sailing Team Darmstadt'. The founder members are Johannes Matejcek, Martin Hartwig, Ebru Kiriliveren, Harun Sen, Carl Mueller-Roemer, Martin Esser and Robin Klose. Martin Hartwig and Johannes Matejcek have been elected concordantly into the board of directors. 
As mentioned in the articles of our association the function and purpose is scientifical research and development in the field of watercrafts and their fundamental technologies. The Sailing Team Darmstadt is a nonprofit organization and comes into force with the entry into the register of associations. We are glad that our group is official now and are looking forward to heaving out!