An unmanned, two-metre-long sailing buoy weighing 60 kilograms has been sailing in the Baltic Sea north-east of Kriegers Flak since May – and will continue to do so until the end of October. The buoy is built to withstand a collision with a ship, it is said – there is no statement on whether pleasure craft or yachts could be damaged in the event of a collision.
Probably every sailor – and most motor yacht skippers – are familiar with the American film drama by J. C. Chandor “All Is Lost” from 2013 with Robert Redford as the only actor. The film was released in German cinemas on 9 January 2014.
In the film, the nameless single-handed sailor (played by Robert Redford) is woken from his 39-foot “Cal 39” Virginia Jean sailboat by a sudden influx of water. His sailing boat has rammed a container floating in the sea, which is still stuck in the hull, and the sailor finds himself in distress.
Could this horror scenario soon become a reality on the Baltic Sea? As the Swedish Maritime Administration announced in a notice to mariners dated 12 June 2024 on ufs.sjofartsverket.se, an unmanned sailing buoy with a length of 2 m, a height of 1.1 m and a weight of 60 kg is drifting or sailing in an area northeast of Kriegers Flak in the period from 29 May to 31 October 2024.
A 60-kilogram autonomous buoy in the shape of a sailing boat will float and sail on the Baltic Sea until the end of October
Kriegers Flak is an offshore wind farm system in the Baltic Sea consisting of three parts, each located in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Denmark, Sweden and Germany and covering a total area of 132 square kilometres.
The part in the German EEZ has been in operation as the Baltic 2 offshore wind farm since 2015, the part in the Danish EEZ has been in operation since 2021 and the Swedish part is still in the planning phase. It is named after the Kriegers Flak reef, which lies below sea level.
The purpose of the sailing buoy is to investigate the influence of the wind on the wind farms, according to the press release. The sailing buoy moves between predetermined waypoints with GPS and autopilot at a maximum speed of 2 knots (3.7 km/h).
Attention: the sailing buoy is unlit, cannot take evasive action and does not have reflectors or even an AIS
It also states that the sailing buoy is “unlit” and “does not have a radar reflector or AIS”. There was “no need to take the buoy into consideration” as it was built to withstand a collision.
In this case, collision means a collision with a large tanker – on YouTube you can see how the buoy, which is equipped with a sail, a hull and a long keel and looks like a real small sailing boat, collides with a bulb (bow bulge), briefly submerges and then rises up again undamaged; the tanker can also continue its journey without any damage.
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However, it is questionable whether a smaller sailing boat or a sports motor yacht would also survive an unintentional collision with the sailing buoy without damage – or whether the 60-kilogram floating device could cause a leak in the hull of a standard plastic yacht, for example, in the event of contact – so that in the worst-case scenario, a scenario like the one in the above-mentioned film All Is Lost could be imminent.
The manufacturer and marketer of the unmanned ghost buoy, Offshore Sensing AS, provides no information about this on its website sailbuoy.no. The Sailbuoy is a “durable unmanned surface vessel for the oceans”, the website simply states. The Sailbuoy navigates autonomously through the oceans for months – sending data at regular intervals.
The Sailbuoy can be “used for a variety of ocean applications“: from “measuring marine and atmospheric parameters to tracking oil spills or as a communication relay station for underwater instruments”.
This is not the first time that the Sailbuoy from Offshore Sensing has been deployed autonomously: from 6 to 20 November 2015, for example, it was used for wave measurements near the Ekofisk oil platform complex in the North Sea. Then as now, the vehicle is 100 per cent powered by the wind and has two-way communication via the Iridium network.
During its last two-week deployment 20 kilometres north-east of Ekofisk in the North Sea nine years ago, the buoy held its position even in rough weather
During the campaign, the Sailbuoy held its position “about 20 kilometres north-east of Ekofisk (on the leeward side) in rough conditions”, according to Offshore Sensing. The average wind speed measured during the campaign at Ekofisk was 9.8 m/s with a maximum of 20.4 m/s, with the wind mostly coming from the south and south-west.
There is no information as yet as to whether there have already been collisions with smaller boats during the previous or current campaign, and what the course of these collisions was.
Skippers travelling in the area mentioned in the Baltic Sea are advised to keep their eyes open and avoid the area at night if necessary, as the Sailbuoy is unlit. Please send information about sightings / contacts with the autonomous sailbuoy to the SeaHelp editorial team.
