Ljubljana students to take on the Atlantic Avtor: slovenci Datum: 2927 dni nazaj. Students from five University of Ljubljana faculties have a bold plan: they want to build a fully autonomous sailing boat that will cross the Atlantic, a feat no student vessel has so far managed to complete. Photo: STA The students plan to kit out a 2.4-metre sail boat to enrol in the Mictrotrasat Challenge, a competition that started in 2005. So far none of the over a dozen teams have come even close to making it. The project cost is estimated at about EUR 150,000, which the students plan to raise from sponsors. The main sponsor, ship builder Ocean Tec, will provide free of charge a small sail boat valued at EUR 45,000. The university supports the project, which will involve about a hundred students. "This is a challenge that is interesting, unusual and very demanding," University of Ljubljana prorector Goran Turk told the press on Wednesday. The team started work three months ago and are currently investigating five different concepts. "Since nobody has done this before, this is research in the true sense of the word," said Rok Capuder, the head of the non-profit Zavod 404, which is taking part in the project. The students will get assistance from a meteorologist, a former coach of the national sailing team, and Andraž Mihelin, a passionate sailor and co-owner of a ship building firm. The boat is to be built in about ten months and will be first tested in the Adriatic. The plan is to compete in the Mictrotrasat Challenge in two years. (Source: STA)
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