Saildrones: quantifying the planet

by Ann Packer

Seaview Marina temporarily became a New Zealand marine biosecurity site in midDecember, when three saildrones arrived from California.

Because of the sensitive technology involved – they can carry 20 sensors to collect meteorological and oceanographic data – the owners of the autonomous ships known as USVs (uncrewed surface vessels) wanted the container to come off the ship without having to be handled multiple times. Seaview Marina CE Tim Lidgard says New Zealand biosecurity officers were on site “to make sure there was nothing in them we don’t want.”

Mr Lidgard, a former San Franciscobased competitive sailor who came home during Covid, says Saildrone, which has projects operating around the world, reached out to him when they needed support for data-gathering east and west of Cook Strait. Within four weeks the three Explorers – worth more than US$80 million each – and three handlers had arrived, and the Seaview Marina facility became a “transitional customs and biosecurity site”.

While we’ve come to think of drones as operating above the ground, these ones move on water – albeit slowly, meandering along at 1-2 knots. At 7m long, 4.5m tall and with a 1.8m keel, they are environmentally friendly, wind- and solar-powered, and can operate for up to a year without the need for a support vessel. In 2019, one Saildrone Explorer, SD 1020, successfully circumnavigated Antarctica, crossing all longitudinal lines in the Southern Ocean. They can count fish, find the best locations for wind farms, follow drug smugglers and provide live analysis from the middle of hurricanes. The biggest mission so far is a complete hi-res mapping of the ocean floor, 80 percent of which has never been studied. And the daily cost of hiring one – they’re not for sale – is less than a tenth of running a research vessel.

“We know more about the Moon and Mars than our own planet,” says Saildrone founder and CEO Richard Jenkins, a UK-born mechanical engineer now based in Alameda, California. In order to build his first ocean drone, he evolved a design for a land-sailing vehicle which set a wind-powered land speed record, and his company now designs, manufactures and manages uncrewed surface vessels that sail the world's oceans collecting science data. Equipped with advanced sensors and machine learning technology, they can deliver critical data and intelligence from any ocean at any time of year to three Mission Controls eight hours apart, in California, the UK or Perth.

After sea trials in December to check everything was in order, Mr Lidgard says the saildrones were lifted out of the water on Christmas Eve and put back on their dollies. They’re currently awaiting parts for final sea trials before their planned release into Cook Strait in late February.