An unmanned yacht, understood to have voyaged for four months from Conneticut in the USA has been tracked passing the Aran Islands this weekend.
A group in the USA are now seeking information from anyone who may see the craft reach land, probably somewhere along the coast of Galway
After it was launched in the US the boat is understood to have taken a northerly route and tracking devices show that it has passed above the Aran Islands and has passed Lettermullen which suggests it should be due to make landfall in the Carraroe area.
Since it was launched on the American side of the Atlantic, and targeted at reaching the shores of Connemara as part of a school project, the yacht has been tracked electronically.
Project leader Kaitlyn Dow of Waterford High School in Connecticut is seeking help to find it when it lands on the Irish shore ‘anytime now’.
Last year, Dow began the project that involved building the unmanned miniature sail boat. The yacht has a GPS unit on board and so it is being tracked.
It was launched four months ago, 100 miles south of the Connecticut coast. Kaitlyn Dow says the GPS unit on board suggests that the craft is ‘currently about 10 miles off the coast of Ireland and due to make land fall any day now’.
‘We are looking for someone to recover it and we believe it will make landfall any time now’, she told Ireland’s sailing, boating and maritime magazine Afloat.ie
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