⛵ Team Bath Autonomous Sailing 2026/27 Hub

🌊 Welcome to TBAS! Team Bath Autonomous Sailing is one of the newest engineering teams at the University of Bath, focused on developing future engineers through marine challenges, industry events, and more.

🎯 About TBAS & Our 2026/27 Direction

Over the next three years, TBAS has one ultimate target: putting a Bath-designed autonomous sailboat on the start line of the Micro-Transat Challenge to cross the Atlantic Ocean. While our Micro-Transat team lays the technical foundations for an ocean-going vessel, we want every member building, coding, and testing on the water from day one through hands-on challenges that directly develop the engineering skills needed for the Micro-Transat so our 26/27 season will be split across two streams:

Micro-Transat R&D: Our flagship multi-year R&D stream, leading the initial concept development, naval architecture, and subsystem design for a custom autonomous vessel built to survive the Atlantic.

Microtransat Challenge
Development Competitions: Aimed at new members of the team, TBAS is competing in two mentored, single-season challenges focused on custom vessel design and autonomous vessel control sharpening the core skills we need while getting TBAS boats racing on the water this year.

🧭 Micro-Transat Team: Available Roles

Over the next year the Micro-Transat Team will lead the initial concept development, engineering design and practical testing for our transatlantic autonomous vessel. Headed by a Micro-Transat Lead, the team features six specialized roles across mechanical, electrical, software, and systems engineering:

Role Title	Core Focus
Micro-Transat Lead	Leads the Micro-Transat team and coordinates initial concept development across all sub-disciplines.
Systems Engineer	Oversees overall system architecture and cross-subsystem integration.
Power Design Engineer	Designs the electrical power systems for the vessel.
Hull Design Engineer	Leads the structural and hydrodynamic concept development of the hull.
Sail Design Engineer	Leads the mechanical and aerodynamic design of the sail and rig systems.
Control Engineer	Develops the vessel's autonomous control software and electronics integration including steering and sail control.
Test Lead	Coordinates testing and validation across the Micro-Transat project.

🛠️ Development Competitions

While initial design and planning work on the Micro-Transat begins, TBAS is entering two challenges this year to upskill our members and ensure everyone in the team gets hands-on engineering work this year. These projects offer:

Practical Engineering: With each project taking place over 1 year they both provide a chance to take a project from concept right through to validation and real world implmentation.
Skill Building: These mentored competitions develop the core engineering skills required for a Micro-Transat contributing experience and building a solid skills base.
Networking and Travel: Both events are a established competitions with significant backing from industry sponsors, with travel to in person events offering awesome opportunities to interact with potential employers.
Team Size & Scaling: The size/number of teams entering these competitions will depend on interest and available funding.

1. Marine Autonomy Challenge (Vessel Control & Software)

The Society of Maritime Industries (SMI)

The National Autonomy Challenge is the marine equivalent of IMechE’s Formula Student AI, with teams tasked to create control software to navigate a premade vessel through a series of tasks. With opportunities to use this project supports the development of our core software architecture and provides an insight into the hardware needed to operate an autonomous vessel.