Korrigan

Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantique - iFADO - St. Vincent

Updates:

1st Voyage

Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantique worked with St. Vincent school in Brest, France to build a miniboat from Educational Passages as part of the iFADO Project (Innovation in the Framework of the Atlantic Deep Ocean).

February 2022 - Update
The students chose to name their boat KORRIGAN, which is a word in Breton (the local language of Brittany) which means a legendary creature from Brittany, comparable to the elf.

They also shared the following about themselves and their school:
- Our school’s name is St Vincent.
- It’s in France, in the city of Brest in Brittany.
- There are around three hundred students in the school.
- It is a school group : there are the Kindergarten, the Primary and the Secondary school.
- We learn many languages :French, English, Spanish, German, Chinese, Latin and Greek.
- Our traditional dishes in Brittany are kig a farz and crepes.
The keel was fixed to the hull of the boat. Regarding the painting, the hull is on the finish and the sail is being colored as well. The students chose to draw an ermine with a bombard, in black and white, which is the animal emblem of Brittany.
June 8, 2022 - World Ocean Day Celebration and Buoyancy Test

https://twitter.com/PoleMerBA/status/1534222299343335432
May 15, 2023 - Launched off the coast of France

By April 2023, the miniboat was ready for launch. On May 15, the Navy took the boat out to sea and launched it at 15:00 GMT, but it found land by 18:01 GMT.

The next day the Coast Guard recovered it for us:

The boat will return to Pole Mer for inspection and to see if a relaunch can be planned soon.
Voyage 1: Complete

Click on the titles above to explore the story of the first voyage.

2nd Voyage

June 15, 2023: Relaunched

After repairs were made, the boat was relaunched thanks to Celadon (Centre d’essai en mer pour l’innovation maritime – Sea Trial Center for Maritime Innovation) on June 15, 2023 at 11:07 GMT.

Ocean Science Data from Onboard Sensor System

The boat has two GPS systems onboard. One is the main GPS, which reported locations to the map at the top of this page. Here below is where you can see the data reporting from the second GPS which is connected to the sensor package. In addition to reporting location with a secondary GPS tracker, this system was also collecting air temperature, water temperature, and orientation. The boat also has a camera! The sensor package was installed by the students.
June 25, 2023: Landed in Lantic Bay in Lanteglos, UK

On June 25, 2023 the miniboat landed in Lantic Bay in Lanteglos, UK near the National Trust beach.

Seeking assistance with recovering 1.5m uncrewed miniboat named KORRIGAN from Lantic Bay in Lanteglos, UK

UPDATE: Miniboat has been recovered! Read below for details.

The miniboat is named “KORRIGAN” and is part of an educational project from the US, in partnership with Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantique and iFADO. It was built by students at St. Vincent in Brest, France.

Students and participants involved in the project are seeking assistance to have the boat brought to a nearby school so they can connect. The GPS is reporting from a beach at 50.328662395477, -4.6058464050293 and we are looking for assistance to recover, only if it is safe to do so.

It is an uncrewed vessel, like a message in a bottle. We invite you to read above for the full story. Please contact Educational Passages for more information and if you know anyone that can assist in recovering the boat and bringing it to a school. We will advise and assist with next steps after recovery is confirmed.

For reference, this is what the boat looked like when it was launched on June 15, 2023:

We are all non-profit organizations and cannot provide a financial reward for your help. Our intention is to connect children everywhere and promote the love for the ocean. We hope you can help us accomplish this goal, and bring the opportunity to connect children across the ocean with the project.

June 26, 2023

Rhys Francis was visiting the beach in the early morning the next day, and called Educational Passages to report it (as requested by the sticker on the deck). The beach was hard to access, which meant the recovery of the miniboat would be challenging.

We received a couple reports that the boat was spotted, and later that day Rhys returned with his son to recover it!

Here’s more about the place it landed, and the beach from the top after the recover. Thank you to Rhys for his strength and dedication to recover the boat safely.

They delivered the boat to the UTC School in Plymouth. There we will work to connect students and coordinate a relaunch.

Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantique, the sponsors of this miniboat, shared about the launch on their webpage on July 6: Le miniboat Korrigan du projet européen iFADO a accosté! (The Korrigan miniboat from the European iFADO project has docked!).

>> OBJECTIVES OF THE ACTION
These miniboats have been designed as tools for raising awareness around the preservation of the ocean. They allow the involvement of young audiences by promoting access to ocean monitoring data via integrated temperature and GPS sensors. It is a powerful and fun tool that highlights the current challenges of protecting the marine environment.

>> THE iFADO PROJECT
This action is part of the European iFADO project: Innovation in the framework of the Atlantic deep ocean. This project aims to encourage innovation in marine environment monitoring. The aim is to combine traditional monitoring programs with emerging technologies, in order to measure the quality of the marine environment in European Atlantic waters.

A big thank you to the students of the Saint Vincent de Brest college for their involvement in the project to build the miniboat, as well as to Céladon who made it possible to launch it at sea.
Finally, thank you to the students of the UTC school in Plymouth who will make it possible to continue this action.

>> CONTACT
Requests for information by e-mail to europe@polemer-ba.com