The hull bottom has been fiber glassed and painted. It needs another coat of resin and then I can focus on finishing up the top side, which will not require fiberglass (only resin and paint).
I can order the radio any time now... I am debating between 2 and 3 channels. 2 channel radios are very cheap (which I'm in favor of) but 3 channels is looking like a better minimum as I am seriously considering adding a servo for adjusting the main sheet. It could become necessary to have this feature for the boat to make any kind of progress on certain headings in extreme winds. (1 channel for autopilot/remote control override switch, 1 channel for rudder, and possibly 1 channel for main sheet adjustment) The boat itself may have more servos than RC channels, but they will not need to be accessed from the remote control. For example, there will be at least one servo mounted camera controlled by the software.
Also, I realized a new condition I need to handle in the software.. the case where a way point can not be reached for some reason. (i.e. imagine an oil tanker parked on one of the way points!)
Additionally, the boat should probably handle / check for depths that are too shallow. While this case should be extremely unlikely (carefully placed way points should prevent this), it's certainly possible to have regions where rocks or kelp make for problematic passage (or even big fish!). Obviously this can be a later addition/lower priority for now.
No new pictures this time that I want to share just yet... next update will have significant changes to show. I did make some edits to the Design Goals page.
