Learn to fly a drone from a boat.

It is a terrible idea that carries the possibility of becoming a great idea. Your first mate keeps the drone flying 30 feet above your starboard quarter. You heel your sailboat over in a small craft advisory and lean out on the windward side. The camera on the drone captures images and video that would have previously required a helicopter. You frame the best shot and hang it in your living room. You sit on your couch, crack a beer and stare at your beautiful boat captured from the perfect angle.

Your life feels infinitely more complete.

practicing the sailboat drone in calm waters on anchor

In theory, all this greatness is possible. In theory, this could be done for a couple hundred bucks and a little bit of practice and a little bit of gumption.

But there are concerns. Here is a list of concerns I came up with upon my first sailboat drone outing. 

• How will the drone handle a stiff breeze? 
• How can a drone 'return to a home position', if the home position is moving at 6 mph across an ocean?
• Will the VHF and other signal frequencies emanating from a boat interfere with the drone-remote controller? 
• If the drone lands in the ocean, will that destroy the drone? 
• Is there effective water landing gear that could keep a downed drone floating and dry while you flip the boat around to retrieve it?
• How do the coast guard and other authorities feel about recreational drones flying along the coastline?

At the moment, I do not have answers for these questions. But I will be researching all of this and posting the glory shots (if we get them) in the next series of posts.

first deployment from the cockpit

40 feet off of starboard in Mariners Cove, San Diego

South Mission Bay from a drone, looking west to Mission Beach.

For more, please follow this first instructional post on How to fly a drone from a boat.