Faulhaber Oceanic Research and Engineering Group

08/11/2016

We are a group of high school students building an autonomous catamaran powered by on-board battery banks and solar panels. The purpose of this craft is to carry a large array of sensors to gather data in the ocean. Our goal is to help ease the cost of current oceanic research gathering by removing the current cost of purchasing or renting full size vessels. Our craft is also meant to gather data for multiple days at a time with minimal human intervention. As residents of Florida, we have a deep admiration for the ocean and we seek to help protect and preserve it.

Please help us reach our funding goal of $5000 so we can bring an autonomous research vessel like ours to a waterway near you.

https://www.gofundme.com/27fj756v

Check our page for more information and project updates.

08/11/2016

Thanks to your generous support, we have made significant progress on our catamaran. Today we will be finalizing the structural design to hold our 2 large solar panels donated by the Harrimans. We will be making the mold for the pontoons tomorrow. Work on the electronics and programming will also continue in the upcoming weeks.

08/05/2016

I wanted to update everyone on our progress. We just picked up our two solar panels from our partner Harrimans. We now have 700 watts of power on our boat. We are also almost done with the mold. Thanks for sticking with us I know it has been slow but we are really picking up pace now.

07/09/2016

Its looking good! We have been making excellent progress on the plug for the pontoons, and we have completed our first layer of gel coat.

07/07/2016

Check out the progress we are making fiber-glassing!

06/23/2016

We are cutting the final supports for our molds and are about to start fiberglassing our mold!!!

06/22/2016

Hay guys we are really taking off. We will be done with the plug for the mold on Friday. We can have 2 finished hulls by next Friday if we can source 16 f^3 of low density (2lb or 1lb) expanding foam. It is expensive but necessary. We are looking for donors and are willing to sell sponsor space for donations. Thanks for your support. Also if you have donated, you have already had space made for you on the boats sides.

We are a devoted group of high school students working out of the Suncoast Science Center (Faulhaber Fab Lab), building a semi-autonomous 6.5ft catamaran for research purposes. We aim to collaborate with local marine research organizations to help conserve and restore our surrounding aquatic ecos...

06/18/2016

This is the plug for our mold. We are using it to build our 6.5ft catamaran. It is made using a 150 watt laser cutter.

Please Donate to our cause at https://www.gofundme.com/27fj756v

Thanks for your support!!!

06/18/2016

We are on the road to success. We just finished cutting and positioning the boat ribs!

06/15/2016

Hay everyone we wanted to update you on our progress. We are officially ordering the parts and materials necessary to make the first hull of the boat. We were wondering if you guys would like videos of us making the molds and parts. Please leave your response in the comments. Thanks for your support.

06/03/2016

We have finished the design of the hulls for our catamaran. From our calculations of volume and displacement it will take close to 500lbs to sink the boat 6in in the water! Also due to the need for large amounts of battery storage we will be carrying over 120 lbs. of lead acid batteries to run our boat. We would use LiFe batteries but it would cost three times as much for the same amount of battery storage. With LiFe batteries it would weigh half as much for the same performance.

06/03/2016

Please join Keith Fountain by supporting my online fundraising campaign on GoFundMe: 'STEM Students for Oceanic Research'