Hollis resident Brooks Willis, a member of the class of 2015 at Olin College, joined several classmates for the Olin Sailbot team’s first real test.

Olin’s Sailbot team was founded this year, and it didn’t take long for the team to thrust their project into competition.

The robotic sailing team recently made its way to Vancouver for the sixth International Robotic Sailboat Championship, despite having to dissemble and reassemble its boat as a result of the lengthy trip.

With the help of an impressive performance in the Navigation Contest, Olin College and its Sailbot, titled “Blackbody Radiation,” was able to claim second place out of nine teams from all over the United States and Canada. Six events took place and each event was scored on a 10-point scale.

Olin College placed fourth and second in the two fleet races, second in the Station Keeping event, First, in a three-way tie, in the Navigation event, second in the presentation event, and second in the Long Distance event.

The team displayed composure when Blackbody Radiation endured a small crash just 10 minutes before the long-distance event, resulting in the sensor mount being knocked loose. Olin responded adeptly by taking the boat out of the water and putting it into the dry-dock cradle, utilizing 5-minute epoxy and Gorilla Tape to get the boat back in the water in a timely fashion. Despite the small mishap, the boat highly outperformed the team’s expectations.

The Olin College Sailbot Team was sponsored by Olin College, National Instruments, CustomMade.com, and Olin’s HPV and Baja clubs.

The faculty advisor is Drew Bennett, but the team also has garnered much assistance from Scott Harris, Garland O’Connell, and Dave Barrett.