Autonomous watercraft race course system

A method of conducting a race using an autonomous watercraft race course system comprising the steps of:

• providing a plurality of buoys programmable to autonomously travel on a body of water wherein the plurality of buoys are configured to wirelessly receive commands and wirelessly transmit wind direction data obtained from a wind direction sensor on each of the plurality of buoys;
• providing a host device operated by a host and a plurality of participant devices operated by at least one of a plurality of participants;
• providing a buoy command interface wirelessly connected to the host device, the plurality of participant devices, and a buoy computer on each of the plurality of buoys;
• providing a race course application operating on the buoy command interface that sets up the race course of a race, starts the race and scores the race;
• activating the race course application by the host using the host device to send an activation command;
• deploying the plurality of buoys into the body of water;
• setting race parameters in the race course application with parameter inputs from the host using the host device;
• entering race course setup mode of the race course application, wherein wind direction data is continuously transmitted and received from the plurality of buoys and the race course application automatically determines a turn waypoint and a starting line waypoint, wherein the race course application assigns each of the plurality of buoys to be one of a turn buoy or a starting buoy, wherein the turn waypoint is a location of the turn buoy that a watercraft needs to travel to and turn around during a race;
• transmitting the turn waypoint to the buoy computer of the turn buoy and the starting line waypoint to the buoy computer of the starting buoy by the race course application through the buoy command interface;
• receiving the turn waypoint by the turn buoy and autonomously moving the turn buoy to the turn waypoint and receiving the starting line waypoint by the starting buoy and autonomously moving the starting buoy to the starting line waypoint;
• transmitting a location data wirelessly from each of the turn buoy and the starting buoy to the race course application;
• determining if the turn buoy has reached the turn waypoint and if the starting buoy has reached the starting line waypoint automatically using the race course application and the location data;
• determining automatically by the race course application if the wind direction data from the starting buoy and the turn buoy has changed by a predetermined amount;
• generating automatically by the race course application a race starting sequence mode decision to the host device that requests a race command from the host using the host device and upon receipt of a race command indicating a yes response, the race course application sends a countdown notification to the host device and the plurality of participant devices;
• starting a timer on the race course application that counts down a time period till the race is to start;
• and
• transmitting a start notification to the host and participants.