A Hybrid control approach to the route planning problem for sailing boats

We present an optimal hybrid control approach to the problem of stochastic route planning for sailing boats, especially in short course fleet races, in which minimum average time is an effective performance index. We show that the hybrid setting is a natural way of taking into account tacking/gybing maneuvers and other discrete control actions, and provide examples of increasing complexity to model the problem. Moreover, we carry out a numerical validation of the approach and show that results are in good agreement with theoretical and practical knowledge.