How long can an unmanned boat float on the open ocean?

Question

How long, and how far, can an unmanned sailboat float in the Pacific Ocean? What about bigger boats, yachts and cruise ships maybe?

Answer 1

Well it does happen and here's some real life examples for you in detail as I like to answer thoroughly :

1775: The Octavius, an English trading ship returning from China, was found drifting off the coast of Greenland in 1775. The captain's log showed that the ship had attempted the Northwest Passage, which had never been successfully traversed, in 1762. The ship and the bodies of her frozen crew apparently completed the passage after drifting among the pack ice for 13 years.
1872: The Mary Celeste, perhaps the most historically famous derelict, was found abandoned between Portugal (mainland) and Portugal's Azores archipelago. It was devoid of all crew, but was completely intact. While Arthur Conan Doyle's story "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" based on this ship added some strange phenomena to the tale (such as that the tea found in the mess hall was still hot), the fact remained that the last log entry was 11 days prior to the discovery of the ship.[1]
1931: The Baychimo was abandoned in the Arctic Ocean when it became trapped in pack ice and was thought doomed to sink, but remained afloat and was sighted numerous times over the next 38 years without ever being salvaged.
1933: A lifeboat from the 1906 wreck of the passenger steamship SS Valencia off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island was found floating in the area in remarkably good condition 27 years after the sinking. Sailors have also reported seeing the ship itself in the area in the years following the sinking, often as an apparition that followed down the coast[2].
1948: Many ships responded to the desperate Morse code messages from the Dutch freighter Ourang Medan. The ship was found adrift off Indonesia with all of its crew dead. The boarding party found the entire crew "frozen, teeth baring, gaping at the sun." Before the ship could be towed to a home port, the ship exploded and sank. The reason for the deaths are still unexplained today.
1955: The MV Joyita was discovered abandoned in the Pacific.
2003: High Aim 6 - was a ghost ship found drifting in Australian waters with no crew on board. Despite an extensive search, no trace of the crew was ever found.
2006: The tanker Jian Seng was found off the coast of Weipa, Queensland Australia in March. Its origin or owner could not be determined and it was scuttled in April.
2006: In August the "Bel Amica" (which is one "L" short of the modern Italian spelling of "Good Friend") was discovered off the coast of Sardinia[3].
The Coast Guard crew that discovered the ship found half eaten Egyptian meals, French maps of North African seas, and a flag of Luxembourg on board.
2007: A 12-metre catamaran, the Kaz II, was discovered unmanned off the coast of Queensland, northeast Australia in April[4]. The yacht, which had left Airlie Beach on Sunday 15 April, was spotted about 80 nautical miles off Townsville, near the outer Great Barrier Reef on the following Wednesday. When boarded on Friday, the engine was running, a laptop was running, the radio and GPS were working and a meal was set to eat, but the three-man crew were not on board. All the sails were up but one was badly shredded, while three life jackets and survival equipment, including an emergency beacon, were found on board. A search for the crew was abandoned on Sunday 22nd as it was considered unlikely that anyone could have survived for that period of time.

I hope I have helped you.....................

Answer 2

Unmanned Boat

Answer 3

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Answer 4

It could float for a long time. There are wood and fiberglass boats floating around that have been out there for decades. They may be down in the water, but, if you should hit one, you will know it still floating.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

Depends on weather conditions, storms and so on, also how deep the water is, whether there are any underwater obstacles like reefs to run aground on, etc. I don't know if you could really predict how long they would stay afloat.

Answer 7

Depends on currents and wind conditions and what area of the ocean it is in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_ship

Answer 8

UNTIL IT FILLS WITH WATER OR RUNS AGROUND.