Savage Beauty, a Flying Tiger 10 owned by San Francisco’s John Lymberg, expired on the rocks of the Marin Headlands in Saturday’s Second Half Opener race to Point Bonita. The race started near the Berkeley Pier, and boats short-tacked against a strong flood current, hugging the Marin shore for relief.
The photos reveal how amazingly close this 33 foot 5,000 lb boat with a 7.5 ft keel was sailing to the rocky shore. Sailing in light air, they were unable to break free of wave swell or make their way into a fast rising tide.
Once aground, their engine fouled and they had to abandon ship. Fortunately no one was injured.
You have undoubtedly heard about the unmanned air drones used by the military and intelligence organizations. Enter the unmanned water drone, introduced by Morrelli & Melvin Design & Engineering. They are perhaps most famous for multihull racing designs such as PlayStation and Stars and Stripes, but they also make industrial multis for everything from tourism to maintenance of sea windmills (the mast parks nicely between the hulls). The concept of a water drone incorporates the ability for automated missions over long periods of time. This makes sense, given the limited communications capability at sea.
The HarborWing X1 is a special purpose security and military vehicle used to patrol harbors, inland waterways and open ocean using only wind power. The batteries and computers on board can operate for up to 3 months at a time without human intervention.
I do not see any missile tubes or gun turrets but surely this is in the works, given the record set by other drones in service. The rigid sails might make it an easy target. Do they fold or drop for stealth? Can it deploy mines or detect them?
This also makes me wonder about sea rescue missions. Could a drone be developed for search and rescue in extreme conditions? Given the ultra-high resolution and infrared imaging technology, coupled with satellite communication, is a submersible drone that could locate and carry a small crew to safety the best answer for emergency response at sea?
Weather is not the only factor contributing to the Urania’s challenge. The 78-foot, double-masted ship is owned and used as a training vessel by the Dutch navy. At each port stop throughout the six legs of the race, the ship swaps crew members. Between five and 10 new midshipmen who are training to be Dutch naval officers join Van Schoonhoven and four other permanent members. Some of the men are already naval officers, but the majority have no sailing experience, Van Schoonhoven said. He became captain of the Urania last year but has been in the Dutch navy for 24 years.
The new crew may get four or five days of “dry training” on land but, for the most part they are cast out to sea when it comes time to get sailing experience, he said. The rookie midshipmen are exposed to every aspect of life at sea.
Exposed to swimming around the boat? What? No oars? No sponges and mops? Captain, crack that whip.
This could be a follow-up to my post about waste surveillance. Is the future really behind us? Bad joke, sorry. Seriously, though, the Plastiki project is an attempt to use some VERY low-tech recycling to make a boat:
David de Rothschild’s plan to sail across the Pacific Ocean, from San Francisco to Sydney in a 60-foot catamaran made of used two-liter plastic bottles, isn’t just an adventure. It’s a crusade. “Our philosophy of throwing everything away has to change,” says de Rothschild. “I want to use the Plastiki as a platform to help people think of waste as a resource.”
Rather than develop or innovate new ways of converting waste, however, the Plastiki seems like mostly an aesthetic and marketing-oriented project. It’s reality show drama more than real discovery or a leap in science and engineering, but nonetheless it carries a good message.
