Did everyone see this new weird boat that was invented?

[amber]

There was a much longer article about it in the actual paper paper, I don't know why it isn't online, but here's what I got. Super, super cool. It tows a bunch of weight, and get this...get this...the main cabin part can alight on the water like a helicopter and detach from the rest to go do stuff!!!! It sleeps four and can tow...2 tons? I can't remember exactly. The point is, instead of cutting through the waves like a normal boat, it rides on them like a porpoise or dolphin (that is what the full length article said). It goes fast.

"Sightseers on San Francisco Bay saw an odd sight Thursday: the maiden voyage of a new kind of boat. Its four spider-like legs ride on titanium springs, allowing it to adjust to the surface of the water."

[gldstwmn]

That thing is really cool. I can't believe it's actually like a tugboat. Where do they sleep?

[amber]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

That thing is really cool. I can't believe it's actually like a tugboat. Where do they sleep?

Yeah, that is what I thought when I looked at it, but the article said it sleeps 4. Perhaps that hangy down spider body section (they called it spider boat) holds more people than it looks like in the pic. Well, obviously it must, unless someone got their facts wrong and it doesn't really seat 4. But you know how deceptive boats are. I stayed on someone's boat once and it looked really small, but it had two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen down below.
But that is down below, this boat doesn't have a "down below". I guess it is just bigger than it looks.

Can you believe the main part can detach from the legs and go do stuff? It can also go in much shallower waters than regular boats. It was invented right in El Cerrito, where I used to live (the little part of town right next to Berkeley).
I don't know why I'm so excited about this boat, I'm not very scientific or engineery, but I am really excited. I think I am thinking this boat will be able to be modified to be very fuel efficient down the road. I dunno, I'm just really stoked. I like to see things invented, and learn about the latest stuff.

[Rickypt]

Great view of the beautiful bay bridge!! And cool boat.

[amber]

Originally Posted by Rickypt

Great view of the beautiful bay bridge!! And cool boat.

Can you believe it? I have this sense right now that this invention will start an important revolution, both in the boat being efficient on water way, and some kind of fuel efficiency way.

I think it is important, I'm very excited, and my gut is usually right. My gut is what helps me win tickets, and turn on the radio just at the right time to hear FM stuff.

Okay, my gut does other important non FM things, but I thought I would name the most compelling.

This boat is big, I'm sure of it. I mean, it glides with the waves like a dolphin, and it's main spider butt detaches, and it tows tons. literally, tons.

Need I say more? It's obviously fricking genius. It will have to be refined, of course, this was actually just the test run of the prototype. But from what I read, this is a very advanced test run, this product shouldn't require too many more years to be a viable market purchase.

[carrie721]

cool boat! here's a longer, older article about it:

It looked like Spider-Man’s own ride, a 99-foot mystery craft resembling a metallic spider riding on two pontoons. It emerged from a fog bank to dock at the Port of Ilwaco, then left the next day with its crew refusing to talk.

Even as answers on who built the boat are surfacing, the vessel remains an enigma. Photos of the craft shoot across cyberspace while chat sites ponder what the boat could be used for.

But the inventor remains mum.

It turns out California inventor Ugo Conti holds a patent for such a vessel. Conti, who has nine other registered patents, owns a company called Marine Advanced Research, in El Cerrito, Calif.

He could not be reached for comment, but Conti’s wife, Isabella, acknowledged the craft was owned by Marine Advanced Research. She said everyone involved was operating under strict confidentiality agreements.

“We’re planning a press conference in January, given that the boat is not yet finished,” she said.

She offered no more details.

The boat first began drawing stares when it surfaced in mid-September in Sequim. People were shocked when they saw it offshore. Was it military? Could it be a private yacht? No one could get close.

By Sept. 29, it had moored overnight on the at the Port of Ilwaco, in Pacific County, allowing photographers to document the boat’s existence and spread the news through the yachting community.

“When we saw it, the fog was coming in and all you could see was the legs, and it was like, ‘Where did the big spider come from?’ It was creepy,” said Melissa Stern, who works at the port. “It generated a lot of interest.”

The crew, dressed in civilian clothes, slept on board and declined to discuss their craft. The boat carried no identifying marks, as is typically required for all motorized vessels. The U.S. Coast Guard in Washington, D.C., said it had no record of such a vessel.

The next morning the boat vanished out to sea. The crew did leave behind clues, however.

After docking and paying the moorage fees, the captain of the vessel wrote in port records that it was owned by Advanced Marine Research Inc. and had a registration number of DL 0899 AA. That number meant it was registered in Delaware.

A spokeswoman for the boat licensing arm of Delaware said the details contained in boat registration records were private, except for the fact the vessel had been registered.

Yet the boat apparently was manufactured recently, in Washington state.

The mysterious vessel apparently was built in Anacortes under the direction of Jim Antrim, a California yacht designer. A call to his office resulted in a polite no comment, echoing Isabella Conti’s confidentiality agreement.

A call to the Dakota Creek shipyard in Anacortes was not returned. The boat had been seen there this summer, said a spokesman for the harbor master’s office.

Ugo Conti’s patent, approved in April 2005, offers some clues, describing the craft this way: The boat is “an entirely different type of vessel that creates the minimum possible disruption of the waves. In other words, this vessel does not push, slap or pierce the waves but instead ‘dances’ with them.

“The vessel has a pair of flexible hulls flexibly coupled to a ‘cabin’ between and above the hulls, thereby allowing the hulls to independently follow the surface of the water. Motor pods are hinged to the back of the hulls to maintain the propulsion system in the water.”

The patent lists possible uses as rescue or patrol vessels, pleasure craft, military uses or research vessels for deployment of submarines or other instruments.

The patent notes the boat could move at 60 knots or more, with a range of 2,000 miles.

After leaving Ilwaco on Sept. 30, the boat was not seen again until early October, when it moored at the Marina Bay Yacht Harbor in Richmond, Calif.

As of this week, it was still tied up in San Francisco Bay. A spokesman for the moorage said he was not allowed to discuss the vessel.

[Rickypt]

Originally Posted by amber

Can you believe it? I have this sense right now that this invention will start an important revolution, both in the boat being efficient on water way, and some kind of fuel efficiency way.

I think it is important, I'm very excited, and my gut is usually right. My gut is what helps me win tickets, and turn on the radio just at the right time to hear FM stuff.

Okay, my gut does other important non FM things, but I thought I would name the most compelling.

This boat is big, I'm sure of it. I mean, it glides with the waves like a dolphin, and it's main spider butt detaches, and it tows tons. literally, tons.

Need I say more? It's obviously fricking genius. It will have to be refined, of course, this was actually just the test run of the prototype. But from what I read, this is a very advanced test run, this product shouldn't require too many more years to be a viable market purchase.

I agree....it's awesome.

and can you win some Stevie Vegas front row seats...with your gut?

Seriously, the boat is wicked cool.

[amber]

Originally Posted by Rickypt

I agree....it's awesome.

and can you win some Stevie Vegas front row seats...with your gut?

Seriously, the boat is wicked cool.

A) Check your PM's, I only have limited powers and my radio station doesn't usually give away Vegas tix cause it is too far away (I'll have to write them about that).
Else be assured, I would do my damnest to win them.

B) The engineering feat for this boat is amazing, aside from any wicked coolness. It is a true invention. How often do you see that non software related?! The legs go up and down and respond to the waves in order to stay efficiently and speedily on top of the waves

Sorry, everyone, I am just stunned by this. I haven't seen an invention like this much my whole life. There have been many computer inventions in my life that I have also been in awe of, and there have been some new ideas as far as engineering bridges, and the science of retrofitting buildings (very important) and all that -
but this is my first real cool new not based on other things or software or bridge related invention that I've seen. Oh, of course, aside from the hybrid car, but that was secretly really invented long ago, so holds very little element of suprise with me.

[carrie721]

here's a closer picture of the drop-down part, you can see how 4 people could easily fit in there to sleep:

[amber]

Originally Posted by carrie721

here's a closer picture of the drop-down part, you can see how 4 people could easily fit in there to sleep:

Oh, SWEEEEEET!!! I figured someone could be ahead of me in som way on this one, as I am not good with you kid's newfangled computer stuff.

Now I understand "sleeps four". That is a great picture, I'm disappointed it wasn't in the article.

Are you tripped out by this boat? You are my dopplegaygah. No one else seems as amazed as I am. I am utterly enthralled. And you have to admit, no one uses that word as much as they should. "Enthralled!" (Like, "Library!")

[carrie721]

Originally Posted by amber

Oh, SWEEEEEET!!! I figured someone could be ahead of me in som way on this one, as I am not good with you kid's newfangled computer stuff.

i know, i used my special "young person" powers to google "spider boat."

Now I understand "sleeps four". That is a great picture, I'm disappointed it wasn't in the article.

Are you tripped out by this boat? You are my dopplegaygah. No one else seems as amazed as I am.

yes, i seriously am tripped out by it - i mean, look at it! it's so freaking cool. can you imagine standing on a pier and seeing that thing troll by? i probably would've peed myself. no, really, because i would've thought it was something out of a jules verne novel. i like to scare myself like that ...

[carrie721]

more pictures from here:

[amber]

Originally Posted by carrie721

i know, i used my special "young person" powers to google "spider boat."

Okay. Okay. Do I have to come over there with my fist of fureh? (that's right, fureh, these are Nicksian fists, and well, well, they are ferocious. You don't want to experience some of my fist that are (well) wild eyed, in their misereh.)
But seriousleh, I saw the article in my work paper (SF Chron) today and only went to SFgate to look it up for here. Stupid SFgate. Not giving me an automatic search leg up by providing cooler pics and more info.

Originally Posted by carrie721

yes, i seriously am tripped out by it - i mean, look at it! it's so freaking cool. can you imagine standing on a pier and seeing that thing troll by? i probably would've peed myself. no, really, because i would've thought it was something out of a jules verne novel. i like to scare myself like that ...

No, no - can you imagine if one of your cool friends had a pass on that? To ride it? You'd be all "I'm a gay lesbian dolphin riding the new spider invention boat in san francisco by the golden gate bridge! Eat it, Suckaaahhhhs!!!!!!! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!"

Okay, maybe that is just what I would do. Telling you this, if I rode on that thing, I would be the most excited and happy person the world has ever known. No, really.

"Well, the world says well, who are you to be happy about a boat? And I say 'OhOhbaybeh, OhNowBaybeyh, you have to know. You have to know. She knows in huh heart that - she will survive the boat - don't cry baybeh, I can save you, in my spidah boat!"

I'm glad you are just as enthralled. I want to ride on that like nobody's business. "Nobody" meaning "whatever analogy, and whoever connection, will get me on that Spidah boat".

[carrie721]

Originally Posted by amber

Okay. Okay. Do I have to come over there with my fist of fureh? (that's right, fureh, these are Nicksian fists, and well, well, they are ferocious. You don't want to experience some of my fist that are (well) wild eyed, in their misereh.)
But seriousleh, I saw the article in my work paper (SF Chron) today and only went to SFgate to look it up for here. Stupid SFgate. Not giving me an automatic search leg up by providing cooler pics and more info.

no, you don't have to come over here with your fists, i'm sure that time will teach me a lesson, in 10 years i will find that i no longer have the drive, or the capacity, to locate google and on that day, i will call you and say, "you were right." oh the wisdom of the aged ...

oh google in the sky
what is search?
i lost my will to look,
now i'm in a lurch ...

No, no - can you imagine if one of your cool friends had a pass on that? To ride it? You'd be all "I'm a gay lesbian dolphin riding the new spider invention boat in san francisco by the golden gate bridge! Eat it, Suckaaahhhhs!!!!!!! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!"

Okay, maybe that is just what I would do. Telling you this, if I rode on that thing, I would be the most excited and happy person the world has ever known. No, really.

"Well, the world says well, who are you to be happy about a boat? And I say 'OhOhbaybeh, OhNowBaybeyh, you have to know. You have to know. She knows in huh heart that - she will survive the boat - don't cry baybeh, I can save you, in my spidah boat!"

i'm dying.

I'm glad you are just as enthralled. I want to ride on that like nobody's business. "Nobody" meaning "whatever analogy, and whoever connection, will get me on that Spidah boat".

did you notice that its legs are flexible?

[JazmenFlowers]

that is pretty cool. the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the picture were the aliens in War of the Worlds.