[MHml] [Clips] Secret craft sails sea of speculation

[R.A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


  Delivered-To: rah at shipwright.com
  Delivered-To: clips at philodox.com
  Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2006 14:56:04 -0500
  To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
  From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Secret craft sails sea of speculation
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  Sender: clips-bounces at philodox.com


<http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/1162871704278510.xml&coll=7>

  OregonLive.com's


  Secret craft sails sea of speculation

  Sightings - A pontoon vessel passes through Ilwaco, Wash., but those
  involved with the strange boat aren't talking

  Tuesday, November 07, 2006

  PETER SLEETH

  The Oregonian

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

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

  It turns out that a California inventor named 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 with the boat
  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 curious stares when it surfaced in September.

  In the Olympic Peninsula village of Sequim, Wash., in mid-September, people
  were shocked when they saw the bizarre vessel offshore. Was it military?
  Could it be a private yacht? No one could get close.

  By Sept. 29, it had moored overnight on the southern Washington coast at
  the Port of Ilwaco, 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 the state said the
  details contained in boat registration records were private, except for the
  fact the vessel had just recently been registered in Delaware. Yet the boat
  apparently was manufactured only recently -- in Washington.

  The mystery ship was apparently built in Anacortes, Wash., 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 potentially move at 60 knots or more per
  hour 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 Marine Bay Yacht Harbor in Richmond, Calif.

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

  --
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  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
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  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'