[MHml] [Clips] El Cerrito firm unveils the Proteus, 'a new class of vessel'

[R.A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


  Delivered-To: rah at shipwright.com
  Delivered-To: clips at philodox.com
  Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 19:11:46 -0500
  To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
  From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] El Cerrito firm unveils the Proteus, 'a new class of vessel'
  Reply-To: clips-chat at philodox.com
  Sender: clips-bounces at philodox.com


<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/19/BAGE7NLI001.DTL&type=printable>

  San Francisco Chronicle

  SAN FRANCISCO
  SPIDER SHIP ON THE BAY

  El Cerrito firm unveils the Proteus, 'a new class of vessel'

  Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer

  Friday, January 19, 2007
  More...

  The strangest vessel made its formal premiere Thursday on San Francisco
  Bay, and it was a sight to see: It looked like a spider, wiggled over the
  waves like a porpoise, and was fast as the wind.

  It is named the Proteus, after a Greek god of the sea, and is the first of
  what might be a long line of wave adaptive modular vessels -- WAM-V for
  short -- developed by Ugo Conti, an engineer and inventor. Conti calls it
  "the prototype of a new class of vessel."

  Using technology developed by Conti's El Cerrito Marine Advanced Research
  Inc., the WAM-V is "a new class of watercraft ... that delivers a radically
  new seagoing experience." It has twin hulls, like a catamaran, connected to
  each other and a control cabin by four metal legs. The legs ride on
  titanium springs -- like shock absorbers -- that allow the WAM-V to adjust
  to the surface of the water -- to flex like knees.

  It has many uses, Conti says. "It can go many thousands of miles to deliver
  something." It can also enter shallow lagoons in faraway places, help
  scientists, would be useful in search and rescue operations, and even has
  some military applications.

  The Proteus is 100 feet long, 50 feet between the outsides of the twin
  hulls, and is powered by two 355 horsepower Cummins marine diesels. It
  displaces 12 tons fully loaded. Fuel is stored in the flexible pontoons,
  and the vessel, Conti says, has a range of thousands of miles.

  It can carry 2 tons of cargo, and can be operated by a crew of two.

  The cabin, which sleeps four, can be lowered into the water -- "like a
  helicopter landing," Conti said -- and sail off on its own.

  Conti would not say how much the prototype had cost. "We are still adding
  that up," said Isabella Conti, the inventor's wife and a vice president of
  Marine Advanced Research. The couple would also not disclose the vessel's
  speed, pending full sea trials. "It can go faster than I can run," said
  Dave Hitz, who said he has invested in the company.

  Jim Jessie, a yachtsman who has been sailing San Francisco Bay for more
  than 65 years, has never seen anything like it. "It's different," he said
  as he watched the Proteus slink over the wake of a passing boat, its hulls
  flexing. "It wiggles like a porpoise or a whale," he said.

  That's the whole point, said Conti. Conventional boats cut through the
  waves. The WAM-V slides over them. "It is not fighting the waves," he said.

  The maiden voyage of the Proteus drew a crowd of perhaps 100 guests --
  yacht fanciers, maritime people, a scientist or two, television crews,
  reporters, and even two Coast Guard officers, drawn, they said, by both
  interest and curiosity.

  The crowd was taken out on the Sunset Hornblower, a luxurious cruise boat.
  Champagne and a free lunch of salmon and crab legs was served, to the
  delight of the maritime press.

  Conti, a wiry man with a gray Van Dyke beard, thinning hair and a pony
  tail, said the idea for the WAM-V technology had come to him gradually,
  over many years of sailing. "I liked flexible boats," he said, "so I
  decided to push it to the limit. It is very much experimental. "You have to
  be crazy and old to do this," said Conti, who is 68. "When you are old, you
  can risk more. You have nothing to lose."


  This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle


  --
  -----------------
  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'
  _______________________________________________
  Clips mailing list
  Clips at philodox.com
  http://www.philodox.com/mailman/listinfo/clips

--- end forwarded text


-- 
-----------------
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'