Mar 24, 2010: Plastiki

Back in 1947, Thor Heyerdahl & friends, built a boat from reeds called Kon-Tiki, and proved the Pacific could be navigated with primitive craft.
Flash forward to 2010.
A bunch of hippies, including an Olev Heyerdahl, have set sail from San Francisco headed for Sydney, on a super hi-tech plastic boat called the Plastiki.



Far from a reed raft, the Plastiki is a super sophisticated craft with all the electronic bells & whistles. Electricity comes from solar panels, wind turbines, trailing water turbines, and stationary bike driven generators. The solar desalinization unit produces 12 liters an hour, and they even have a mini-greenhouse to grow fresh greens.

Supposedly this hi-tech, corporate sponsored, mucho-money, expedition, is to call attention to plastic recycling, the polluted Pacific, renewable energy, yada yada yada. But I think they just wanted to have fun.

Of course, no matter how hi-tech the craft, the Pacific can swallow it in a heartbeat.

You can check out the details, and follow the voyage, here.

I've always wanted to build a unique watercraft. And I will. Just not today.

Thar be pirate ships on the horizon. I'll bet they're after their brocolli!

WOW!?
Boat loads of money, time and technology spent on replicating that which was created and accomplished 63 years ago

We love making that which is simple, absurdly complex, then wave a hot button pc flag and call it achievement.

I think it's cool what they are doing. Just because mankind has explored the world, doesn't mean we should all sit at home watching tv now.

It's interesting to me that they are so self contained. The solar/wind powered water maker, and the greenhouse for growing food are both remarkable. Making the thing out of recycled plastics is also cool. None of those things are new inventions, but combining them all into this boat is unusual and cool. It shows what some possibilities are and may lead others to come up with additional ideas. Plus, some people like to sail. It's fun. What's wrong with that?

It reminds me of

It sounds like a great vessel, with all the self-sustaining technology and craft, but what I never understand is how it is supposedly done to bring forth awareness.

With the money that went into building it, I'm sure a couple programs would've been financed towards cleaning the Pacific or the Atlantic plastic mire.

If you use money that could have built one boat, you have enough money to clean up some pollution, your efforts equal to the cost of one boat.

If you use money to build the boat, you might raise enough awareness to get more contributions than just equal to the cost of one boat.

We never would have heard about the buck-fitty (relatively speaking when considering the vastness of the ocean) worth of ocean pollution that was cleaned up.

@ spexx: is that Waterworld?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shawnee123 @ spexx: is that Waterworld?

I don't begrudge Olev and his friends their toys, interests or lifestyle. Just call it what it is and don't try and attach some higher intent or purpose to it.

We don't need to be more "aware" or "informed", we are in excess of both. I'd be much more impressed if they were cleaning up some of the plastic along the way.

A great deal of our "awareness", including the Pacific trash, is not brought to our attention by grand gestures, campaigning or the like. It's typically your "average" person just doing their job or actively working to create change that starts the chain of awareness.

From my perspective, giving credit to those who spend a lot of time and money to build a boat under the guise of "bringing awareness" is getting caught up in the "thick of thin things".

__________________
If we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat?!

Tell me a story. Tell me a story about some guys who went along in a little boat and picked up some milk containers. Tell me. What do you mean, you've never heard any?

Meh - plenty of people build things, float things, publicise things. I say if they are also sampling new technology and bringing the green agenda to websites like this, good on them.

After all, if they weren't, plenty of places (not here) would be moaning about the environmental impact blah blah blah. Personally I'm surprised Formula One is still going... Not that it would break my heart if it stopped - Dads and I only watch the first 15 mins for crashes

Me no swim. Me no want.

I'll take the $$... keep the fucking boat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rditlkustoleit I don't begrudge Olev and his friends their toys, interests or lifestyle. Just call it what it is and don't try and attach some higher intent or purpose to it. We don't need to be more "aware" or "informed", we are in excess of both. I'd be much more impressed if they were cleaning up some of the plastic along the way. A great deal of our "awareness", including the Pacific trash, is not brought to our attention by grand gestures, campaigning or the like. It's typically your "average" person just doing their job or actively working to create change that starts the chain of awareness. From my perspective, giving credit to those who spend a lot of time and money to build a boat under the guise of "bringing awareness" is getting caught up in the "thick of thin things". __________________ If we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of meat?!

Quote:

Originally Posted by capnhowdy I'll take the $$... keep the fucking boat.

Sorry monster, it's on it's way to Aussieland.

It has no engine and its flotation is from capped soda bottles.

Funny thing is it got all the media hyped up for departure and since it's very s l o w and the wind was light, they had to have a petroleum powered dingy tow them out of SF bay to start their journey.. It only seems to make about 4 knots.

Well, it's designed to only sail down wind. It has no keel, so it can't tack against the wind. Maneuvering around the bay under sail power would have been difficult.

No keel - I get that. Catamaran's don't usually have one. But why no centerboard? You could easily make one out of plastic, and it would add a LOT to the craft.

It has a small bio diesel engine, for emergencies, but I was looking at it's speed earlier this morning - only 1.4 knots! Wait until they reach the equatorial doldrums.


Wind in SF Bay is always out of the West, unless the Summer inversion is over Nevada & Colorado.

We should send them the pics from our IOTD Albatross chicks that died after eating plastic pieces. That was very dramatic.

They'll be heading to San Diego, first. They went out quite wide on that leg of the journey. Maybe they're afraid of getting smashed by a large vessel at night, if they stayed in the main shipping lanes. Can you even see their plastic boat on radar? Their info page doesn't say.

Maybe we can sell them a plastic centerboard and a radar reflector dish.

Now that is what is wrong with San Francisco. Sure, make boats out of recycled containers, but ... soft drink bottles? Bah.

Darwin has it right.

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Originally Posted by monster What have you personally done for this cause? Anything? No, thought not.