October 18, 2006: Cool experimental boat sighting

YellowBolt gets this email forwarded from a professor. Notes the prof,

These pictures were taken in the Port of Ilwaco off the Washington State coast. The crew wore civilian clothes but guarded the boat closely and would not answer any questions.

It was suggested it may be something Boeing is working on. The pontoons appear to be made of very thick rubber and may be fuel cells. Note that each of the steel spider-like legs are jointed in three places. Perhaps the boat can be lowered in calm seas and raised when it is rough.

The boat had no name or number...

A friend who lives there said it arrived out of the fog the nite before. The crew would not say who they were or where they were from, and were not allowed to discuss the craft.

Notice how the rear of the cabin can be lowered into the water but has a very small prop.

Sez YellowBolt, "It reminds me of those spy boats from James Bond movies. Really does." Me too. Thanks for forwarding.

Spidermaran?

Isn't Howard Hughes dead?

You didn't see it....

Preparations for Waterworld. It's gonna happen, ya know.

That's cool! It must be very stable, considering its length and width, not to mention the shock absorbers. It's the daddy longlegs of boats!

It's a Jim Antrim design, built in Anacortes, WA.

Damn. We hadn't even gotten to the alien invasion speculations yet, and already someone puts out the conspiracy theory fire.

It's Dr. Arliss Loveless trying the water this time.;)

OK, I'm speed posting because I heard I may get lucky tonight so I didn';t read any of your other possts. I just wanna know what was so experimental about that boat sighting. It looked like a pretty run of the mill sighting to me. Stand on a dock, look at boat.

I'll check it out when I have more time.

Aww, fsaklfjgl. My computron ate up one different shot of the boat. (Might be why two of the images are exactly the same...:neutral: )

Johnny Quest had one of those yeeeeeeeeeeeears ago.

You know, when I look at the last shot, here, it makes me think that someone looked at a canoe and said, "I can make that a lot faster. First, you suspend it from this big, flexible bridge thingie..."

Is this perhaps piloted by the world's tiniest horsey?

News on the spider boat.

"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."

Also:
http://www.wam-v.com/

Hello the Cellar, it has been a long time !

This photo reminds me of the last dream of Eric tabarly (our former national sailor), his "flying boat" : l'Hydroptère :

You can have a look at the header and the pictures:
http://www.hydroptere.com/accueil/images/photos/2004/var/lang/FR/rub/61.html

The faster he goes, the more he rises from the water on his two foils. Then he's nearly flying over the sea.

He's already done better than Louis Blériot's plane when crossing the Channel !!

When engineering meets poetry...

and ...

Sign me up! Looks like a blast!