Waterlog

In the end, the boat got about 4 minutes of screen time in the new Bond flick, "Casino Royale." But the hell that Brit yachtmaker Spirit Yachts went through to deliver this luxurious, teak-deck rig, the Spirit 54, to Venice and other places is nearly a Bond-like tale of adventure. Among other things, it  required "2,000 miles of sailing, two transatlantic crossings by ship, 1,500 miles on trucks, and five mast in - mast out’s." Want one? Spirit sells 'em for about $500,000. The hull, at least, qualifies as a work of genuine art—laminated mahogany framing with Brazilian cedar planking...

I've posted previously about a series of clean-tech marine breakthroughs that have emerged over the last year or so. Add this intriguing vessel to the list—Sun21, a 46-foot catamaran with no mast, sails, gas tank, or diesel engines. Just a roof tiled with photovoltaic panels that can juice the boat's electric motors 24/7, and maintain a respectable cruising speed of 6 knots. She's  reliable enough, apparently, that a crew of 6 (including builder Marc Wüst) has  begun sea trials in France in preparation for an Atlantic crossing starting Nov. 29 in Seville, Spain. Sun21, and winding up in New York sometime next spring.

Like the solar/wind-assisted boat being designed for ferry service in San Francisco, Sun21 is considered a demo for a viable commercial service, since it's doubtful that the current generation of stinkpotters—sorry, power boating enthusiasts—would buy a 6-knot slowpoke like this. But who knows? As the Sun21 site says, boats and solar energy are perfect complements, as "no other vehicle is better suited to transform light energy into mobility."  Six knots today might mean 15 or 20 in a decade—which might inspire a new boat industry altogether. Keep your eye on Sun21.

You can track her progress here.

Photo by Michael L.

A beautiful shot of Jim Antrim's 100-foot catamaran, apparently taken (if we're to believe the caption on Flickr) by a clever photog who loaded a camera in a kite.

See my post last week about recent sightings by whale watchers in the San Juan islands:

"More on the mystery catamaran"

Three years ago, we wrote about Garmin's secret sauce for innovation.  Sales have more than doubled since then, and the company is projecting $1.6 billion for the year, a 60 percent jump from '05. (Not to mention, a market share in unit volume of 57 percent, compared to 21 percent for No. 2 TomTom.) And these days, the little company from the prairie—Olathe, Kansas—keeps acting more like the big one from Cupertino, Calif. This week, Garmin (GRMN) not only unveiled 20-plus new marine nav products for 2007, it opened its first flagship retail store along Chicago's trendy Magnificant Mile, complete with all of the design features and options you see at Steve Jobs' Apple Stores. Who would have thought a few years ago that a niche maker of nav devices for Bassmasters, sailors, and Cessna pilots would be opening doors on its own version of NikeTown? While there are dozens of other rivals now in the GPS market, more than anyone else, Garmin paved the way—so it's fitting that the company is first to put a dedicated GPS boutique on the mall.

From the Chron's Brian Hoffman:

Small-time commercial crabbing boat jogging over the bay at three minutes to midnight, flood lights on over the deck, hope on in the wheelhouse, the Golden Gate looming ahead, a salient and very real divide between bay and ocean, city glow and gaping darkness, lazy harbor and the boom-time hauling of pots. Two minutes to midnight and the gulf is a minor constellation of its own, boat lights like stars, stars like boat lights, and here we are, dieseling into another Dungeness season.

They got a price without a strike this time, some say for only the second time in the past 10 years, but, then, people say a lot of things. What's known is the commercial fleet settled on $1.85 a pound, a palms-up acceptance when held to the $2-and-a-quarter the fleet was asking, same as it asks every year and never seems to get.

More here.

While ex-HP chairwoman Patty Dunn this week faces arraignment for fraud, identity theft, and conspiracy charges, Tom Perkins, her former board colleague, is laughing —pretty loudly—from the deck of a 300-foot yacht in the Mediterranean, while waiters refresh his drinks. After the HP scandal broke in August, Perkins got the hell out of dodge, and has been at the helm of his new square-rigged sailing yacht, the Maltese Falcon. The boat is now en route to Antigua after undergoing repairs in La Spezia. When we last heard from Perkins—who has been posting to his own captain's blog—he had just broken the 20-knot mark. Now he's up to almost 25,  and sailing the new rig in some pretty serious weather.

This just in:

"...During the 12:00 to 4;00 night watch Monday the wind built into the force twelve range gusting to 66.5 knots, and still with only our three sails we reached a speed of 24.8 knots (as measured by GPS) which is a new record for us. With hind-sight we wish that we had set our check-stays; had they been in place, I would have tried doubled our sail area and shot for maybe 30 knots. In the gusts one of our tender covers blew away, but there was no other damage. However our aft EPIRB , was triggered by a wave and sent out a flase alaem. We got a call almost immediately, and assured the Authorities that all is well.
 
Best, Tom."

Interesting piece over the weekend from The Guardian about the Emma Maersk's first cargo haul from China. The brand-new, 1500-foot-long vessel is the first of seven mammoth ships being built by global shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk Group.  A few details:

The manifest for the 3,000 containers of goods that it will drop off in Britain on its way to mainland Europe reveals the largest single consignment of festive cheer ever delivered - a floating world of British desires and necessities...

...While the boat is carrying around 11,000 containers and is by far the largest container ship ever built, Yentian port, where it set off from for Europe last month, now exports nearly three times that many containers every day. China is now far and away the world's biggest maker and exporter of everything from toy gorillas to steel and electronic goods.

The manifest of the ship perfectly reflects the consumer society at Christmas. Crackers, poker tables, bingo sets, drum kits, electronic toys and pre-school building blocks by the score will be delivered in astonishing quantities: 1,886,000 Christmas decorations are loaded in one container, 40,000 rechargeable batteries and 22,280 kg of Vietnam tea in another. In another are 12,800 MP3 players.

Previous post on the Emma Maersk here.

Bruce Jones is looking more and more like a more mechanically-inclined reincarnation of Mr. Roarke. This morning, I spoke on the phone with  Jones, the CEO of U.S. Submarines and the chief architect of a large-scale underwater hotel and resort, called Poseidon, in Fiji.  Last week, new details appeared on the Poseidon website that suggest the project is real, construction is underway, and that Poseidon will start taking reservations in January in hopes of an opening in late 2008. 

"We bought an island," Jones says. Though he won't disclose its precise location or purchase price, his "Fiji Mystery Island" (photo above) sits on a 225-acre atoll with an 8-square-mile lagoon whose entrance is wide and deep enough for 300-foot yachts.  Guest capacity: 24 underwater suites will be built, and 48 bungalows up top for landlubbers.

Most of the construction will actually take place in Portland, Ore., where Jones will spend most of next year coordinating the manufacturing and sourcing of ultra-thick acrylic and the water-tight "pods" that can be assembled in modular form, then converted into rooms and suites once they're submersed. The entire underwater portion of the resort, he says, will be built on drydock in Portland and will weigh about 7,600 tons.

"Ideally, we would build the whole thing in drydock, then immerse the pods into a  40-foot-deep pool for testing." Once it's approved for habitation, Jones will put the hotel on a container ship bound for Fiji.

Pricing: At the moment, $15,000 gets you six nights -- four on land, two underwater — and includes airfare, all meals, and use of Jones' submarines.

See previous post about Poseidon here.

Photo by Draekane.

Hundreds upon thousands of coastal dungeness crabs—having enjoyed a relatively uneventful and carefree autumn thus far—will experience something akin to the Normandy invasion during the predawn hours of 11 Nov 2006. Dungeness season officially opens Saturday, which means that hundreds upon thousands of crab traps will be tossed over the side of fishing boats, descending to the sea floor, where the unwitting 8-leggers will scramble to get inside like Southwest passengers on the last New Year's flight to Vegas.

Waterlog, it should be noted, will be heading out the 'gate at 6AM Sunday in a wholly inappropriate crabbing vessel—my brother's sloop, a Beneteau 40.7—to set a few traps in hopes of a 5PM crab feed. 8-12-foot swells should have us all hurling by noon. (Plan B: picking up some steaks on the way back.)

More info for aspiring crabbers from the SF Chron's Brian Hoffman:

A recent photo posted by Tom Perkins' crew, aboard his new yacht, Maltese Falcon, sailing somewhere in the Mediterranean.  Hard to imagine a 300-foot yacht burying the rail in the water while sailing to weather—or why it would serve any useful purpose for a $100 million luxury vessel—but hey. It's his money.  More pics from the Falcon here.