Microship

June 11, 2011 update:  Microship Seeks Mediagenic Technomadling

The Microship is looking for a new pilot!

She is now listed on Yachtworld for a somewhat audacious $73K, which makes sense in the brokerage environment with a turnkey buyer. But realistically, that's too high for the kind of person most likely to be attracted to something this esoteric and geeky. If you have the resources to take the project and run with it, then please contact me directly.

Background

The infamous amphibian pedal/solar/sail micro-trimaran created by Nomadic Research Labs (with the help of 160 corporate sponsors, hired consultants, and dozens of volunteers) has been lying idle in the lab for a few years, while I have turned my attention to ships big enough to support open-ended global voyaging. As I have come to accept that at this age I will never launch the expedition that drove the Microship project from 1993 through 2003, I have concluded that she should find a new skipper.

This is not a normal yacht, however. The new owner of this engineering-intensive boatlet should be someone with motivations similar to my own... I pedaled 17,000 miles around the US on a computerized recumbent bicycle while writing books and appearing steadily in the media, and this project was conceived as a way to propel my full-time technomadic life into the aquatic domain (complete with layers of network and communication technology). 

The Microship thus needs to find a pilot who is mediagenic, geeky, youthful, and insanely adventurous. I would expect to spend at least a full-time week with the new owner here in my lab, sharing all aspects of the design as well as the infrastructure it represents for an overlay of systems... and I'll stay available for brainstorming and consultation as the new project develops. The boat sails like a dream (heavy-hitter marine architecture consultants and other notables were on the design team), and is the resultant of over a dozen man-years of focused engineering. This is a powerful substrate for a high-profile expedition.

She won't be cheap compared to other boats of this scale, and she's certainly not for everyone. But for the right person, she could represent a huge shortcut in time and money compared to the project that would be required to replicate this eccentric range of capabilities: pedal, electric, and sail propulsion; amphibian self-trailering mode including folding crossbeams and retractable landing gear; 480-watt solar integration; hydraulic controls; and much more.

The boat is located in my lab on Camano Island, Washington.  Learn more here:

Yachtworld listing
Photo album
Detailed article about the substrate and a retrospective of the 10-year project 
Development archives

The most current news about new projects is at the Nomadness Blog.

I can help you brainstorm the "business model" of a Microship expedition to see if it might benefit from sponsorship, publishing deals, or other spin-offs (a good place to start in that direction is the Reaching Escape Velocity book in my online store, which is also available for the same price on Amazon if you prefer... see below). Of course, she can just be a high-tech nautical toy for one with deep pockets and a yen for engineering. But personally, I would prefer to see the boat achieve her originally intended destiny of an extended public journey through coastal and inland waterways, and for the right person there is a good probability of corporate and media support (given the continuity of my work over the past 25 years).

To learn more, please email...