June 11, 2011 update: Microship Seeks Mediagenic
Technomadling
An amphibian pedal/solar/sail micro-trimaran, designed for technomadic
adventure
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...
