The Microship Status Reports

The Fulmar Interlude

Suddenly everything changed. For two years I had watched the concept (originally called LEVIATHAN) steadily grow from a single kayak to a huge and complex 5,000-pound vessel with detachable double-kayak outriggers... and now I was hitting the RESET button. The UCSD teams were hard at it, building controllers on the network, and we had the core of a solid resource management system that used crossbars to route audio, video, and serial signals wherever needed. But what was to be the substrate?

Microship Status 4/29/94 -- I chuckle at the irony of my downsizing specs converging on the same boat that had intrigued me at the Sea Kayak Symposium back in '92: the Fulmar-19. Meanwhile, a wizard from Mechanical Engineering develops the video turret, three competent students are orphaned by changing mechanical specs, and a handful of electronic projects are underway.

Microship Status 5/12/94 -- I did it! After a spirited weekend of test sails in Seattle, I order a Fulmar... predicting that by simplifying the project with this act, I will depart for full-time adventure in June 1995 <sigh>. But the spec is now optimized for light weight, and I spell out what must be done to prepare for her arrival.

THE NOMADNESS NOTES, Issue #25, 7/16/94 -- Here's the wonderful adventure of hauling the Fulmar up the side of the engineering building... as well as on-water tales of getting to know the boat in Cowichan Bay, Victoria, Humboldt Bay, San Pablo Bay, and the Petaluma River... where a dismasting revealed flaws in the experimental rig. And then, urging readers to "forget all my previous specification documents"... I sketch the new system design.

Microship Status 8/9/94 -- New toys arrive from Qualcomm, H-P, Cruising Systems, Hull, and West Marine. Faun moves into my life, and we start conjuring "Microship Rev 1.0" to support a 250-300 mile mini-adventure next month...

Very brief Microship update, 9/13/94 -- Final-preparation phase for the mini-adventure.

The Maiden Voyage of the Microship (9/17/94 - 10/1/94) -- Yeee-haw! Borrowing another Fulmar (of the 12 in existence) for Faun, we launch from Seattle, pull a wild on-water all-nighter to Port Townsend, claw upcurrent to Sequim Bay, crash-land on Dungeness Spit, pedal across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, frolic around Victoria, cross to Henry Island, skip happily through the San Juans, and have a yacht crash and pedal drive failure on the Swinomish. Lessons are learned, and the project prepares to evolve yet again.

Microship Status 1/19/95 -- We begin casting about for a larger boat, but in the meantime convert the graphic front end from C++ on DOS to HyperCard on the Macintosh, defining a hierarchy of views. The Hub receives more I/O and the serial crossbar. Three hilarious engineering students go to work on a packet-linked manpack system, and the mechanical excellence of the video turret now has an electronics team to match.

Microship Status 1/25/95 (Issue #79) -- It occurs to me to start numbering the reports. The manpack system is developing well, and we go into some detail... while we start looking at the Stiletto 27 catamaran.

Microship Status 1/31/95 (Issue #80) -- We move our stuff out of Seaweed Canyon, and put the Libra double kayaks into storage. Faun is doing HTML, lots of new sponsors are coming online, and I explain chord keyboards.

Microship Status 2/7/95 (Issue #81) -- After flying to Texas to sail a Stiletto that's on the market, I react with characteristic enthusiasm and write a spec around it, herein listing the hacks necessary to make it work as our substrate: kayak stowage, self-trailering, mast deployment, solar array, and cockpit/console design. I also call for comments...

Microship Status 2/17/95 (Issue #82) -- ...and the comments roll in. OK, so the Stiletto is a fast fair-weather boat that's exciting but unsuited to cruising. <sigh> Research continues in many directions, while we continue electronic work with packet and pressure systems.

Microship Status 2/24/95 (Issue #83) -- Hmmm, so do we build a catamaran? Armed with study plans, we consider this.... while the video turret starts to work, a simple subset of pressure control seems within range, the manpacks practically dance under the tutelage of their team, and we proceed with general hackage. But what to float it all?

Microship Status 3/12/95 (Issue #84) -- OK, let's lay it out analytically. Cat versus tri? Tri looks most sensible for lots of reasons, and we target the 30-foot range at $15K. Build versus buy? We don't want to be boatbuilders. Hoping to conjure something with a clear enough spec, we lay out a full set of requirements...

By the next update, we had a boat and moved abruptly into the third phase of this seemingly endless project...

	Microship Status 4/29/94 -- I chuckle at the irony of my downsizing specs converging on the same boat that had intrigued me at the Sea Kayak Symposium back in '92: the Fulmar-19. Meanwhile, a wizard from Mechanical Engineering develops the video turret, three competent students are orphaned by changing mechanical specs, and a handful of electronic projects are underway.
	Microship Status 5/12/94 -- I did it! After a spirited weekend of test sails in Seattle, I order a Fulmar... predicting that by simplifying the project with this act, I will depart for full-time adventure in June 1995 <sigh>. But the spec is now optimized for light weight, and I spell out what must be done to prepare for her arrival.
	THE NOMADNESS NOTES, Issue #25, 7/16/94 -- Here's the wonderful adventure of hauling the Fulmar up the side of the engineering building... as well as on-water tales of getting to know the boat in Cowichan Bay, Victoria, Humboldt Bay, San Pablo Bay, and the Petaluma River... where a dismasting revealed flaws in the experimental rig. And then, urging readers to "forget all my previous specification documents"... I sketch the new system design.
	Microship Status 8/9/94 -- New toys arrive from Qualcomm, H-P, Cruising Systems, Hull, and West Marine. Faun moves into my life, and we start conjuring "Microship Rev 1.0" to support a 250-300 mile mini-adventure next month...
	Very brief Microship update, 9/13/94 -- Final-preparation phase for the mini-adventure.
	The Maiden Voyage of the Microship (9/17/94 - 10/1/94) -- Yeee-haw! Borrowing another Fulmar (of the 12 in existence) for Faun, we launch from Seattle, pull a wild on-water all-nighter to Port Townsend, claw upcurrent to Sequim Bay, crash-land on Dungeness Spit, pedal across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, frolic around Victoria, cross to Henry Island, skip happily through the San Juans, and have a yacht crash and pedal drive failure on the Swinomish. Lessons are learned, and the project prepares to evolve yet again.
	Microship Status 1/19/95 -- We begin casting about for a larger boat, but in the meantime convert the graphic front end from C++ on DOS to HyperCard on the Macintosh, defining a hierarchy of views. The Hub receives more I/O and the serial crossbar. Three hilarious engineering students go to work on a packet-linked manpack system, and the mechanical excellence of the video turret now has an electronics team to match.
	Microship Status 1/25/95 (Issue #79) -- It occurs to me to start numbering the reports. The manpack system is developing well, and we go into some detail... while we start looking at the Stiletto 27 catamaran.
	Microship Status 1/31/95 (Issue #80) -- We move our stuff out of Seaweed Canyon, and put the Libra double kayaks into storage. Faun is doing HTML, lots of new sponsors are coming online, and I explain chord keyboards.
	Microship Status 2/7/95 (Issue #81) -- After flying to Texas to sail a Stiletto that's on the market, I react with characteristic enthusiasm and write a spec around it, herein listing the hacks necessary to make it work as our substrate: kayak stowage, self-trailering, mast deployment, solar array, and cockpit/console design. I also call for comments...
	Microship Status 2/17/95 (Issue #82) -- ...and the comments roll in. OK, so the Stiletto is a fast fair-weather boat that's exciting but unsuited to cruising. <sigh> Research continues in many directions, while we continue electronic work with packet and pressure systems.
	Microship Status 2/24/95 (Issue #83) -- Hmmm, so do we build a catamaran? Armed with study plans, we consider this.... while the video turret starts to work, a simple subset of pressure control seems within range, the manpacks practically dance under the tutelage of their team, and we proceed with general hackage. But what to float it all?
	Microship Status 3/12/95 (Issue #84) -- OK, let's lay it out analytically. Cat versus tri? Tri looks most sensible for lots of reasons, and we target the 30-foot range at $15K. Build versus buy? We don't want to be boatbuilders. Hoping to conjure something with a clear enough spec, we lay out a full set of requirements...