I found a great page of solar boats at SolarNavigator.net.  Unfortunately, I cant find information about this boat in particular whose image is posted.  It looks like an insect, but I like its space-ship quality.  The modern trimaran designs of a lot of solar boats prevent the salty look I enjoy in boats.  I appreciate when they go the other way and come out strange, futuristic, and beautiful for the unique shape and efficiency.  

Below is a model of the solar navigator itself. 

  The Redwing 18 from Chesapeake Marine Design fits many of my ideals for a Harbor cruiser / adventure craft.  It can take electric power with the efficient shape of a launch.  You can beach it, and it has berths.  At 18 ft, it should sit inside most garages.  It has a small cabin. I love traditional picnic launches, but I think Boston requires some protection in order to enjoy spring and fall, the most quiet and thus best seasons for boating.   CMD claims it can be built for $5000 in materials, which brings it out of the far reaches of the price stratosphere, where most boats float. Pang. They have the one for sale whose construction was documented over 3 issues of wooden boat magazine. Redwing 18 - Boat Plans and Yacht Designs — Chesapeake Marine Design.

UPDATE: CMD also wrote up a nice summary of choices in electric boat hull shape choices.  Check out the PDF.

I first read about ELCO in the book Devil in the White City.  The book tells the true story of a serial killer living the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. It simultaneously tells the story of designing and building the fair itself. ELCO was the company hired by Frederick Law Olmstead to bring electric boats to the waterways he designed. He was insistant the boats be electric rather than   steam-powered for their clean, quiet nature. I couldnt agree with him more.  Well, steam is pretty cool these days, but as much as I love the soothing rumble of a diesel engine (I have loved three diesel engines in my life), I hope go electric on the water from now on.  

No surprise then that I surfed over to ELCO’s site to see their current work.  These drop in electrics are interesting in their modularity, and appear to do a lot of the hard work for you in setting up your own inboard electric.      

Ko Ko Oo and Haung Htaik are lucky to be alive after supposedly floating at sea for 25 days in a cooler.  They apparently survived in monsoon water and fish barfed up by cormorants.  I am quite interested in this survival technique of having birds share their fish.  This follow up article from cnn states “Lee Hollingsworth of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds told CNN it was not uncommon for Asian fishermen to use birds such as cormorants to dive down and retrieve fish that are then regurgitated whole.”  How do you do this?  Do the cormorants come to rest, and then how do you coax them to share their fish?! 

via: Two Men Survive 25 Days At Sea In A Cooler.

According to the around in ten site, ” No one turned up in their 10ft boats to race around the world.”  Oh well.  I wouldn’t do that either.  It was a dwindling group already.  

The main man master microcruiser Tom McNally is still on the scene though, draw big crowds at the London Boat Show.  Go Tom!  We can trust this veteran to not bow out of his adventure.

Ted Ciamillo plans to cross the atlantic this summer in this wet-type submarine in 50 days.  The is sub is human (pedal) powered with carbon fiber flukes.  Apparently this fun fin (available for humans as the Lunocet) is 15% more efficient than the best rigid propellors!  I’m lazy, so I’d love to put a fin like this on an electric boat.  

via Crossing the Atlantic in a pedal-powered submarine - Boing Boing Gadgets

Check out the whole article at New Scientist

Here’s the Lunocet getting close to allowing breach.