Not Your AWB

Thomas Heatherwick explains a boat design commission to transport tourists and locals along the Loire river between Nantes and Saint-Nazaire.

Unlike a traditional two-hulled catamaran, the boat will have a single hull that folds back on itself and stretches over to form an infinite loop. This makes space for two diagonal viewing decks from which passengers can look out towards works of art along the river banks.

Thanks to Paul D. for the link.

Thinking Outside the Triangle

Here are a couple of new boat designs with rigs that harken back to the days of working sail. The trimaran is a Dick Newick design for a cargo/passenger lug rigged schooner, for the Vaka Fanāua project, the second is a 60m yacht designed to evoke the romantic image of a dhow.

Can Your Trimaran Do This?

Frank Smoot is the ultimate DIY sailor. He began his sailboat design career in 2009 with this and has progressed to this in only two years. His latest is the most ingenious small trimaran I’ve ever seen. If he continues at his Moore’s Law rate of improvement he should be building America’s Cuppers out of plywood/epoxy in about 6 months. Story via Small Trimarans. See more at DIY-Tris.com

The Golden Gate - Mini Camper

I found this electric-powered mini-camper by architect Jay Nelson at Tiny House Blog. I like the faceted, polyhedron style, all done up in plywood, plexiglass and epoxy. See more of his work at JayNelsonArt.com

The ArcSail Proa

Malcolm Smith always has something really tasty cooking in his workshop. His latest project is a force-balanced design utilizing a ‘ring wing’ that he calls the ArcSail. The concept has huge potential for boats both large and small, and I’m very pleased that Malcolm has opted to share it with us at Proafile:

The Life Pneumatic

I have a longstanding interest in pneumatic (pressurized) engineering structures. Blame it on Jacques Cousteau and his Zodiacs making a strong impression at an early age. For boats, inflatable hulls make all kinds of sense, being unusually light, strong, tough, and repairable. I even made a concept sketch of an inflatable hulled proa.

Here is Kurt Heiligenmann’s design for an inflatable beach cat - the Smartkat. Hate the name (I always hated the Smart Car because it implied that whoever purchased it was also “smart” and conversely, those of us who didn’t were less so), but this boat really IS brilliant. A 14’, 93 lb. rocket that fits into two canvas bags - store your beach cat in the closet, under the bed, or take it on your next flight to Ibiza.

Protei - Robotic Sailboat for Oil Spills

Imagine a robotic, wind-powered whale that “eats” oil spills. After visiting the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in June of 2010, a young engineer named Cesar Harada, decided to leave MIT in Boston to develop just such a vessel. Protei is unmanned, autonomous, relatively inexpensive and open source hardware (anybody can use, modify and distribute its designs), making it a potentially powerful weapon in the battle to clean up the Gulf of Mexico.

Video from Motherboard TV

Zeppy 3 - Across the Med by Wind Powered Airship

Preparations are underway for a 150 mile journey from southern France to Corsica in a sail balloon. High flyer Stéphane Rousson is planning to pilot Zeppy 3 across a stretch of Mediterranean waters using only the power of the wind and a curved carbon foil based on the chien de mer by Didier Costes. ~Gizmag

16m Cruising Proa by James Brett

Aukland based marine designer James Brett as turned out a tantalizing rendering for a proposed 53’ (16.2m) offshore cruising proa.

The bridgedeck cabin includes a double sea berth, full galley and saloon, while the main hull contains two double cabins, and the head. The workings of the boat are the same as my Free Radical design, using the same well proven rig and rudder systems. Construction will be in plywood with ply/balsa laminate in the bulkheads.