Crazy boat seen in WA

[scottm]

Check this boat out. These pics were taken at Marina Bay WA. Anyone up there know anything about it?

 

[vbgagnon]

I"m not up there, but I do know a bit about it.

Gimme a minute to see if the info I have is classified.

Well its not because the info I got was out of a newspaper or something like that.

Sightings - A pontoon vessel passes through Ilwaco, Wash., but
those involved with the strange boat aren't talking

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

PETER SLEETH

The Oregonian

It looked like Spiderman's own ride, a 99-foot mystery craft
resembling a monstrous metallic spider riding on two pontoons.
It emerged from a fog bank to dock at the Port of Ilwaco,
Wash., then left the next day with the crew refusing to talk.

Even as answers on who built the boat are now surfacing, the
vessel remains an enigma. Pictures of the craft shoot across
cyberspace while chat sites ponder just what the boat could be
used for. But the inventor remains mum.

It turns out that a California inventor named Ugo Conti holds a
patent for such a vessel. Conti, who has nine other registered
patents, owns a company called Marine Advanced Research, in El
Cerrito, Calif. He could not be reached for comment, but
Conti's wife, Isabella, acknowledged the craft was owned by
Marine Advanced Research. She said everyone involved with the
boat was operating under strict confidentiality agreements.

"We're planning a press conference in January, given that the
boat is not yet finished," she said.

She offered no more details.

The boat first began drawing curious stares when it surfaced in
September.

In the Olympic Peninsula village of Sequim, Wash., in
mid-September, people were shocked when they saw the bizarre
vessel offshore. Was it military? Could it be a private yacht?
No one could get close.

By Sept. 29, it had moored overnight on the southern Washington
coast at the Port of Ilwaco, allowing photographers to document
the boat's existence and spread the news through the yachting
community.

"When we saw it, the fog was coming in and all you could see
was the legs, and it was like, 'where did the big spider come
from?' It was creepy," said Melissa Stern, who works at the
Port. "It generated a lot of interest."

The crew, dressed in civilian clothes, slept on board and
declined to discuss their craft. The boat carried no
identifying marks, as is typically required for all motorized
vessels. The U.S. Coast Guard in Washington, D.C., said it had
no record of such a vessel. The next morning the boat vanished
out to sea.

The crew did leave behind clues, however.

After docking and paying the moorage fees, the captain of the
vessel wrote in Port records that it was owned by Advanced
Marine Research Inc. and had a registration number of DL 0899
AA. That number meant it was registered in Delaware. A
spokeswoman for the boat licensing arm of the state said the
details contained in boat registration records were private,
except for the fact the vessel had just recently been
registered in Delaware. Yet the boat apparently was
manufactured only recently -- in Washington.

The mystery ship was apparently built in Anacortes, Wash.,
under the direction of Jim Antrim, a California yacht designer.
A call to his office resulted in a polite no comment, echoing
Isabella Conti's confidentiality agreement.

A call to the Dakota Creek shipyard in Anacortes was not
returned. The boat had been seen there this summer, said a
spokesman for the harbor master's office.

Ugo Conti's patent, approved in April 2005, offers some clues,
describing the craft this way:

The boat is ". . . an entirely different type of vessel that
creates the minimum possible disruption of the waves. In other
words, this vessel does not push, slap or pierce the waves but
instead 'dances' with them. . . . The vessel has a pair of
flexible hulls flexibly coupled to a 'cabin' between and above
the hulls, thereby allowing the hulls to independently follow
the surface of the water. Motor pods are hinged to the back of
the hulls to maintain the propulsion system in the water. . .
."

The patent lists possible uses as rescue or patrol vessels,
pleasure craft, military uses or research vessels for
deployment of submarines or other instruments.

The patent notes the boat could potentially move at 60 knots or
more per hour with a range of 2,000 miles.

After leaving Ilwaco on Sept. 30, the boat was not seen again
until early October, when it moored at the Marine Bay Yacht
Harbor in Richmond, Calif.

As of Monday, it was still tied up in San Francisco Bay. A
spokesman for the moorage said he was not allowed to discuss
the vessel.

I have some more pics too.

 

[scottm]

Cool! Imagine hitting big offshore rollers at 60 while hanging 40 feet high. Pass the barf bags!

 

[vbgagnon]

 

[itsme]

Here is a little bit more info to ad this thread, this was built only 75 miles away from where i live what a trip!
http://etsell.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=98460f4e09dbddbe5f17b261ef8c83b4&topic=6.msg6#msg6

 

[TalonOne]

VB where did you get that last set of pics.....looks like someone was on the vessal??

Very cool idea.........you have to love inventors...
Talon



Never mind...I followed the link provided...........still pretty neat stuff.

 

[vbgagnon]

I'm a customs officer, so I get the inside scoop when it comes to things that come into and go out of the US.

 

[digger]

That is cool as hell.
Reminded me of the stealth boat the Navy was testing at first. http://foxxaero.homestead.com/indrad_003.html

Then I got to looking at the pics...

I love looking at things like that. Cars, planes, boats. Just thinking why they built them like that.

 

[Bryson]

That thing is sick! All the work into that and design must have took forever!

 

[dougc]

Maybe I am wrong but would this type of boat be called a catamaran?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catamaran

 

[ZANDOR]

Maybe I am wrong but would this type of boat be called a catamaran?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catamaran

You are right it is a Form of a catamaran
They are very stable in open water.

 

[Monkey Wrench]

Looks like something Howard Hughes would've built.

 

[Nathan_454]

yeah, i heard it was around this area, haven't checked it out yet. but on a side note, I won a car show in Ilwaco a few years back. lol

 

[scottm]

Nathan's alive!

 

[Nathan_454]

lol yeah I'm alive. I think.

 

[hb1111]

its a total bad ass...id love to drive that around in the open water and maybe jump a few waves...kool