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Japanese Man Crosses Pacific with Wave-Powered Boat

gas2.org — Forget sails, this guy is using wave-power to cross the ocean in a custom-made boat. The boat is powered by two fins that raise and lower with the tide, which drive the propellers. On board energy is provided by solar panels and the boat is primarily made out of recycled aluminum.

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  • boothdeveloper, on 03/28/2008, -2/+13looks quite cool.
    • theaceoffire, on 03/28/2008, -1/+9Wonder if they could scale this up for barges... they don't need to go fast since they carry so much.
      • Dokument, on 03/28/2008, -6/+7Im pretty sure the fact that they dont go fast is because it takes so much force to move them, not just because they do carry a lot. So i do not believe that the wave power would overcome the air resistance of say a container ship. But hey, i could be wrong.
        • adrianmonk, on 03/28/2008, -0/+12Air resistance? When you're displacing literally tons or thousands of tons of water, I don't think air resistance is a big worry. Ever gone to the beach and tried to run through the shallow part of the water that's 6 inches deep? Did you notice how hard it is?
        • PURPLEDRINK, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1goddamn. i can't believe adrianmonk is getting dugg down while dokument is getting dugg up. I have never even taken a physics class but dokument is a one bonafied ***** retard. there is no air resistance to factor in on a barge.
          • breadfred, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1See you when your boat flips over.
      • Navigator7, on 03/28/2008, -1/+5A tug boater for 20 years, I rather sail a barge than use wave action.
        Roughly 10 square feet, times 10 MPH equals 1 HP.
        The efficiency of a tug and barge compared to rail or trucking is light years.
        One 500 Hp tug can load a barge and move to a destination in some cases before the 80 car train can even be loaded.
        There is anything on the water any more friggen green than sail power.

        Kudo's to the Jap making something work but frankly, nuclear power on the water is king.
    • danconia, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2Yeah I was just reading about how this guy was just setting out in the latest PopSci (still almost a month old and who knows how much earlier the article was actually written). Kinda funny to hear about his departure one day and find out about his completion the next day. I really hope wave power starts to get utilized more and more. There's GOTTA be a lot of energy in waves... anyone who's been to the beach knows how much a big wave can smack you around like a rag doll. Thank god for modern engineers!
    • reubencm, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1yea so digging it should suffice. you dont need to let us know how coo you think it is we can tell how many people think that by looking at the number of diggs. but thanks anyway.
  • NateDog, on 03/28/2008, -4/+42Can't we get this guy to design us an efficient car?
    • vornan19, on 03/28/2008, -0/+46Sure, as soon as the roads undulate!
    • void, on 03/28/2008, -5/+8We could, but then the oil companies would have him killed in a fatal 'accident'
    • Awspire, on 03/28/2008, -5/+3What? You think a wave powered boat is efficient? Try shipping perishable goods with wave power, that would take 10 times longer to reach its destination than internal combustion. If theres an efficient source of energy out there other than fossil fuels, believe me, the shipping industry would be all over it.
    • kirstpo, on 03/28/2008, -2/+7Efficient electric cars are already available. Except auto industry, oil industry, government, and gas guzzling consumers have subdued it's entry into the market. Most people don't even know about the availability of an electric car. Ethanol fuel and hydrogen powered fuel are all fed to the masses as more wasteful energy alternatives. Both are still combustion vehicles which will release CO2 greenhouse gas. If you take chemistry, you know the way most people make hydrogen is with gasoline or methane. Ethanol is pushed by corn lobbyists (same with high fructose corn syrup. The combustion of ethanol gives less amount of energy than gasoline (meaning less mpg), and they are clearing away forests and rainforests to grow corn for an ethanol market (there are also many more ecological concerns with growing all this corn).

      You can check out www.teslamotors.com. The car can travel 0-60mph in under 4 seconds. It's completely electric. It solar recharges and also plugs in recharge. Its a luxury car because they can't enter the market for manufacturing affordable cars. Most importantly, the car is already available. The technology is already there.

      The only limitations for electric cars are that it can only go about 200 miles per charge. It takes about 4 hours to fully charge the vehicle. You have to change the battery every 100,000+ miles (after 100k+ miles you'll start getting less and less miles per charge). These limitations are all quite reasonable. Most of what we use our cars are for the daily commute to school or work, which for like 80-90% of the people 200 miles is more than enough. Not often do we need to go more than 200 miles a day. Even still you can just charge your car with some inconvenience of waiting. You don't need to oil change the cars. The cars will most likely last longer because its fundamentally cleaner. All you need to do is change the battery every 100,000+ miles, not buy a new car.
      • toonworld, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1I'm still amazed at how many people don't know about all of this. There was a documentary called "Who Killed The Electric Car?" that was released 2006. You can find the trailer here:
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJAlrYjGz8&feature ...

        The main reasons why the electric car never made it were:
        1. The oil companies stood to lose loads of money, so they intervened.

        2. The automotive companies also would lose lots of money because not only did they sell cars, they sold lots of parts for replacements and repairs. The electric car had a lot less moving parts, so less parts to be replaced.
    • davidlow, on 03/28/2008, -0/+3Energy from potholes! Finally, New York can be a net exporter of electricity.
  • theshrew4, on 03/28/2008, -0/+12I'm not sure why somebody didn't think of this sooner.
    • Dokument, on 03/28/2008, -4/+5Seriously, why couldnt somebody have done this scooner?
      • jp12380, on 03/28/2008, -0/+5Because no one had the foresight to do it scooner.
      • TommyTubesteak, on 03/28/2008, -1/+0I actually thought of this 10 years ago, so there, are you happy now.......scooner.
      • benchwarmer, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2all i care is that meow we have it!
      • loquax, on 03/28/2008, -0/+3Schooner or later someone will barge in with a great idea like this. Then it is easy sailing until someone gets seven sheets to the wind and puts a bunch of seamen on the poop deck and gets stuck in the doldrums. (Not that seamen on the poop deck is a bad thing--whatever floats your boat is ok by me). However, I happen to think that the oil companies will try to scuttle this idea before it leaves the dock. I wouldn't be surprised if the poor guy keeled over mysteriously. Still, I think if we can harness the power of the waves like this, we will have our bearing set on cleaner oceans.
        Seriously though, I'd like to see this type of set up used to power a robotic ship that collects all the surface level crap like plastic bags and stuff we've let drift out to sea. I've seen pictures and heard about miles and miles of ocean covered by human trash. This sounds like a great idea for something like that (even if it isn't fast for travel).
        • ummagummas08, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1Soo... what happens after we collect all of this supposed trash from the oceans? Burn it? Landfill? Space?
          • loquax, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1We'd probably have to landfill it, but it would be better to have the stuff on land than choking a biosystem like the ocean that feeds the world and produces the vast majority of O2.
    • Chompy, on 03/28/2008, -0/+6Because there's sailing.
    • warriorscot, on 03/28/2008, -0/+4Because people tend not to use slower more complicated solutions when presented with simple highly effective highly developed ones are available, we have been using sailing ships for thousands of years they are somewhat well designed now and usually very fast.
    • mrmrok, on 03/28/2008, -0/+0I remember reading or watching something about this type of vessel a while back (12+years) anyway here's a link with some other interesting ship/boat propulsion technologies.

      http://www.rexresearch.com/boats/1boat.htm
  • djepik, on 03/28/2008, -1/+52His own site is far more interesting:

    http://www1.suntory-mermaid2.com/english/index.htm ...
    • wefarrell, on 03/28/2008, -0/+9"1989 - Sailed from San Francisco to Nishinomiya on the smallest open sea yacht of 2.8m in length over all"

      damn
  • ecobites, on 03/28/2008, -2/+5Thanks for the great shout.
    • Dokument, on 03/28/2008, -2/+3AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh

      you are welcome.
  • snafflepaffle, on 03/28/2008, -3/+36According to TFA, "In fact, if you visit the sailor’s page you can track his progress as he crosses the wide Pacific. As of writing he looks to be almost there!"

    Uhhh... He's leaving Hawaii and he just started. Learn to read a map.
    • ThE0eNiGmA, on 03/28/2008, -10/+3How about learning to read? He left Japan, and was headed to Hawaii. If he is leaving Hawaii as you said, he has already crossed the ocean.
      • ThE0eNiGmA, on 03/28/2008, -5/+3Hate to reply to my own comment, but the edit timer ran out. Went and looked at the guy's site, and the map does seem to show him leaving Hawaii.
        • KennMac, on 03/28/2008, -2/+6I'm still digging you down for being a preemptive asshole.
      • frooo, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1Read some entries in his daily diary. The first entry on March 18 says.

        "I've progressed 100 km from when I departed, making my current position somewhere between Oahu and Kauai"

        Unless Oahu or Kauai suddenly floated off from Hawaii and crashed into the side of Japan, its pretty obvious he left Hawaii.
    • KennMac, on 03/28/2008, -0/+5Not sure why you're being dugg down. You're absolutely right.

      Day 1. March 18th, 2008:
      "I've progressed 100 km from when I departed, making my current position somewhere between Oahu and Kauai."
    • lucutus, on 03/28/2008, -0/+4Right on. Also "The boat is powered by two fins that raise and lower with the tide" What!? If you are floating on top of the open water the tide will have nearly 0 effect and only occurs twice a day. Your vessel and everything attached to it will simply rise and fall all together and only a small about. This power mech has nothing to do with tide it is powered by waves not the tide.
      • lamiaconfitor, on 03/28/2008, -0/+3I think... oh yes, its a poorly written article. the reporter must have no idea what he is talking about.
      • sstidman, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1Actually, a heavy object will not rise as much as a light object. There would be a difference between the rising/falling of the fins with respect to the boat. That difference could be used to power a propeller.

        That said, I don't think anyone has suggested that the boat is very fast. This won't be replacing gas powered boats anytime soon.
  • louiebaur, on 03/28/2008, -0/+4Awesome.
  • herecomes, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2I was thinking of inventing some sort of wave-powered boat that you could stand up on and totally tube ride across the ocean.
  • Peko, on 03/28/2008, -5/+4I'm very suspicious of shenanigans. Waves in the ocean and especially in the pacific are big but also have a very long wavelength. His boat is quoted at 9.5m long; which seems very short compared to the overall wavelength, and potential to generate kinetic energy from the waves. I have no conclusive proof, just seems suspicious.
  • WordsnCollision, on 03/28/2008, -0/+7Kenichi Horie is an old hand at solo sailing, having made numerous voyages over the past 15 years. If he's involved, it's on the up & up. For more background info on Horie and how the Suntory Mermaid II works, click here:
    http://inventorspot.com/articles/ecofriendly_ship_ ...
  • jjive, on 03/28/2008, -0/+51I saw him offshore, and waved till my arm hurt, but he never seemed to speed up.
  • Celeron, on 03/28/2008, -7/+13Warn the fleet! He's coming towards Pearl Harbor.
    • sailadayaway, on 03/28/2008, -0/+12actually, he's fleeing Pearl Harbor, or at least sailing away from it.
  • thewrathoffluff, on 03/28/2008, -1/+12I heart the Japanese.
  • sailadayaway, on 03/28/2008, -0/+4so do you need to trim anything, or does this boat just magically work in any direction with any size waves?
    • billyswong, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2Yes, the boat claims to works as long as there are waves, any size and any direction. Actually the design prepared sail, just in case there are completely no waves and got stuck in the middle of ocean...
  • PainToad, on 03/28/2008, -2/+6The lengths they goto to keep their whaling 'rights' is amazing :)
  • alwaysthere, on 03/28/2008, -1/+29"fins that raise and lower with the tide"? I'm sorry to be picky but this is incorrect. Tides are the rising and falling of Earth's ocean surface caused by the tidal forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the oceans. These fins are being raised and lowered by ocean swells. If you had to depend on the twice daily tides to move this boat forward it would take a very long time for it to cross the Pacific.
    • KennMac, on 03/28/2008, -1/+8The article is poorly written. Don't let it get to ya.
      • ElGanyan, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2Not so much poorly written as ill informed. I noticed the "tide" gaff as well as the fact that he is sailing from Hawaii to Japan, not vice versa, so is not "almost there."
    • scrogger, on 03/28/2008, -0/+3you beat me to it - was going to make the exact same comment. You'd think science writers would have more common sense.
    • texpundit, on 03/28/2008, -0/+3ITT: pedantic engineering students/science geeks

      A bunch of us caught the gaffe, but come the ***** on...we all pretty much understand what they *meant* without overexplanation.
  • mfc5200, on 03/28/2008, -2/+4haha, this guy was born in the wrong century. Look at his most recent blog post:

    "Ten bananas I couldn't eat got dumped in the ocean. I don't think there are many kinds of fish that'll eat them though.
    Today I ate my first orange since leaving. Nice and ripe. I guess they last longer than bananas.
    Just before sunset a young albatross came and took a break. It rested its wings until morning.
    Watching the sunset while drinking beer is terrific."

    It seems very 19th century romantic to me.
    • KennMac, on 03/28/2008, -2/+5It's also translated from Japanese to English.
    • GravitySpec, on 03/28/2008, -1/+7What's wrong with being a romantic in this day and age? I say we need more of it.
    • lamiaconfitor, on 03/28/2008, -2/+1his blog does have the quality of talking to a little naive girl, though.
  • robdon, on 03/28/2008, -1/+26For relaxing times, make it Suntory time
  • deviouskoopa, on 03/28/2008, -3/+2He started already halfway across the Pacific in Hawaii? He should do the whole thing!

    Impressive none the less :)
  • sandeeptec, on 03/28/2008, -1/+2hard work bring success

    salute to him towards pollution free iniative
  • plr4ever, on 03/28/2008, -2/+3Read this in PopSci a while ago...

    Still awesome as hell though
  • ebo91, on 03/28/2008, -5/+1The japanese man then quickly met a newly built wall sanctioned by the Bush administration, barring him from American shores, another American job kept safe by dubya
  • JointVenture, on 03/28/2008, -7/+2Wait a sec, the guy is obviously wealthy, arent we supposed to hate him and take his money to give to the poor?
  • mal1964, on 03/28/2008, -1/+5"All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine"
    -JS-
  • beowulflee, on 03/28/2008, -1/+21From the dude's personal site: "Watching the sunset while drinking beer is terrific."
    Dugg.
  • burningmanstan, on 03/28/2008, -2/+23"In 1992 to 1993 he sailed from Hawaii to Okinawa in a pedal powered boat. In 1996 he sailed from Salinas, Ecuador to Tokyo in a solar boat made of recycled aluminum. This crossing covered 10,000 miles in 148 days which earned the Guinness World Record for the fastest ever crossing of the Pacific in a solar-powered boat.

    In 1999 he sailed from San Francisco to Japan aboard a boat made primarily from recycled materials. The boat, Malt's Mermaid II, designed by Kennosuke Hayashi, was a 32.8 foot long, 17.4 foot wide, catamaran constructed from 528 beer kegs welded end-to-end in 5 rows (Horie joked that 500 of them were empty) The rigging consisted of two side-by-side masts with junk rig sails made from recycled plastic bottles. This boat is on display Okura Beach, Akashi."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenichi_Horie

    This guy has done some impressive stuff, often with relatively simply equipment and ideas. He is like the exact opposite of Branson and Fossett who throw money and composite materials around until the project works. He definitely has a refreshing view on innovation and record attempts.
  • withincontext, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1Quick, hide the moon!
  • Colindean, on 03/28/2008, -2/+1Wait...how's he getting back?
    • keltin, on 03/28/2008, -0/+2Well, I guess he's just got to go all the way in the direction he started, right? Waves don't go both ways do they? *sarcastic wit*
  • incywebb, on 03/28/2008, -4/+1The article says: "As long as recreational sailing exists, why not try to minimize environmental impact as much as possible, right?"

    Call me picky (and I'm the only one here who is) but by using waves it must take power out of them, thus reducing them by some degree (in amplitude, width, surfability whatever). Since the shore is shaped to some extent by waves then changing the waves will change the shore and thus the environment thereupon..... no?

    It's probably minimal, but multiply this by 1000 and you might see some change in the shoreline over a few years.

    Ban the wave stealers! Preserve our beaches!

    Apart from that, it reminds me of the Penguin's submarine from the 60's Batman movie, which had 2 flippers driving it.
    I love it. Can it be combined with the huge sail that's been tried out recently on cargo ships?
    • studdenfadden, on 03/28/2008, -0/+4To calculate the amount of the waves momentum used by this boat you would need to divide the surface area of the rudders by the surface area of the wave. the net result would be so small it would even be measurable, even if 100,000 boats were powered this way.
      • incywebb, on 03/31/2008, -0/+0Since the article mentioned recreational uses I had been thinking more of weekend boating, in an enclosed harbour-type situation. There such changes to waves would be more noticeable. On reflection (no pun intended) you're probably right, and it would be a big harbour that could fit 100k recreation boats at a time.
  • uncommonwords, on 03/28/2008, -7/+5"In fact, if you visit the sailor’s page you can track his progress as he crosses the wide Pacific. As of writing he looks to be almost there!"

    1. It looks as if he is almost there because he started in the damn middle.
    2. He actually is not almost there. He is not close to almost being there.

    Go ahead and bury me. But first, look at his page yourself.
  • terryhuang, on 03/28/2008, -1/+2Couple this with the boat kite thing and we will save so much energy on those trans-pacific/atlantic ships
  • lou2005, on 03/28/2008, -1/+4Well, I was thinking. Oh yeah. like there are plenty of times out there on the ocean when the wind dies down and you can't sail. But the waves never die down. Oh wait. They do. In fact its usually in the same space and time that the wind dies down. So, i'm not sure if there is any benefit to this.
  • robszol, on 03/28/2008, -1/+5"Watching the sunset while drinking beer is terrific." This guy is cool.
  • DangerCollie, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1The interesting application for this would be a robot container carrier. No matter how long it takes for wave power to get it there, it just keeps its little robot nose headed toward the destination. Track them by satellite, they get there when they get there. It's cheap transportation. Heck, you could weld them closed. Fly a big radar target, maybe create some kind of robot only shipping lane. Let them bump into one another. So what?
  • mbonnin, on 03/28/2008, -2/+6Digg in the 15th Century

    NEWSFLASH: 1492 - Italian man Crosses Atlantic with Wind Powered Boat
    • Ortheos, on 03/28/2008, -0/+4Digg in the 22nd century

      NEWSFLASH: Italian man builds raft and crosses creek.

      ALSO LATER: Effects of nuclear fallout still continuing, 800,000 froze to death on monday. Sticks and stones not enough to thwart ongoing nuclear winter.
  • univerio, on 03/28/2008, -2/+1He's near Hawai'i right now. Say... if he does dock in the US (or Canada) does that make him an illegal immigrant?
    • skiddles, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1That depends on whether he has a visa or not, or whether he can obtain one at the port. He would only be illegal if he ran aground on a beach and disappeared into the night.
  • Plasmodia, on 03/28/2008, -2/+1*****
  • keltin, on 03/28/2008, -2/+2Absolutely fantastic. This is the kind of innovation that humans are known for, just don't strap them down with a bunch of restrictive, unnecessary regulations. Thehuman spirit is meant to be free and untethered, not coerced and blackmailed by the darkness of governmental regulation.
    Way to go, Kenichi.
    • reubencm, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1unlike those non human folk, they are always being restricted by those unnecessary regulations...
  • bonjourmr, on 04/25/2008, -1/+2I dig the pic of him sipping back on some beer, what a bloke.
  • Nubli, on 03/28/2008, -2/+1Is this like when the USS Enterprise surfed the warp wave through space?
  • salesnet, on 03/28/2008, -1/+0very cool!
  • diggydougie, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1There's nothing to stop them from putting sails on it to make it even better. And a kite like that tanker has. And solar panels with an electric motor. Put it all together and you may have something.
    • billyswong, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1You are right. He does put all these available for the boat. Yes, even the electric motor. Check out the design detail and you will see.
  • Wetlandman, on 03/28/2008, -2/+1It is not the tides that cause the action on the fins but the motion of the waves. For more green boating designs check out my blog greenboating.blogspot.com
  • robbiemuffin, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1there's nothing quite like replacing perfectly green, good technology (sail power) with other, less well developed forms of technology.
    • mrraven200, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1It's called sustainable innovation and it's a good thing, perhaps the only thing that will allow to survive with the comfortable lifestyle we are used to long term in the 21st century. Please bring on new windmill designs etc, so I can have a hi tech, wi-fied, global transportation enabled life without destroying our home planet earth.
  • nogChoco, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1*waves* to Diggers
  • skyz, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1wave cool !
  • aroundtown, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1He'll be detained as a terror suspect when he lands, held without charge.
  • gravyfries, on 03/28/2008, -0/+0Doesn't wind work pretty well? Yes it is "cool", but seems pointless to me. Am I missing something?
  • mogebier, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1How fast does this go?
    It seems interesting on paper, but I can't ever see a practical application for this. There is no way to power cargo ships or anything that heavy using this technology.
    Oh well, whatever floats your boat I guess.
  • ChanM, on 03/28/2008, -0/+0he's well ahead of our time, he's preparing for water world......
  •  

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