Interest in The New Boat Today

Wow.

This is a brand new blog that is barely launched. I have been busy just getting content on the site before really putting it out there. But someone discovered The New Boat design and posted a link to it from the boat board at www.rowingillustrated.com. My stats have skyrocketed so I guess this blog is launched now.

Yes, the design is radical … but the radical part is not so much in what you can see in these initial drawings, but in just how far out of the conventional boat-building box my thinking is in how to construct it — for features and performance you cannot see from the drawings. It takes some explaining.

The shape, of course, is designed to eliminate more than two thirds wetted surface when the boat is at speed. The inner eight feet is essentially the boat, and the fore and aft sections are for length and stability (minimizing “hobby-horsing). The exact placement of the hydrofoils remains to be seen.

Remember … these drawings are just the cocktail napkin doodle of an idea I have not had the time or resources to develop further. I would love a navel architect to show up and lend a hand. I am also in the midst of determining if I need to bite the bullet and get myself to another part of the country to be in a position to have the resources nearby to accomplish my goals more effectively. As it is now, the only advantage to being in my present location is I have a magnificent workshop and space to prototype this boat the old-fashioned way. I am not adverse to speeding up the process with sophisticated computer software and partners with boat-building experience.

The really interesting thing about this boat that you cannot see from the drawing is what I am not telling you yet. But it will perform differently from the conventional racers and even require a slightly different technique than the classic form for rowing.

Personally, I am chomping at the bit to work on it, but my time is being ill-spent with matters that are tangential to my passions and necessary to survival. Son-of-a-bitch … that’s the real world we live in now.

It’s a shame too, because I am unstoppable when I  am able to apply my time and brain to the things that make my heart sing. And I am unstoppable when it’s not too cold to row and there’s plenty of sunlight. I haven’t rowed the past couple of weeks, but hope to make it out this Sunday or Monday for at least 25 miles.