I have never done any sailing, but from what I know it’s really hard job and not many could do it. Well, the sailing of the future seems to be different and anyone could do it as you would need only a touchscreen. Sounds simple, isn’t it? And it could thanks to Project GreenJet, an astonishing 57-meter yacht designed by Erik Sifrer.

Project GreenJet was inspired by a previous design of Erik Sifrer cakked SY120 Yacht which worked the same but it was less advanced, smaller and slower. If Sifrer’s ideas are correct then those athletic sailors won’t be needed because just a few weather monitoring systems and one man to control the yacht with the help of a touchscreen will be enough.

The two sails of the GreenJet could be raised in about 40 seconds to their height of 55 meters and they can be rotated to 160 degrees. Although there are bigger yachts like the Maltese Falcon capable of automated sailing, Project GreenJet is far more advanced which has only one drawback: the money needed to finish his work. According to Sifrer, he would need $70 million and in about 3 to 6 years he would manage to complete the yacht.

Check an interesting article and full coverage about the Project GreenJet yacht at Gizmag.

If you ever wanted your own small plane, to take it for a ride ever once in a while, and escape from the daily routine, than this is your chance. This model was designed by a former Air Force F15 pilot, probably from his desire to own a small ‘iron bird’ to remind him of the good old days, and he decided to release it to the market, as the construction costs weren’t so high.

The Icon A5 can take off and land on water or dry land, and has controls resembling more the ones from a car, rather than a plane. A proof of its simplicity when it comes to flying is the 20 hours of flight training you are required to spend before lifting it up.

Its wings can be fold, so you can put it behind your car, and has a 32-foot wingspan. This kind of aircraft is restricted to fly above 10,000 feet in daylight, with a top speed of 140mph. The first line of Icon A5 is planned for release in 2010, and will be available for only $139,000.

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Kong Fanwen has came up with a keyboard which could be one of the coolest ever designed. The so-called “No-Key” keyboard consists of a glass and flat surface, and it needs a camera and appropriate lighting to make your typing very pleasant. No-Key’s camera captures the motion of your fingers and it sends the commands to the PC which makes us feel bad that it’s only a concept for now. One more thing: you can see from a picture below that it’s waterproof. How cool is that? Hopefully, it will be available very soon.

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ModeLabs Group from Paris announced through a press release the availability of the Bluetrek Metal, supposedly the world’s thinnest Bluetooth headset. The device’s main component is metal, is only 4mm (0.16 inches) thick and weights no more than 5.5 grams (0.01 pounds).

Small, but efficient, this gadget’s standby mode lasts up to seven days and allows you to talk for five hours straight. The headset has a tough predecessor in the Bluetrek Bizz model, and will be available in June for the Entire Europe. It is expected to have a $60 price for black and silver versions and $76 for the silver steel color.

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Aegis Open Architecture is a weapon system that can absorb frequent technology refreshes and upgrades in capabilities, both from new development and separate third party products. It accomplishes this by using commonly available off-the-shelf computing hardware and open system software.

Aegis is the weapon system of choice for the U.S., Australia, Japan, Norway, South Korea and Spain. It seamlessly integrates the SPY-1 radar, the MK 41 Vertical Launching System, SM-2 and SM-3 missiles and the weapon system’s command and control system. It is currently deployed on 85 ships internationally, with more than 20 additional ships planned or under contract. The U.S. Navy plans to begin a modernization program similar to the Aegis Open Architecture scheme for the 62-ship class of Aegis-equipped Arleigh Burke destroyers in 2012.

The USS Bunker Hill is the first of 22 cruisers scheduled to receive Aegis Open Architecture over the next ten years.

“Aegis Open Architecture will continue to keep a force of 84 U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers - and dozens of allied Aegis-equipped ships - relevant and at the forefront of technology for the extent of their ship life,” said Orlando Carvalho, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Surface-Sea Based Missile Defense line of business. “Providing this transformation is the result of thorough systems engineering and close collaboration with the Navy and multiple innovative business partners to replace custom designed software with open architecture software.”

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Waterbuoy

Waterbuoy is a safety device for anything portable on your boat. It may only be the same size as a regular car key fob (70mm x 28mm x 18mm), but Waterbuoy packs some ingenious miniature flotation technology to stop precious objects from sinking to the bottom. When dropped into the water, Waterbuoy becomes a flashing emergency float for whatever it is attached to, making it possible to retrieve just about anything that you accidentally drop into the water.

Just because it has been dropped over the side does not mean that it’s lost. Before you even have time to worry about all the contacts in your mobile phone or how you are going to get home tonight, with your car-keys and house-keys at the bottom of the sea, Waterbuoy will spring into action.

“Waterbuoy is a unique product. It will lift up to 1kilogram back to the surface, it will stay afloat for at least 24 hours and it has an emergency flashing light that makes it visible from up to 250 meters away in the dark, so you can even get your valuables back at night,” explains James Halliburton, CEO of Seatriever International. “Waterbuoy is the world’s first and only high-tech solution to the most infuriating accident that can happen on the water.”

Waterbuoy’s operation is ingenious. Seconds after falling into the sea, canal, marina, lake or river, water passes into the body of the fob dissolving a patented automatic actuator that releases gas from a tiny tank into a bright orange balloon. The balloon breaks out of the end of the fob and continues to inflate. Simultaneously, a bright LED starts flashing which illuminates Waterbuoy from the inside like a Belisha beacon. The toughened balloon inflates to the size of a melon making it very easy to grab one-handed or retrieve with a boathook without fear of it bursting.

Waterbuoy is the result of two years of intensive engineering development that has led to the patenting of some very clever new technology.

Seatriever is currently using this technology to scale the concept into a multitude of new markets and applications. So look out for more and more Waterbuoy-branded devices helping to save all kinds of objects you’d rather not send to a watery grave.

Distributors are currently being sought in all countries so Waterbuoy will soon be available in all good chandlers. Dealers interested in particular territories can contact Seatriever direct.

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Packed with luxurious features including a spacious flybridge with jacuzzi, a shaded dining, an expansive indoor/outdoor living area and full watersports amenities including a dive locker served by a large hydraulic swim platform, the Hemisphere can accommodate twelve guests in its five comfortable ensuite cabins… and the price tag for a sample of this palatial floating escape: charter rates start at USD$150,000 per week excluding operating expenses.

Operating with a professional crew of eight, the yacht features a draft of only 3m (9.8ft) for access to ports and lagoons inaccessible to monohulls of comparable size. The design ensures the deck and rig remain uncluttered with all lines run internally for the 53m (174ft) and tenders stowed out of sight in the port transom.

Hemisphere was designed under the label of Project Gemini by naval architects Van Peteghem Lauriot Prévost (VPLP) and built by Derecktor Shipyards in Bridgeport, Connecticut with interior design by Michael Leach. Burgess has been appointed to manage Hemisphere’s charter program.

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Built over a tight six month schedule with only days to spare, the new generation Volvo Open 70 was moved under cover of darkness from Goetz Custom Boats in Bristol, Rhode Island to the Newport shipyard in Newport for its final touches. The 20-mile journey took more than two hours.

“This was certainly an important milestone for PUMA Ocean Racing and our new boat,” said PUMA skipper Ken Read. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us.”

The name and look of the boat will be revealed when it’s christened in Boston Harbour at the The Institute of Contemporary Art shortly after the launch of the team’s website (PUMAOceanRacing.com) in early May..

The 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race gets underway with an in port race in Alicante, Spain on October 4th followed by the 6,500Nm first leg to Cape Town, South Africa. Seven teams so far are listed on the Volvo Ocean Race site as confirmed competitors for the biennial round-the-world event.

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Firstly, it’s a no brainer to make money in any water-side location as it offers seating for ten plus a central BBQ that turns into a picnic table, silent electric propulsion so it can gently cruise even the most delicate of marine environments without spoiling the ambience, a powerful sound system so you can party long and hard if you want, and it has enough on-board storage to support many other activities. Then, if you have a few of them, they all fit together to make an exclusive VIP lounge on the beach.

From the entrepreneurs viewpoint, it’s a hirer’s dream – ten people can cut a sizeable hire fee into manageable fiscal contributions, and there’s enough external, slow-moving advertising space to make a promotional platform which is guaranteed to capture the attention of anyone within view.

The bbq-donut® is the brainchild of German inventor and entrepreneur Sebastian Schmitt, and we think it has applications globally for everything from singles get-togethers, company getting-to-know-you events, a customer magnet at carnivals and festivals, waterside and beachside promotions and as a floating catering service.

Motive power to the bbq-donut® is supplied via a Torqeedo Travel 400 Electro-outboard motor giving it a top speed of around 4km/h – more than enough for gentle noiseless, pollution-free cruising with ten souls aboard.

Take several bbq-donuts® and they can be assembled into an array of configurations of different sizes and shapes, making it suitable for use as a VIP lounge on the beach. Offering the right mix of private boothes and opennessl this additional aspect to the bbq-donut® is perfect for promotion purposes.

The main floating body of the 3.6 meter diameter donut is constructed of Polyethylene (PE) with a very strong UV protection as well as an antistatic additive, and all-up, ready to go, it weighs in at around 500 kg, and is capable of carrying a payload of around 1000 kg. There’s an optional trailer for the rig, so it can be towed to different locations.

On the water in BBQ configuration, the bbq-donut® uses a low-smoke, charcoal-burning barbecue from Outdoorchef as its centrepiece and there are integrated cavities in the table for safely holding drinks, plates and cutlery.

Underneath the seats are eight 48 litre storage boxes, one or more of which can be used as wet chillers to keep the beverages cold.

The translucent sunshade uses a stainless steel frame and aluminum clamps and is available in a variety of colours – indeed, it can be supplied from the factory printed to a customer’s individual design.

The sunshade can be adjusted into many different positions should the sun’s glare get too strong, and is designed to fold down very quickly if the wind comes up suddenly.

Quite clearly, from its shape, it’s not suitable for rough or open water – it’s apparently quite happy in choppy conditions up to a wave height of 40-50 cm, but we suspect it’ll be heading for home long before that as it’s a low powered, leisure craft designed for low speed leisure activities.

Bottom line, we’re very impressed with the bbq-donut® and can see it playing a role in social engagement of all types around the world. Perhaps not quite as suited to seaside resorts as inland and sheltered waterways, we warrant you’ll be seeing one of these somewhere near you sooner rather than later. And for entrepreneurs anywhere near a river, go to it. Each bbq-donut® will cost between EUR 14,500 and EUR 23,500, depending on the model you choose, the graphics, the accessories and so on. From our viewpoint, it’s a profitable franchise if we ever saw one. Entrepreneurs should contact Sebastien via his design studio.

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Actress Salma Hayek broke the champagne across the bow at a ceremony in Boston on May 13th. Two days later Skipper Ken Read and his crew were joined by sister stablemate Avanti in undertaking the 2000-mile qualifier in the waters of the Atlantic.

“We’re pretty much heading out and just seeing where the wind will take us,” said Read. “The qualifier is probably something we could have done later in the summer, but we wanted to start checking off the boxes early on the things we needed to do before we get closer to the race.”

PUMA team’s training base will be in Newport over the next four months with several short lead-up races planned for June including the Halfway Rock Race (6-7 June 6-7), NYYC Regatta (13-14 June) and Newport-Bermuda Race 2008 (20-22 June).

Via www.volvooceanrace.com.

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