PLASTIKI: Across the Pacific on a Catamaran Made of Plastic Bottles

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Jun 21, 2007
2,118
Hunter Cherubini 36_80-82 Sausalito / San Francisco Bay
My wife and I were out on San Francisco Bay yesterday, just off Sausalito. We passed close to an unusual looking catamaran with the word PLASTIKI on the mainsail. Closer up, we saw that the hulls were widely spaced frames embedded with thousands of plastic soda bottles. An array of solar panels was splayed across the aft. The cabin looked like a hi-tech (but ungainly) tent that was pitched on the deck. I ventured to my wife that "PLASTIKI" was a modern variation (hence the name) of "KON-TIKI", the balsa log raft used by Thor Heyerdahl in the 1940's to cross the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands to test the possibility that people from South America could have settled Polynesia.

Binging "Plastiki" this morning yielded the following website: www.theplastiki.com

Here's a cc of a paragraph from the site:

"You’ve heard of a ship in a bottle but have you heard of a ship made out of bottles? Can you imagine sailing the open seas on a boat made almost entirely out of plastic bottles? This is exactly what environmental storyteller David de Rothschild and his intrepid crew of scientists, sailors and adventurers are doing on the Plastiki - an ocean going mission to beat waste."

I hadn't recalled seeing any threads on this forum about the PLASTIKI, so thought people might be interested to know.

Seems that the voyage has been delayed significantly from what was originally envisioned. But once its on its way, might be worth following.
 
Jan 27, 2010
143
Oday 1971 23' Oday Pop Top Yet to be determined...
Hmm, interesting... Will have to follow this.
 
Aug 2, 2005
374
pearson ariel grand rapids
Interesting, but what is the point of it?
Most of it reads like a sales pitch for srPET plastic, and pop bottles.

If I remember correctly, there was an earlier boat built from actual trash and recycled materials, that did something to bring plastic pollution to people's awareness.

This one, judging by the presentation, is simply a boat someone managed to get funding for.

Ken.

found a link regarding the other boat:

http://junkraft.blogspot.com/2007/05/who.html
 
May 11, 2005
3,431
Seidelman S37 Slidell, La.
Interesting Project

An interesting project to say the least. I agree that it almost sounds like a commercial for the material. But with all that being said, if I am gonna have to sail something that damn ugly, just think I'll move on to dry land.
 
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