Hold on tight. Alan Thebault’s wild design–a cross between a trimaran, a hydrofoil, and a waterbug–will set out tomorrow from Cadiz, Spain for San Salvador in the Bahamas in an attempt to break the east-west transatlantic record. The current record is held by Steve Fossett’s PlayStation at 9 days, 13 hours, 30 minutes and Hydroptere certainly has the legs to beat the required average speed of 16.2 knots if–and it’s a huge IF–the spindly thing can stay together for the passage. I’m skeptical, but you never know. Regardless of what happens, Hydroptere is a spectacular machine, and if you want to see what she looks like at speed, go to the updated and much-improved website and click on the movie. This is going to be a good one…
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The Earthist Chronicles 