Brittany Ferries intend to use a Ground Effect Vehicle (GEV) – what the Russians called an “ekranoplan” when they developed the concept in the 1960s – on some cross channel routes. The ferry operator has announced that it is exploring the potential for a new sustainable version...
Norway’s long-awaited Stad Ship Tunnel has been given a green light. The world’s first ship tunnel will allow large ships to avoid the notoriously exposed and treacherous piece of sea at the tip of the 27 km Stad Peninsula in Vestland, on the southwest coast of Norway....
When 33 single-handed yachtsmen and women set off from Les Sables d’Olonne in France tomorrow, to race non-stop around the world for the Vendée Globe trophy, there’s a good chance they will do so quicker and safer than ever before. That will be down to state-of-the-art technology...
A Swedish shipping company, Wallenius Marine, is developing a car transporter* ship, Oceanbird, with telescopic aerofoil sails. When launched, it will be the world’s largest sailing ship. The design is elegantly simple; take a pretty standard car transporter hull with the boxy shape and loading ramp at...
Havila Voyages, the new operator on the Norwegian ‘Hurtigruten’ Coastal Service route in Norway, is building four new ships with eco-friendly hybrid propulsion systems. The first two ships will go into service next year. There’s been something of a sea-change in Norwegian coastal waters. The legacy operator,...
Hunter’s Yard runs a rental fleet of traditional wooden sailboats on the Norfolk Broads in Eastern England with a loyal base of customers who share a common appreciation for the historic vessels and their way of life. Sailors on the Broads have traditionally used long poles called...
I came across this little ‘factoid’ in the National Museum of the Royal Navy’s in-house magazine, Scuttlebutt, which was a fascinating publication until they stopped publishing it! It’s one of those ‘unknown unknowns’ as Donald Rumsfeld would say. I didn’t know that I didn’t know it… until...
The museum ship SS John W. Brown, one of only two World War II ‘Liberty’ ships preserved and still operational*, is looking for a new home. The Liberty ships were the cargo-carrying workhorses of the Allied war effort. They were produced with conveyor belt efficiency in huge...
Aurora Expeditions, who specialise in expeditions to the polar regions, yesterday named their new ship, the Greg Mortimer, in a ceremony set against the snow-capped mountains of Ushuaia, Argentina. The new ship has a striking profile because she is the first passenger vessel in the world to...
Energy Observer will be the first hydrogen vessel to sail around the world when she completes her 6-year mission to test a range of eco-friendly, zero-emission, marine power technologies, and at the same time, inspire people in the 101 stopovers in 50 counties along the way. Energy...
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
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