Son of Proteus

[Photoboy]

A new cat type thing has emerged on SF Bay, an apparent off spring of "Proteus" the Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel or WAM V which made its debut in 2007 on San Francisco Bay.

This rendition of the same idea is the brain child of David Hall and goes my the name of the Martini 1.5 and has its own patents. Velodyne Marine is the company behind this flexing cat, which utilizes the same concept of its much larger predecessor, the Proteus....

The hulls appeared rigid, and the cabin larger in size relative to it pontoons, and it did have spunk for its undersized outboards...

Time to ditch the RIB?

[K38Bob]

The video in the link was cool. I don't think Proteus had active suspension though

[Photoboy]

http://www.wam-v.com/wamv.htm



Yer probably right......

...but then again.....

[Sanity Check]

Don't you end up needing a triple finger slip? What do you do with the middle finger?... err, never mind...

[Photoboy]

Here's a selection from the photoshoot back in 2007...Ugo had some great ideas
for applications for the vessel, including payload deliveries to islands with sandy beaches but
no real harbor, military applications, scientific research and filming...

[K38Bob]

Proteus had flexible hulls to slither over the waves...active suspension kind of hard to do in that scenario..lets ask Jim

[Photoboy]

I had not dug deep enough to see the videos embedded in the R&D portion of the site.

It's a pretty clever adaptation, and I see what you meant by active. Being how Ugo came out with Proteus, the WAM-V in 1997, confidence is high that this is an adaptation of the same principal, a motorized cat with hinged pontoons to smooth out the ride. Did not realize that the cabin lifted and was not fixed. It's made with what appears to be hard plastic hulls and aluminum staging/framework.

The ride looks very smooth, but with anything that dependent on mechanical fortitude, you have to wonder if the computer derails or some of the pneumatics have issues what you could have. A rigid frozen frame? One side elevated and other not?

The super structure is aluminum, and has lots of moving parts, and connectors, and I wonder if that will take repeated poundings in a corrosive environment. I guess stainless steel might be employed for the production, if it's not a cost or weight concern.

Will have to give David a call and get some answers....