omega tau » ships

71 – Oracle Racing’s USA 17

MaNo — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 06:33:35 +0000

This episode is a conversation with Mike Drummond, the Executive Designer for OracleRacing. We talk about the USA 17 yacht which won the 33rd America’s Cup. We talk about the characteristics of the boat, the design process and how the boat is driven during a race.

/33/ Deep Wreck Diving

MaNo — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:38:31 +0000

This episode is a conversation with John Chatterton about deep wreck diving. We cover some of the dangers and challenges, as well as the fascination of the sport. We also talk about the discovery of U 869, which was mainly John Chatterton’s achievement (as documented in the book Shadow Divers).

John Chatterton‘s website
Deep Wreck Diving (Wikipedia)
U 869 (Wikipedia)
Shadow Divers book, audio book

/5/ Earthrace – Around the World in a Powerboat

MaNo — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:02:54 +0000

This episode is a conversation with Pete Bethune, the skipper of Earthrace. Earthrace has broken the world record for circumnavigation of the world with a powerboat. They did it being CO2-neutral and by using as many eco-friendly resources as possible, spreading the message that being ecological doesn’t mean to go back to the stone age and not have fun anymore. In the episode, Pete talks about the environmental background as well as the fun, challenges and scares of circumnavigating the globe in a powerboat; he also describes the boat itself, with its special “wave-piercing” hull.