Water Craft

OpenROV Goes to Antarctica

OpenROV Goes to Antarctica

MAKE writer David Lang helped co-found OpenROV, the kickstarted remote-operated submersible project. One of the ROVs is currently in Antarctica (!!!) courtesy of Eric Stackpole, another of OpenROV’s co-founders. So I’ve got to run to catch our helo flight for today, but a window of opportunity came up on Wednesday which I took. I haven’t […]

Continue Reading
A Folding Kayak Made of Corrugated Plastic?!

A Folding Kayak Made of Corrugated Plastic?!

New uses for existing materials can fuel hardware innovation. Such was the case for Anton Willis who after moving to a San Francisco apartment had to put his beloved kayak into storage. No room for big toys. By coincidence around that same time he met Robert Lang, a physicist and renowned origami expert. The ideas of kayaks and origami fused in Anton’s mind and lead him on a journey that resulted in the Oru, an innovative folding kayak.

Continue Reading
Maker Faire New York: Sean Charlesworth’s “Octopod”

Maker Faire New York: Sean Charlesworth’s “Octopod”

Meet Sean Charlesworth. Sean has painstakingly designed, printed, and assembled what is certainly the biggest, most complex, and most beautiful 3D-printed sci-fi model I have ever seen. He calls it the “OctoPod Underwater Salvage Vehicle 5”, or OPUS V, for short.

Continue Reading
Hacking the Free Seas

Hacking the Free Seas

Aquatic craft makers will give a presentation and Mare Liberum will be building vessels at World Maker Faire in Queens, NYC.

Continue Reading
Nokken-3 Subsea Exploration Robot

Nokken-3 Subsea Exploration Robot

Eirik Taylor’s Nokken-3 ROV is the latest iteration of his long-running submersible project. The ROV housing itself was constructed using a sheet of plexiglas, which was welded first using acetone to hold the pieces in place, then glued later with epoxy. The potting substance used this time is laminating epoxy, commonly used to repair fiberglass […]

Continue Reading
Oru – The Origami Kayak

Oru – The Origami Kayak

Last week, I had the pleasure of testing out Oru Kayak, the world’s first origami kayak. It was wonderful! Anton Willis, the designer, and I met at the Berkeley Marina to put his latest iteration to the test. I had been watching Anton construct the kayak for months at TechShop and had always bugged him […]

Continue Reading
On the Gowanus, We Are Swimming Cities

On the Gowanus, We Are Swimming Cities

Alita Edgar, Porter Fox, Orien McNeill, Michael O’Toole are just four of the 30+ names of makers and artists involved with the current incarnation of the collaborative project We Are Swimming Cities, whose overall installation at last month’s inaugural World Maker Faire in NYC won an Editor’s Choice award, and whose “caddywhampuss,” the motorcycle-powered fish-boat […]

Continue Reading