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60ft Plastiki sets sail from San Francisco

Posted by: Maven on March 22, 2010 at 5:29 am

From Sail-World:

“The voyage of the Plastiki began in earnest yesterday as the 60’ man made plastic catamaran was towed unceremoniously out to sea of the San Francisco coast and released in calm condition and a gentle swell. The mission, the brain child of David de Rothschild , heir of the de Rothschild European banking dynasty began in 2006 and has seen its share of delays and setbacks, and a lack of cooperating wind is just a minor inconveniences.

The mission is model after the 1947 voyage of the Kon-tiki, lead by Thor Heyerdahl, who set sail on a manmade raft from Peru and landed in Tuamotu some 101 days later, proving to a skeptical scientific community that the populations of Polynesia could in fact, have originated from places other than Asia as previously thought. Plastiki’s message may not be as clear the 12,500 2 liter plastic beverage bottles used to provide flotation, however, anyone spending any time with the 6’4′

De Rothschild would find it hard to argue with his charismatic pitch for the environment: ‘We’re not being anti plastic’ David states ‘We need to prove additional uses for our plastics, we’re not being anti plastic, what we have to do is eliminate dumb uses of plastic. Thirty-eight billion plastic bottles went into landfill last year.’

David de Rothschild’s vision of recreating the way we think about our environment and how we build and or use, or more importantly re-use things is bound to hit home with sailors and non-sailors alike. … “


Continue reading this article from Sail-World by clicking here.

March 22, 2010 · Filed Under Oceans & Beaches

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