East River Catch Up 2

Thanks for these shots to Pete Ludlow.  You could call some of this post “Yachts a Million 5 Redux.”

Gene Chaser appeared on this blog back last fall, but from different angles.  As of this late April writing, she’s in Miami. Some great photos of her and the yacht she supports can be seen here.

I strike out here.  I don’t know the Rambler story, but clearly she’s out and rambling, unlike Sea Monster, at least last I heard.  Remember Santandrea?

Jaguar has come into the sixth boro several times towing in schooners for conversion into eating establishments. 

Magnet, Metal Shark’s expedition catamaran, was in the boro last fall.

Arriva has carried several names since launch in 2001.

As Vajoliroja, she had a quite flashy celebrity owner. She’s Turkish built.

Again, many thanks to Pete for sharing these scenes not previously seen on tugster.

Yachts A Million 5

I’d thought to call this “summer yachts,” but in spite of sublime weather, it’s not summer any more.  “Yachts a million” works too, with these two unusual vessels.  And we’ll start with this one, Magnet.  Now that I’ve learned a little more about this 148′ catamaran yacht, I regret not having walked around to the far side and gotten more photos.  Like NYC Ferry vessels and USCG 29′ Defiant craft, this yacht is made by MetalCraft Metal Shark, and it’s certainly impressive:  it has a range of over 12,000 miles, i.e., round trip across the Atlantic twice!

I hurried on down the Chelsea Piers, though, because I wanted to see Gene Chaser without obstructions to view.  I have yet to figure out if the symbols below the vessel name are more than decorative.  The 182′ vessel was launched last year as Blue Ocean, then soon afterwards, refitted as a “support vessel,” which makes her an unusual work boat. As of her launch, there were seven other vessels on the seas with this design.

 

Some folks inherit wealth;  the owner of Gene Chaser earned it in a lab.  Dr. Jonathan Rothberg, a chemical engineer with a biomedical focus by training, says he spent six years working in a lab for his Ph.D, six years! sequencing 9000 DNA fragments.  That led to multiple companies, new tools to fight disease, and this “lab/chaser vessel.” 

Rothberg asserts that it chases genes and genetic sequences that underlie diseases. The “chaser” concept came up in an entirely different situation this past week, when I dredged up that name of a short story by John Collier, one that many of you may have read in high school.  I did, and really hadn’t appreciated that all these years later, it would seem so true, as in “be careful what you wish for.”

“Chaser” enters the name because it chases with main yacht, serving as a mobile garage–yes, that’s a four wheeler and some small motorcycles–as well as a lab. Click here for info about and photos of some of the scientific equipment on board. 

Here’s the mothership, actually older and shorter than the support vessel.

That brings us back to the symbols.  They don’t appear to be anything genetic or genomic, but I would really like toknow the answer to that myself.  The fundamental units of our genetic code would involve the following letters, which I don’t see here:  G, C, A, and T, for guanine, cytosine, adenine, and thymine. So I conclude it’s an art project, not a scientific statement.

All photos yesterday, WVD, who’s intrigued by these boats as well as the folks who own and work on them.  I’m also reminded by this vessel —Ocean Xplorer–in the boro almost a year ago. 

And  while we’re on innovation, consider lignin . . .  More on that fuel idea here.

 

Sixth Boro Sampler 3

Gene Chaser appears to be a sister of Ad-Vantage, which appeared here a year and a half ago.  Click on the link at the beginning of the first sentence and you’ll see some interior shots of this 55-meter yacht support vessel. At some point, yacht support vessel Ad-Vantage was available for charter for a mere 67,500 Euro per week.

The script below the name Gene Chaser puzzles me, especially since I see signs for multiplication and addition.  Maybe someone can translate?

Shooting into the sun from a low-on-the-river angle provides this unsatisfactory image. 

 Shooting down from Brooklyn Heights, as Claude Scales did for this shot, gets this image.  Is that a submarine near the stern of Gene Chaser?  In case you were wondering about the name, it makes sense when you consider the vessel below is the annex to Dr. Jonathan Rothberg‘s Gene Machine, currently off Connecticut. Rothberg is an American chemical engineer, biologist, inventor and entrepreneur. His business involves developing a high-speed “next-gen” DNA sequencing process.  I think these vessels make him a polymath on the seas, an early 21st century version of Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo.  

On the west side of Manhattan North Cove the other day, I walked past this eye catcher . .  .

The cockpit of this “center console” Alen Yacht 45 is quite narrow and not enclosed,

but don’t underestimate this

Turkish beauty.

And to go to the other end of the tech and financial spectrum, what’s the story with the heavily loaded red 16′ Old Town Penobscot Royalex canoe?  The paddler is not yet IN the sixth boro, but heading this way.

It’s Neal Moore, heading 7000+ miles from Astoria OR, city of the fisher-poets, TO the sixth boro, with an ETA of . . .  whenever he gets here, but likely in December or January, depending on the assistance of “river angels” and relying on his own fortitude. As of this posting, he’s paddling the Erie Canal somewhere east of Lyons and west of Oneida . . . .  That trip is longer than and tougher than the Great Loop.  Technically, the Erie Canal is closing soon, but it’ll be open for him.  Wave if you see him.

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Check out his website for lots of photos and articles like those excerpted below.

 

Many thanks to Claude and to the webmaster at 22Rivers for their photos;  all others, WVD.