This week, “Ugo Conti Sees the Future of Ocean Travel”: Mr. Conti, a champion whistler as well as a marine engineer, has invented a radically new type of ship. He calls it the WAM-V (not Wham-O — WAM-V), or Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel, and it utilizes flexible and ultralight materials, inflatable pontoons, and modular construction in a vessel that will not tip over or sink. Did we mention that it’s also cheap to manufacture and uses five to ten times less fuel than equivalent oceangoing ships? The El Cerrito-based Conti envisions WAM-class vessels as unmanned drones carrying cargo across the ocean. Read all about it in writer John Geohagen’s story.
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