The David de Rothschild, and the goal is audacious: A hand picked group of adventurers, scientists and creatives are to sail 12,000 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Sydney in a boat completed entirely out of plastic bottles and recycled waste products. They plan to board in April, carrying (among others) four scientists from the Scripps Research Institute who will study ocean acidification, marine debris, overfishing, and coral bleaching. Their aim is raising the world’s awareness of the plight of the environment and our role in it.
Their craft is a catamaran finished from 20,000 plastic bottles injected with CO2 packed it into pontoons. The pontoons are broke to a rigid plastic tube running the length of the hull, and they’ve accumulated the whole thing without pastes or resins, so when the trip is over, the entire boat is recyclable.