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Articles from Village Soup
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| The plan was that if the boats passed the sea trials, area
students would make final preparations prior to the boats' scheduled April
28 delivery to Castine and Maine Maritime Academy. Eventually, the boats will be released from the academy's State of Maine during its upcoming training cruise to the Caribbean. Physical therapist and avid sailor Dick Baldwin of Educational Passages, a Belfast-based organization that teaches students about the maritime world, is behind the effort. Students involved are from the Mid-Coast School of Technology, Belfast Area High School, Old Town Elementary School, the Waldo County YMCA in collaboration with Troy Howard Middle School, and Camden Hills Regional High School's Zenith Program. The students are learning about ocean wind and current patterns with the use of the small, unmanned sailboats. The project also has gotten students involved in boat construction and learning about composites. Designed with assistance from naval architect Mark Fitzgerald of Camden, the boats are made of molded fiberglass and are capable of making long ocean passages. They are crafted to sail indefinitely downwind and will transmit their location and boat speed for up to one year. The boats rely solely on wind and current power and need no outside assistance. |
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Information on the project may be obtained at educationalpassages.com. Baldwin may be reached at richard.baldwin@educationalpassages.com. Read on and view more photos at: http://waldo.villagesoup.com/print/Print.cfm?StoryID=156187
Students
to launch research vessels with Educational Passages, Maine MaritimeBy
Shlomit Auciello
The Herald Gazette Reporter
Published -- 17 April 2009
CASTINE: Students in the marine technology program at the Mid-Coast School of Technology in Rockland and at other area high schools have been working with Educational Passages to launch five small sailboats at various locations worldwide. It's all part of an effort to teach students about ocean wind and current patterns, with the use of small, unmanned sailboats, measuring 4 feet 5 inches in length, all equipped with global positioning satellite systems. The project also gets students involved in boat construction, and learning about composites. The project represents a collaboration between teachers in various schools. Coordinating the learning project is Richard Baldwin at Educational Passages, a Belfast-based organization that teaches students about the maritime world. MCST students built the six hulls in the marine technology shop under the instruction of teacher Richard Irving. The vessels will be released during the upcoming two-month cruise of Maine Maritime Academy's training ship State of Maine and will be left to the mercy of the ocean currents and prevailing winds. High school participants will determine the coordinates where they would like their vessels to be released. -- Read on: http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Education/story.cfm?storyID=154282
MCST
Students Participate in Educational Passages
By Mid-Coast School of Technology
Abby Manahan
Published -- 13 April 2009
ROCKLAND (April 13): This spring, students in the Marine Technology program at Mid-Coast School of Technology have been participating in the Educational Passages project. Based in Belfast, Richard Baldwin, founder of Educational Passages wanted to provide a meaningful learning experience for students and encourage them to further their studies. He found willing partners in the boatbuilding students at MCST. Using uniquely designed sailboats that are 4.5 feet long and GPS-equipped, the students have been a part of the process from scratch, building the hulls of the six vessels in the Marine Tech shop under the instruction of Richard Irving. These vessels will be released and left to the mercy of the ocean currents and prevailing winds. Throughout each boat's voyage, students not only from MCST but other participating schools, including Belfast Area High School, Old Town Elementary, Waldo County YMCA teen group, and Camden Hills Zenith Program, will be able to monitor the course, position, speed, and wave height of their hand-made boats on their personal computer connected to the Internet. Initial sea trials began in 2008, off the northeast coast of North America. One of the prototype boats sailed a total of 1,993 miles over a 78-day period. During this time, this boat reached speeds of up to five miles per hour and sailed over 9-foot waves in the notoriously treacherous north Atlantic. -- Read on: http://waldo.villagesoup.com/education/story.cfm?storyID=154238
Baldwin has
Bigger Plans for Small BoatsPublished -- 04 February 2009
By Jay Davis
The Republican Journal Senior Reporter
BELFAST: As many as 10 55-inch sailboats are scheduled to be set loose in the southern Atlantic Ocean this spring as a Belfast-based international project trims its sails for its second year. Physical therapist and avid sailor Dick Baldwin is recruiting schools, retirement communities and land-locked sailors everywhere to sponsor a boat and follow its progress via computer.
Baldwin was in the Creative Problem-Solving class at Belfast Area High School this week to discuss ocean currents, wind patterns and the unique sailing characteristics of his boats with a class of students.
The group has committed to raise the $700 needed to purchase a GPS transmitter and four months of computer time so it can get daily fixes on the boat's position.
Baldwin said Orland Elementary School is also committed, inspired by a
recent TV interview in which he described the project and the fate of the
two boats that were released last year off Newfoundland. -- Read on:
http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Community/story.cfm?storyID=144664
Small Boats
Find You Can't Get There From HerePublished -- 19 August 2008
BELFAST -- The inaugural “race” between two four-foot sailboats launched off Newfoundland in June, with an expected finish line in France, has not gone according to plan.
Dick Baldwin of Belfast, who designed and built the two boats, said this week one of them, called Running Free, went ashore and was presumably destroyed several weeks ago.
Though it got 20 to 30 miles away from land during its 31 days at sea, the fickle weather pattern that brought stormy, easterly winds to Maine this summer pushed it back. The boat came ashore about 6 miles from where it was released, he said.
The second boat, O Solo Me O, is still afloat after 74 days, though it has been following the Newfoundland coast for a week or two and is also near its launching point. The boat has traveled more than 1,300 miles and at one point was more than 120 miles offshore. -- Read on: http://www.villagesoup.com//Education/story.cfm?storyid=124819
Miniature
Yachts Crossing AtlanticPublished -- 27 June 2008
Camden, Maine - Baldwin, an experienced ocean solo sailing
enthusiast and boat builder, and Starr, a local sailor, have developed the
first off-shore miniature yachts that are currently in the open sea in the
process of sailing from near Maine to Europe, trying to make the difficult
trans-Atlantic voyage. The two 4-foot miniature yachts, named Osolomeo and
Running Free, should prove to be strong and self-righting and cross the
Atlantic Ocean from the East of the United States to the shores of Europe,
Starr said.
The hulls of the boats are made of foam core covered with waterproof
fiberglass. The hull weight is six pounds, the lead ballast is 10 pounds and
the boat's displacement 17 pounds. The boats are 48 inches long, with a beam
of 15 inches, a draft of 19 inches and a waterline length of 42 inches. The
rigs are made of fiberglass and the sails of nylon Spinnaker. The height of
the rig above the deck is 32 inches and the sail area is 340 square inches. -- Read on:
http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Sports/story.cfm?storyID=119841
=> Curmudgeon's Comment: Not to seem cynical, but to launch the boats off
Newfoundland, aren't the ocean currents rather than the wind doing most of
the heavy lifting in this transatlantic passage?
Handmade
Boats Bobbing Toward FrancePublished -- 21 June 2008
Handmade boats bobbing toward France Jay Davis Two handmade, 4-foot sailboats built by Dick Baldwin of Belfast were 300 miles off the coast of Newfoundland on Tuesday morning, and bobbing resolutely toward France. Baldwin said the wind at the time drove them toward shore, but when they were about 2.5 miles from land the wind switched and ???
The boats, which Baldwin refined with the help of a naval architect, are designed to sail before the wind, changing course when the wind does.. -- Read on: http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Sports/story.cfm?storyID=119181
 | MCST Students Participate in Educational Passages |
For More Information Contact:
Educational Passage
415 Lincolnville Avenue, Belfast, ME 04915
Tel: (207) 338-4087
Internet:
Richard.Baldwin@EducationalPassages.com
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Send mail to
Richard.Baldwin@EducationalPassages.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
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