Alan Olson at his boat shop in Sausalito

History, Innovation and Education: The Life of a Tall Ship

Tall Ships’ value stand the test of time. With a few surviving over a hundred years, these national treasures are perfect examples of sound construction and design. For example, The Star of India was built in the U.K. in 1863 and is still a seaworthy vessel, sailing regularly in San Diego. What ship builders were capable of in the 1800’s is still relevant today. At any given time there are typically one or two modern Tallships being built in the United State. The San Francisco Bay Area will soon be sailing a new Tall Ship of its own through the supporters of  the Educational Tall Ship (ETS) project. The vessel will be a beacon of educational experience for generations to come and it plans to  launch in time for the 34th America’s Cup.

“Building a Ship, Building a  Community”
Alan Olson built his first boat when he was 20 and sailed it down the Mississippi River to the Caribbean. As one of the founders for the non-profit Call of the Sea, he has been teaching sailing and restoring sailboats his whole life. Influenced by Matthew Turner, a founding member of the San Francisco Yacht club and the prominent Pacific boat builder of the 1850’s, Alan plans to use the ETS as an experiential platform for the Bay Area community. Merging history with modern design, the ETS will provide an on the water and shore-based classroom for students of all ages, both during the construction phase and after its completion. The program will focus on marine ecology, sustainability, teamwork, leadership and the vibrant maritime history of the Bay Area. The ETS will be able to accommodate 40 people on overnight voyages and around 80 for day trips. The project is funded through donations and is aiming for an 18 month construction timeline.

One of the many pictured sailboats in Alan's office.

Sustainable Construction
The ETS will be implementing the most sustainable construction practices possible. Wood is the primary building material and will be purchased within a 750 mile radius from Forest Stewardship Certified lumber. Construction will take place either in Sausalito or San Francisco and will rely on the work of community volunteers. Much attention has been focused on ensuring that rest of the construction materials (paints, glues, sails, metals) are eco-friendly. The ETS will power itself by using a state of the art hybrid engine that is capable of harnessing regenerative power through a combination of propulsion, solar panels and wind generators. By embracing the newest hybrid design technology, the ETS will not be reliant on fossil fuels and will have a waste management system that will repurpose, recycle and reduce all waste. The ETS will stand tall when compared to the technologically streamlined catamarans that dominate the America’s Cup. The extensive history of the America’s Cup began with the racing of Tall Ships and it will be a testament to the institution’s decorated past to see the ETS on the Bay during the upcoming event.

BlooSee is thoroughly captivated by this project and will be following its progress closely. As construction begins we will be updating you with the project’s milestones as well as showing you the people behind the ETS. We will also have some posts examining the lives of other modern Tall Ships and discussing the communities that have made them possible.

For more information on the project please go to educationaltallship.org and callofthesea.org.

BlooSee.com has been completely redesigned and upgraded.

Log on to the new BlooSee.com and enjoy!

Now you either see infopoints or routes, and a link on top of the panel lets you choose which you want to show.

The route panel has been completely re-designed, and now you can filter routes in the area by type, and total distance, in a dynamic way (the list gets refreshed as you change the criteria).

The two map panels, side by side - click to enlarge

Today we’ve integrated a new Dashboard that does reflect its name: it provides you with a summary of activity taking place in the system, in an improved way.

The new Dashboard - click to enlarge

The activity now includes meaningful icons that let you see at a glance whether the posts have to do with new infopoints being added, or friends changing their status, or friends becoming friends with someone else, etc.

There’s also a list of the new infopoints added to the system (soon they’ll show what region/country they’ve been added to).

We’re also adding some basic statistics: the number of resources you and your friends have added to the system, what are your most active friends (with a higher number of infopoints, routes and pictures published), what are the most viewed among the infopoints you published, and so on.

On the left you also have a series of quick links to your own resources: friends, groups, pictures… as well as an easy way to update your status.

Of course all of this will conform a dynamic entity, and it will evolve following the needs of the system and its users, but at least now we can say we have a real Dashboard (with a meaningful name, that is). Enjoy.

But first let me show you some of the preliminary designs we developed:

First designs - Explore section

First designs - Groups

Although we had some okay-looking designs, before coding the actual XHTML we decided to go back to what’s essential, and we created what we called “live wireframes”: functional code, integrated with the backend, that showed however no design feature. This allowed us to concentrate on functionality and set any visual enhancement aside. Our very first pre-alpha prototype worked with such a setup: a bare interface with no design features save for the logo on one corner.

Live wireframe - Explore section

Live wireframe - Add infopoint

Live wireframe - Infopoint list

Finally, we started over and we mixed those live wireframes with a new design which inherited from the first but borrowed ideas from those usable wireframes.

This is what our current prototype looks like:

Prototype - Explore (clustered)

Prototype - Explore (unclustered)

Prototype - Create Infopoint

I’ll post new screen captures as new sections/features become available.