> From: "Bob Ammerman" > Is there a way to use mechanical wave motion (up and down) to generate > forward thrust? > > Perhaps a long 'tail' down into the water with a horizontal plane attached > to it. As the floating 'head' of our Bottle/Boat bobs up and down the plane > below stays stable. Perhaps some sort of a rack and pinion could convert the > up/down motion into rotary motion for propulsion? How about hingeing the boat/bottle in the middle, having a ratchet and pawl arrangement and use it to either wind a clockwork motor or even better a generator from one of those clockwork radios to charge the batteries. Main problem is likely to be corrosion I suspect. Keeping all this dry is going to be quite some trick in a mid-Atlantic gale with 60+ foot seas. Keeping it in one piece, ditto. Toby, how big a boat are you thinking of making? . -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics