Patenting Boats With “Legs”
As a Fort Lauderdale patent attorney with a special interest in boat patents and the yachting industry in general, I am lucky to be in a city of over 42,000 yachts and over 100 marinas. Nevertheless, I have never come across a vessel as unusual as the one pictured to the left.
According to an article relating to patenting boat designs at thenewstribune.com . This 99-foot mystery vessel with legs was designed as a metallic spider riding on two pontoons appeared from a fog bank on the dock at Port of Ilwaco. The Spider boat attracted much attention, and the owner of the boat was still obscure when the photographs of the craft were released.
Inventor and patent holder is Ugo Conti and his patent for the vessel was approved in April 2005. The description of the boat stated that the vessel had a pair of flexible hulls flexibly coupled to a ‘cabin’ between and above the hulls. This allowed the hulls to independently follow the surface of the water and the motor pods have been hinged to the back of the hulls.
Though there were no comments from the inventor when contacted by the thenewstribune.com, Conti’s wife, Isabella accepted that the vessel was Marine Advanced Research‘s creation that is owned by Ugo Conti. She also cited that the team involved in operations was working under strict confidentiality agreements.