I last wrote about the Suntory Mermaid II on March 25, 2008. For those of you catching up on the story, the Suntory Mermaid II is a prototype boat that is powered by waves for its forward propulsion. (To find out how this works, visit the original post.)

The Suntory Mermaid II is a prototype boat that was built and its maiden voyage is from Hawaii to Tokyo. The craft began its journey on March 17, 2008. Since then, the ship has successfully made it past the halfway mark and it seems that the craft will make it all the way to Japan sometime in May.

If this feat is accomplished, which I believe it will, this will be a watershed event (pun intended!) in the boating/shipping industry. I expect that it will encourage more investment into developing this type of propulsion technology. And, I can’t wait to see it used commercially.

Three cheers for the Suntory Mermaid team for dreaming and making this technology a reality.