Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The "Have Blue" Project

I have been following up on my recent post regarding installing an Solomon Technologies ST-74 engine powered by fuel cells in a Catalina 42. My first confession is that I did not realize just how old these posts were having been “bumped” by some bloggers who were obviously interested. I also discovered that there was a “Have Blue” project at Lockheed. It was a precursor to the F-117 aircraft. Apparently two Have Blue planes were built and tested at Groom – a.k.a. Area 51. Not our "HaveBlue" but interesting trivia. I got in touch with Solomon Technologies. Their answer to my inquiry was: “The boat you speak of was a collaborative project between Haveblue, a hydrogen fuel cell organization, promoting alternative energy and contributing manufacturers/suppliers. The project was halted a few years ago and the contributed products returned to the original manufacturers.” I looked up Have Blue on the internet. What I did not find was an active company or organization pushing fuel cell/electric drive technology for auxilary power for sailboats. I did find a reference to http://www.haveblue.com/ a web site that simply says “This web site is closed.” In searching the forums of the Catalina 42 owners association I did find references to the project from 2004. Apparently Catalina Yachts loaned a Catalina 42 to HaveBlue for the test. You can read the posts at http://catalina42disucssionforum.yuku.com/ Do a search on “have blue” (with the quotes or you will get lots of hits for blue dodgers! ) So, for the moment I will consider this one closed.

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