The Whisper launch, hybrid with a story

WBBA launch lr

Notice the two throttle/shifts (bigger shot here); one controls a small Vetus diesel, the other an electric motor, both turning the same shaft. I didn’t get all the technical details or the performance numbers—this area outside the Cape Town Boat Show was noisy with cars and water taxis—but I did get the sweet story behind the boat. The gentleman shown, who spoke much more quietly than your average salesman, is in fact an instructor at the Whisper Boat Building Academy, which was recently started to teach deaf youngsters the skills need to join the region’s very active boat building industry. So the hybrid launch is a project boat, whose sales help finance the school, and the two young men below are two of its proud builders. 

PS 10/21: Here’s more on the story.



WBBA students lr

Ben Ellison

Ben Ellison

Panbo editor, publisher & chief bottlewasher from 4/2005 until 8/2018, and now pleased to have Ben Stein as a very able publisher, webmaster, and editing colleague. Please don't regard him as an "expert"; he's getting quite old and thinks that "fadiddling fumble-putz" is a more accurate description.

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