Carlos,
Do you mean shadotec.com ? That site is all that is left of James Walker and Walker
Wingsails. His investors left him and he was accused of fraud. After much litigation he
has settled his dispute with the government but the original project failed due to wrong
market for wings. So now he is trying to start anew with the original Zephyr design and
reduce the wing complexity and cost to attempt a recreational class of cruising boats with
wingsails.
I don't think he actually has a working boat for sale. He needs investors to enter the
market with enough momentum to sell boats and make a profit fairly quickly. He needs
design completed AND he needs enough money to try and seal the market with patent
protection. He wants to block further development by the assumption of patent
origination and pay enough lawyers to file suit against competitors to protect his profit.
All that takes a good deal of money..... Unfortunately some of his original patents may
expire and there is a whole lot of prior art to wings on boats.
Just for information to the forum, patents are a difficult strategy to master and very
expensive. $10,000 US to file and need at least $50,000 US per patent to defend it.
Without that kind of financial depth it is a waste of effort. It only takes one time where
suit is threatened and if forced to defend you collapse then your company is finished. All
others will call your bluff.
Let's go with the hope, honor among nautical designers and copyright protection with the
plans sets. Perhaps someday James Walker can bring a new winged vessel to the market.
Till then,.... just drawings.
JT
--- In harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au, carlos Solanilla <carlosproacarlos@y...> wrote:
>
> I went to the site and saw all the drawings but all pictures were not there - a shame
>
Yahoo! Groups Links