The Island Rover Institute demonstration project is a very unique undertaking. The steel topsail schooner is being built from raw materials which the previous owners considered surplus or unwanted materials and “Stuff” which were in fact destine to be discarded as “waste” were it not for the intervention and salvage by the volunteers of the Island Rover Institue. The construction of the Schooner “
Island Rover” is a demonstration of how big and how beautiful a project can be built from what others would have thrown away in the wasteful “American-Throw-Away-Society” of the last two or three decades. The ship “Island Rover” is a 89 foot steel vessel, as measured on deck, but will be 113 feet overall in length with the bow sprit in place. The two 100 foot steel masts will accommodate not less than seven sails with over 5000 sq.ft. Weighing in at over 100 tons displacement, with a 10 foot draft and a 22 foot beam, the ship will be a very sturdy, stable platform from which to conduct numerous activities and will be a very fast comfortable sailing vessel. While the design lines are those of a classic late 1800’s coastal schooner hull, the deck cabins and internal construction is being performed to make it very versatile in functionality. With cabin tops that are to be constructed as one unit of light weight fiberglass (with solar photo-voltaics embedded ) and cabin beams, deck beams and soule beams that are constructed to be easily removable by removing one to three bolts at each beam end, the internal volume can be set up with several modular accommodation configurations. The slotted soule beam configuration will allow numerous plug and pin modular installations, while the dropped deck Salon Cabin configuration maintains a pleasing exterior profile configuration but accommodates normal full head room within.
