A 72-year-old French man has crossed the Atlantic in a giant orange barrel | Hacker News Reader

A 72-year-old French man has crossed the Atlantic in a giant orange barrel

popularmechanics.com

69 points_of31 comments

> including a rough sea that forced him to leave the barrel and navigate difficult waters from outside his cozy confines

Where was he? sitting at the top of the barrel? or on another accompanying boat?

'navigate' ? How ?

I'm quoting the article, I also wonder what they mean by that

What does this mean for the future of barrel-powered travel?

"giant barrel" is clickbait. It's a (unpowered) boat that externally looks a bit like a barrel.

"measures about 10 feet long and seven feet wide and includes a small kitchen and bed, and space for storage."

I wish there were more details, like how he lived, his water supply, toilet arrangements, etc.

Existing only on caught fish sounds like a recipe for scurvy too. I wonder if he had anything else?

Easy enough these days to bring some supplements.

It should be ok if you eat it raw. Like the Inuit diet.

His site mentions 3 months of freeze dried food

Search for his name - other outlets have more details.

The project's website has some details: http://www.atlantique-tonneau.com

Look at the photo, it's hard to describe that as anything but a barrel: https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_auto,w_634,c_fill,g_auto...

In particular, it lacks any conventional boat elements like a method of propulsion or steering.

He is clearly milking the label for all it's worth though, the GPS tracker ID was "diogene" (French for Diogenes of Greek philosopher living in a barrel fame) and his sponsors included several manufacturers of wine barrels (https://www.boutes.com/), who apparently also helped build the thing.

The plan shows this had a keel though.

What does that do?

Maybe allow choice of current, like where it forks?

I suspect the keel attempts to stops the barrel from rolling on it's axis.

If it had a tendency to easily roll it would be like trying to live in a giant tumble dryer.

stabilization, to avoid getting upside down all the time, he could have used ballasts as well

>the GPS tracker ID was "diogene" (French for Diogenes of Greek philosopher living in a barrel fame)

In that case I am slightly disappointed that the voyage was undertaken without the barrel also containing a pack of feral dogs. The resulting footage would be worth it if nothing else.

It also has a keel with the ballast.

http://www.atlantique-tonneau.com/pdf/plan.pdf

Sure but the French translation and the naming of the ship itself translates to barrel.

but it is a wooden barrel, just painted/coated on the outside. you can see it from the inside in this video https://youtu.be/TiohMRMdknU?t=45

I wonder if this answers any questions about how early man managed to populate the Americas / Pacific.

https://xkcd.com/1

https://xkcd.com/11/

Reminds me of "Father's Day"

https://medium.com/@info_44554/5ft-4-inch-fathers-day-is-the...

Shoot that's nothing, I flew across the Atlantic in a giant barrel with wings plenty of times.

As almost always is the case the CNN article is light on details. Popular mechanics is slightly better - with some eye candy. I have to say a 72 year old man crossing the atlantic in a unpowered vessel is amazing. Good for him.

> As almost always is the case the CNN article

Maybe CNN knows that its audience don't want technical details??

More like conditioned to avoid technical details.

(Not happy with CNN these days)

Ironically at the bottom of the Popular Mechanics article is “Source: CNN”

His web site has more pictures: http://www.atlantique-tonneau.com

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