We acquired two salvaged workboats a few months ago that we have been taking the time to restore and get sea-worthy again. The goal for these boats is to be used to transport SeaPods and EcoPods from the marina here in Linton Bay, Panama out to where they will be placed. Since the Pods don’t have a drive system, they can’t move on their own so these boats will be used to push them where they need to go.

These boats sat for a while after their previous owner stopped using them so they had quite a bit of work that needed to be done. We had to go over every detail to make sure that everything was in working order and ready to go to work pushing Pods through the beautiful Panamanian waters.

We got the motor installed on the first of the two boats about a month ago and the rest of the mechanical and electrical work was recently finished. The original orange color of these boats didn’t fit with our brand so we sanded all of the orange paint off and put a protective white coat of paint on the surface. Of course, we didn’t want to leave them white so we put a beautiful coat of Ocean Builders Blue on the cabin. We are also painting the hull to help protect it.

After we got the boat looking as good as new, we had to put it in the water to make sure first that it floats, and then that everything works properly. We tested all of the drive components to ensure that everything was functioning as expected and we will be taking it on a short expedition to see how everything works over a longer distance. If we get good results and everything is working properly, we will get working on the second boat which will undergo the same process as the first.

Stay tuned to the blog for future updates and we hope to see these PodPushers pushing actual Pods very soon!