Kickstarter

I think it is about time for a status update.

If you're one of the people that backed both of the C.S. Tere's KickStarters let me apologize that you're getting this update twice.

We're bringing the ship back to Burning Man this year. This is going to be a bit of work, but it is work we like and the reason we do it. The ship needs some mechanical and hydraulic repair, the trailer we tow her on needs to be reinforced, there are transportation and fuel costs to be factored, and new exciting fire effects to add.

We are not going to do another KickStarter to fund these repairs and upgrades but we will have some fund raising events this summer. I'll be sure to send an update as we finalize our plans.

A lot has happened since the last update. The ship has a new home; in January I founded Flat Rat Studios, a space I now share with six other talented artists all working on some great stuff. 

I have an art project with a KickStarter going on right now called "Democritus Tools". I just hit my goal but there is still over a week left. Check out the link to see (and possibly back) one of my non-Burning Man art projects. 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lostmachine/democritus-tools

Another project I've been working on is Claire Dean's DOOP (Dog out of Place) which will be at Maker Faire and Burning Man this year.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/855657917/doop-dog-out-of-place

I won't have the C.S. Tere Booth at Maker Faire this year, but I will be there. I'll be supporting Claire with DOOP and also helping my girlfriend Alysia who has a booth in the Bazaar Bizarre for her business: Light Fantastic. 

http://www.WearLightFantastic.com/

Please stop by and say hi to us. I have a few other Burning Man projects that I am helping on this year, but getting the ship back to the Playa is the big one.

Thank you again, we look forward to seeing you on the ship in that dusty place.

Captain Andy

The Pirate ship needs a few seconds of your time.

Boca Bearing is having a competition and the Pirate ship has been neck & neck with a team from Stanford all month. The Stanford team is backed by an Ivy League School and a lot of corporate sponsors, but so far we’re keeping up. We have until Saturday at Midnight to get ahead and keep that lead.

We need votes to win and we need a lot of them.  If you could take 15 seconds of your time to go to this link and click the vote button it would mean a lot to us.  If you could take a minute and share this link with your friends and family we would be very grateful. 

http://www.bocabearings.com/innovation-contest/ContestantDetails.aspx?ProjectID=28

If we win this month we’ll go on to compete against 12 other winners for a $10,000 grand prize. We will use the prize to start our non-profit.

We just need a little of your time;  you could make a huge difference.

Thank you,

Captain Andy

Today was spent getting the rest of the ship back into storage for the winter.

It was a wonderful year but things did not go as well as we were hoping for.   We were looking forward to giving people rides and spending the week on the playa with everyone.  I am sad to say we had a major hydraulic problem.

The ship ran great in Portland but once on the Playa we had trouble. Several hydraulic experts have looked into it and we are still stumped.   You can read about the trip on the Blog here.

 

The Fire Sails worked great. We were able to get the ship towed out onto the Playa and play with the sails.  I always have fun pushing the red button that makes the fire go, but this was different. This was our first fire effect and I quickly found out what is better than pressing that button is watching other people press that button…seeing the look on their faces, the happiness in their eyes, the excitement in their smiles…that…that made all the work worth it.

If you were one of the people that joined us on deck Friday night thank you.  I was feeling a bit down all week, your smiles brought me right back up, it meant the world to me.

Now that we are back we will be making the rest of the KickStarter rewards, some of you got your rewards already but a lot of the custom stuff still needs to be made.  Thank you for being patient while we get your hoodies, t-shirts and Tripods made and mailed out to you.

Thank you for the support,

Captain Andy

P.S.  Here are some great photos from the Burn on NBC, The ship is in photo #92.  Also photo #61 (Thunder Bird) is a project from Portland that a few of us worked on as well. 

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/weird/Burning-Man-2011-in-Pictures-129837503.html

Thank you for making this happen.   This has been an incredible build and a lot of fun.

We have limited funds for Propane so thank you for the extra donations on the web site.  Fire sails without the fire is just a pile of metal sticks. You can still donate on the site. 

http://www.lostmachine.com/

We'll see you out there. 

Much love,

Captain Andy

We're going to make it.  See the link.

http://www.lostmachine.com/blog/archives/379

Thank you so much, this has been a truly awesome build. 

Captain Andy