What is the latest news about the Calypso (Cousteau's boat)?

[Popgun Pete]

I guess many people like me were concerned that donated funds were being expended in legal fights and just running an organization day to day whose profile was gradually sinking while the real job was being neglected. Calypso 2 was an unneeded diversion. When the Calypso had a fire during the rebuild the thought ran through my mind that there was maybe a desire to remove what has become an albatross. A lot of goodwill and support has been frittered away and never fulfilled promises have destroyed a lot of credibility. Those new Volvo engines are probably sitting in a crate. By trying to monopolise Cousteau’s legacy Francine Cousteau has aided its demise in terms of all that we remember from those wonderful TV documentaries, one of the stars being the Calypso itself. At least I have my plastic model and DVD's to remember it by.

 

[JMBL]

I guess many people like me were concerned that donated funds were being expended in legal fights and just running an organization day to day whose profile was gradually sinking while the real job was being neglected. Calypso 2 was an unneeded diversion. When the Calypso had a fire during the rebuild the thought ran through my mind that there was maybe a desire to remove what has become an albatross. A lot of goodwill and support has been frittered away and never fulfilled promises have destroyed a lot of credibility. Those new Volvo engines are probably sitting in a crate. By trying to monopolise Cousteau’s legacy Francine Cousteau has aided its demise in terms of all that we remember from those wonderful TV documentaries, one of the stars being the Calypso itself. At least I have my plastic model and DVD's to remember it by.

Alas, you're damned right.

 

[skippy311]

If ever there were a need for Elon Musk to mend the bridges...

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

If ever there were a need for Elon Musk to mend the bridges...

is there ever a need for Elon Musk at all?

 

[skippy311]

is there ever a need for Elon Musk at all?

charter the calypso!

 

[Popgun Pete]

L’italiano che sta riportando a nuova vita la Calypso di Cousteau

Maybe not even a faithful restoration internally as such, if it is ever completed, see below.
"The hull, classified by the Italian Naval Register, will be redone as the original, while the interiors will be revised on the basis of the new life of the ship, which will no longer be an oceanographic research unit, but will support the initiatives promoted by the Team Cousteau: forum, conferences .... It will be ready in two years. "Particular parameters must be respected. We don't have to run, the job has to be done well."

The vessel, which for many years was effectively Simone Cousteau's home, is not likely to be restored as it was due to past animosities.

 

[JMBL]

Thanks for the link, but I fear it will be another bad episode in a long and awful penny dreadful. Being French and needing an English speaking forum (located on the wrong side of the Atlantic, so to speak), to learn that Calypso (a French ship) is now located in Italy, doesn't seem to bring good omen... Sorry for being pessimistic, but I gave up hope on that racket long ago...

 

[Angelo Farina]

The Calypso is still in Turkey, not in Italy.
Tha article says that the ship is now inscribed to RINA, the Italian navy registry, and that the rebuilding is being directed by an Italian engineer.
The work is being done in Turkey as there a number of specialised carpenteers, still used on working on wood shells, ara available.

 

[Popgun Pete]

The changes to the internal layout as dictated by the Cousteau Society is what drew my attention, not where it is being carried out as the Italian article is from 2017. I know the vessel is in Turkey now, but a repurposed Calypso in layout as a conference facility means that the historic spaces that Cousteau and his team worked in are lost and are not even being restored in replica. Once stripped to a shell all that was lost and really only the external imagery remains if rebuilt.

 

[Erich S]

Still think it should now be an artificial reef so that divers can come and visit it.