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1969 · Synergia Ranch
The desert beginning
111 acres of overgrazed high desert south of Santa Fe are bought by a group who spend the following decades turning it into an oasis. The Institute of Ecotechnics grows out of this community.
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1973 · Institute of Ecotechnics
The institute formalises
Ecotechnics establishes itself with demonstration projects across biomes. John Allen: to understand the planet's diversity, the Institute needs an ocean-going ship.
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1974–75 · Oakland
The ship is built
Keel laid August 1974 on salvage nails and lumber; volunteers plaster the ferrocement hull by hand; funded partly by the Junkman's Palace café in Berkeley. Launched 24 February 1975. Junk-rigged because Allen had lived on a Hong Kong junk and prized stability over speed.
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1975–79
01 · Shakedown voyages
Maiden voyage from San Francisco Bay south along the coast, through the Panama Canal, to the San Blas islands. Celestial navigation, sea time, and a crew learning the ship.
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1979–80
02–03 · Indian Ocean & the East
Indian Ocean circumnavigation from Darwin with a large volunteer crew, then Australia to Bali, Java, Singapore and Penang — performing in port after port.
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1980–82
04 · Amazon expedition
Up the Amazon after ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes' suggestion, trading dance-drama performances with river villages for ethnobotanical knowledge.
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1983–86
05 · Around the Tropic World
Around the world by the tropics — the Pacific, Asia, Africa, the Americas — studying coral, mangroves and the cultures of the tropical belt.
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1986–87
06 · Coral, mangroves, dolphin release
Coral and mangrove studies from Puerto Rico, where the crew also helped the Institute establish Las Casas de la Selva, its thousand-acre rainforest forestry project — and released rehabilitated dolphins.
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1987–89
07 · Antarctica
The ship insulated for polar work and sailed south along South America's Pacific coast. Crew dived beneath Antarctic sea ice.
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1990–91
08 · Collections for Biosphere 2
Florida wetland specimens gathered for Biosphere 2, then hundreds of coral colonies floated off Akumal on lift bags and trucked alive into the Arizona desert. The sibling project's ocean, delivered by the ship.
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1991–95
09 · Central America coral studies
The Bahamas, Lesser Antilles, Venezuela (drydock), Mexico and Miami — reef studies across the Caribbean, anchored long in Belize.
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1995–2001
10 · Indian Ocean & SE Asia reef mapping
Years of coral reef mapping as reefs worldwide began their steep decline — the ship's data became part of the accumulating evidence.
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2001–04
11 · Second coral reef stage — home to Oakland
Pacific crossing from Guam to Seattle and San Francisco, docking in Oakland — the very place she was built, thirty years on.
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2006–10
12 · Coral Sea to Mediterranean
From Cairns across the Southern Indian Ocean; drydock near Cape Town beside the Uruguayan Navy; across the Atlantic to Brazil and the Matutu Foundation — another Institute sibling — then north to the Mediterranean.
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2011–
13 · Lives and Legends of the Mediterranean
The final expedition to date: filming nearly 150 interviews with sea people and coastal dwellers in six countries — documenting communities facing ecological and cultural upheaval as the sea changes.
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2012 · Roses, Catalonia
The rebuild begins
Ecotechnics Maritime and the Institute of Ecotechnics (UK) commit to a complete rebuild: a new ferrocement hull of roughly sixty tons with upgraded engineering throughout. Hundreds of volunteers pass through the shipyard over the following years.
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2024
Jotun paints the ship
Jotun Marine Paints donates a full coat of sealant and colour — part of over $40,000 in donations and supplies including all the mariner's paint needed to seal the hull.
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2025
Uncovered and painted
The ship emerges from her protective cocoon with a freshly painted hull and deck; over fifty people worked on her during the year; the paint coat completed 19 December 2025.
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Now
What is left is the interior
Systems, outfitting, rigging — then she goes back. New instruments, a bio research lab, and a Marziani Cinema™ AI system working alongside the crew. This is where volunteers decide the launch date.
