McHenry County Blog

I have been watching fellow Bernotas Middle School Dad Ray Christe’s and his Algonquin friend Larry Kozak’s progress as the boat went from conception to completion.

Lakewood's Ray Christe and Algonquin's Larry Kozak show off the model of CalypSol with Crystal Lake in the background.

The first “home” for the boast was in Oakwood Hills resident Charley Birks’ garage.

Germaine Tobias, Charley Birks and Ray Christe pose with the canoe in Oakwood Hills before move to Lakewood. Tobias helped with the plastering of the hull.

I went over to Oakwood Hills to meet Marc Müller, who was driving a solar-powered car across the country.  Unfortunately, the vehicle was being repaired, but I had a delightful conversation with the young man, who had been active in Swiss politics.

The ribs have been completed in this photo from last fall.

At that time, just the ribs of the boat had been completed.

The CalypSol was bundled in a tarp as the severe July storm battered Lakewood.

The CalypSol escaped damage from July’s storm, even though trees fell in Christe’s yard.

Larry Kozak and Ray Christe stand behind their almost completed watercraft.

Now comes the following press release from the CalypSol Group:

The Constructors of the CalypSol celebrate a milestone!

On September 20, the CalypSol Group celebrated a milestone with the construction of their high tech solar power 22FT trimaran; the final stage of the assembly of the main components.

CalypSol from the front.

The craft is due to leave mid-May 2012 for a long journey down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, taking two adventuring mariners from Chicago to New Orleans.

CalypSol's electric motor can be seen from the back. The flag of Ray Christe's homeland, Switzerland, can't be seen, but it is beneath the American Flag.

They will be using the same waterway used by Joliet and Marquette in their birch bark canoes over 330 years ago. CalypSol will be the first solar power boat sailing the path, still referred today as the “French Corridor”.

The construction of the boat required more than 1000 hours of combined design engineering and fabrication. The selection of the material and components was carefully reviewed with professional boat builders.

One of two batteries had been installed when I took this photo.

For safety purpose, the boat has several back-up systems.

This device of Ray Christe calculates the angle the solar panels should be tilted.

Two sets of solar panels charge independently two batteries which alternatively run the electric outboard motor. The high efficient light weight photovoltaic solar modules were manufactured in Italy but distributed in the States by HighFlex Solar in California. The solar panels are articulated for best sun incidence, thus increasing the efficiency of the battery charge. A special sundial designed by Ray Christe, the lead canoer, provides with the best angle to position the solar panels.

The core of the main hull was fused by Melges Performance Sailboat in Zenda, WI.

The batteries and outboard electric motor are manufactured by Torqeedo in Germany. Their North American headquarters are in Crystal Lake, IL.

The design of the electric motor and propeller shaft allows the boat to move forward, backward and make turns on a sharp angle.

A solar-powered convection fan maintains continuous air flow in the batteries compartment.

There are dual bilge pumps for redundancy.

Instrumentation includes Depth Finder, GPS, Netbook, Energy Monitoring and Cellular Phones.

During their voyage, the mariners will camp overnight on the river islands or banks with an occasion night in a motel.

The boat is equipped with a cooler to store beverages and food purchased along the way from cities and towns. The duration of the voyage is expected to last two months, which allows time to go sight-seeing, meet with local townspeople, routine boat maintenance, and so forth.

You can learn more the Odyssey of the CalypSol Group, founded by Ray Christe of Crystal Lake and Larry Kozak of Algonquin, on their Website: www.calypsol.com, or call 815-455-6797

“We’ve been looking forward to this adventure for quite a long time. We’re excited and just about ready to go,” said Kozak. “Next May can’t get here fast enough to begin our adventure of a lifetime.”

Didn’t know an Amtrak route is planned through McHenry County.

Well, if you are a regular reader of McHenry County Blog, you would.

Links to McHenry County Blog’s stories follow:

April 3, 2010 – Quinn Says Amtrak Going Through Belvidere

April 6, 2010 – Illinois Railway Museum’s Executive Director Nick Kallas Analyzes Amtrak Route Selection through McHenry County

With 16th District Congressman Don Manzullo’s sending out a press release about his efforts to convince Amtrak to pick up and discharge passengers on the new state-financed line that is proposed to run through southern McHenry County, don’t you think that the Northwest and Daily Heralds will finally run a story on the subject?

Congressman Manzullo’s press release follows:

Manzullo Seeks Amtrak Stop for McHenry County

[CRYSTAL LAKE] Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) today called on Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to designate a stop in McHenry County as part of the state’s decision to extend Amtrak passenger rail from Chicago to Dubuque, Iowa.

U.S.Senator Dick Drubin and U.S. Representative Don Manzullo at Amtrak hearing held in Rockford a couple of years ago.

Manzullo, who has worked closely with U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) to return Amtrak and commuter rail to northern Illinois, sent a letter to the Governor today requesting an Amtrak stop in either Huntley or Marengo.

The $60 million in funds necessary to upgrade the tracks for the Chicago to Iowa Amtrak route were included in the state capital bill, and construction is expected to take 18 months with service scheduled to begin in 2012.

Amtrak Route from Elgin to Rockford running through Huntley, Union and Marengo in McHenry County.

Gov. Quinn announced earlier this month Amtrak would follow a northern route on existing tracks running from Elgin’s Big Timber Metra station through the counties of McHenry, Boone, Winnebago, Stephenson and JoDaviess counties before crossing into Iowa.

Quinn and Amtrak previously announced stops in Belvidere, Rockford, Freeport, and Galena, and Manzullo is requesting a stop in McHenry County.

“Establishing a stop in McHenry County will help increase Amtrak ridership and secure the route’s viability while providing tremendous benefits for businesses, tourism, and quality of life in one of the fast-growing collar counties of Chicago,” Manzullo said.

“Establishing an Amtrak stop in McHenry County could also expedite the eventual extension of Milwaukee District/West Metra commuter rail service from Big Timber to Huntley and Marengo and beyond to Belvidere and Rockford since they will traverse the same tracks.”

The mayors of Huntley and Marengo have each submitted letters to Manzullo expressing interest in hosting an Amtrak stop. Manzullo’s letter to the Governor as well as the mayors’ letters are attached.
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Sign just before reaching the Eagle Ridge Inn.

The Skinner family drove to Galena during the middle of the week of Spring Break.

The tracks Amtrak would take along the Mississippi River to get to Galena.

We had an enjoyable stay at the Eagle Ridge Inn.  It’s about a 2 hour and fifteen minute drive from Crystal Lake.

I even saw two eagles flying over the trees about 50 feet from our third floor room, allowing the resort to live up to its name of Eagle Ridge. (Couldn’t find the camera in time though, unfortunately.)

What fun it would be to take the train.

We even saw the track that the train would take to Galena while we were exploring the Mississippi River.  They were the same tracks that Amtrak used when we rode from Chicago to  Denver, renting a car to drive to Colorado Springs a couple of years ago.

Sign pointing to the Chestnut Mountain Resort.

Driving over the Mississippi into Iowa wasn’t good enough for me. I insisted the two 12-year olds be able to touch it.

We ended up between the railroad tracks and another resort, Chestnut Mountain.

If we took Amtrak, I’m willing to be that both resorts would provide bus service to and from Downtown Galena, where the train station is locate.

What an adventure it would be for those who have never taken a train except to Chicago.

About a year ago, Lake in the Hills’ Larry Kozak and Lakewood’s Ray Christe planned to canoe the full length of the Mississippi River from Lake Itasca, MN to New Orleans, LA.

Last September they attended a presentation given by John Lynn who paddled the entire length of the Mississippi River from its headwaters at Lake Itasca, MN to the Gulf of Mexico.

John Lynn’s adventure motivated both paddlers who were somewhat apprehensive of the impending physical effort.

They decided that it would be a good idea to combine Larry’s mechanical engineering knowledge with Ray’s electrical experience and come up with the design of a high-tech canoe equipped with assisted power source.

They wanted to reduce the 800,000 paddle strokes it took John Lynn to do the River!

To be “green,” Christe and Kozak choose to develop a solar-power canoe which will later be commercialized for sporting activities, fishing trips or leisure boating.

The solar assisted trimaran canoe is scheduled to be ready for a test run in the waters of Crystal Lake, IL in the spring of 2010.

If the performance results meet their technical expectations and all the logistics are ready, they will start their journey from Chicago on the Illinois River to New Orleans on the Mississippi River in summer 2010. The journey is expected to take two months.

They named their canoe “CalypSol.”

A web site will allow viewers to follow their journey from signals emitted from the on-board GPS and share some video clips of their scenic journey.

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With Crystal Lake in the background Ray Christe and Larry Kozak show off a model of their solar canoe.

I slept through most of Minnesota, so I missed the worst Interstate highway I have ever driven on.

It’s concrete and feels like a washboard.

Trying to get a photo of the South Dakota entrance sign, I snapped this picture of the Mississippi River, the boundary between Minnesota and South Dakota.

Missed the South Dakota sign, but I did get the river sign.

It was the Fourth of July and this member of Crystal Lake Kiwanis had been up late the night before counting money for the Crystal Lake Gala.

The Kiwanians pretty much closed the place down. We were the money counters.

Virtually no one was left after we exited the grounds.

Certainly there was no bus to take us to the remote lots where we had parked.

Our family decided to leave on vacation the morning of Independence Day. I was happy to have my wife drive while I tried to catch some shuteye.

It was more crowded on the toll road to I-39 than I had expected. There was even a traffic jam at the Belvidere Oasis parking lot.

No problem getting over the Illinois River at LaSalle, even though it was under repair.

Because we had to drive right at the edge of the bridge, I got a pretty good shot of the railroad bridge downstream to the west.

There were lot of police cars in Illinois.

The one above was on I-39.

These two were on I-55 south of Springfield.

Both were relatively near the Mississippi River, “relative” being relative to the five hours that we had been driving.

Then it was on to the Mississippi River bridge we almost always take through or, more precisely, over Downtown St. Louis.

We saw these bridge signs and followed the main I-55 one.

The river had been a flood stage, so I wanted some pictures, as you can well imagine.

I didn’t get any that were very good.

The edge of the bridge was in the way.

Traffic inched along like it was rush hour.

Then we saw the right hand lane was closed on the Missouri side. The traffic was barely moving.

My wife pulled over to the next lane and the next thing we heard and and felt was

We pulled over into the closed lane and the truck did, too. I jumped out an got a photo of it. No damage to the truck I could notice.

But of the damage to my wife’s 2001 Toyota was extensive.

We agreed to pull off at the first exit, which just happened to be the street nearest the St. Louis Arch.

There was no traffic, but the trucker was worried that he was parked in a prohibited zone.

He was more worried that he would get a moving violation as a result of the crash.

After figuring out that the car was still drivable and we could get to my sister’s at Joplin, we really didn’t care that his version of the accident differed from my wife’s.

It took so long for the St. Louis Police officers to come that we got to know the trucker a bit better than one might expect and see the sights. He had had a real accident going home one very rainy day and had taken out 150 feet of guard rail avoiding a worst accident.

My wife jokingly asked if he hit us because of the McCain for President bumper sticker.

I noticed the side of his truck, which you can see above, and concluded he also was a McCain supporter. Note the assault rifle.

In any event, we went over the Mississippi River bridge and though the Ozark Mountains to little sister Ellen’s home in Joplin, Missouri, without further incident.

We didn’t dare open the trunk until we got there.

When we did, we found not even the wine bottle had broken inside.

And we found the trunk was still waterproof during a deluge at Branson, Missouri.

It was the Fourth of July and this member of Crystal Lake Kiwanis had been up late the night before counting money for the Crystal Lake Gala.

The Kiwanians pretty much closed the place down. We were the money counters.

Virtually no one was left after we exited the grounds.

Certainly there was no bus to take us to the remote lots where we had parked.

Our family decided to leave on vacation the morning of Independence Day. I was happy to have my wife drive while I tried to catch some shuteye.

It was more crowded on the toll road to I-39 than I had expected. There was even a traffic jam at the Belvidere Oasis parking lot.

No problem getting over the Illinois River at LaSalle, even though it was under repair.

Because we had to drive right at the edge of the bridge, I got a pretty good shot of the railroad bridge downstream to the west.

There were lot of police cars in Illinois.

The one above was on I-39.

These two were on I-55 south of Springfield.

Both were relatively near the Mississippi River, “relative” being relative to the five hours that we had been driving.

Then it was on to the Mississippi River bridge we almost always take through or, more precisely, over Downtown St. Louis.

We saw these bridge signs and followed the main I-55 one.

The river had been a flood stage, so I wanted some pictures, as you can well imagine.

I didn’t get any that were very good.

The edge of the bridge was in the way.

Traffic inched along like it was rush hour.

Then we saw the right hand lane was closed on the Missouri side. The traffic was barely moving.

My wife pulled over to the next lane and the next thing we heard and and felt was

We pulled over into the closed lane and the truck did, too. I jumped out an got a photo of it. No damage to the truck I could notice.

But of the damage to my wife’s 2001 Toyota was extensive.

We agreed to pull off at the first exit, which just happened to be the street nearest the St. Louis Arch.

There was no traffic, but the trucker was worried that he was parked in a prohibited zone.

He was more worried that he would get a moving violation as a result of the crash.

After figuring out that the car was still drivable and we could get to my sister’s at Joplin, we really didn’t care that his version of the accident differed from my wife’s.

It took so long for the St. Louis Police officers to come that we got to know the trucker a bit better than one might expect and see the sights. He had had a real accident going home one very rainy day and had taken out 150 feet of guard rail avoiding a worst accident.

My wife jokingly asked if he hit us because of the McCain for President bumper sticker.

I noticed the side of his truck, which you can see above, and concluded he also was a McCain supporter. Note the assault rifle.

In any event, we went over the Mississippi River bridge and though the Ozark Mountains to little sister Ellen’s home in Joplin, Missouri, without further incident.

We didn’t dare open the trunk until we got there.

When we did, we found not even the wine bottle had broken inside.

And we found the trunk was still waterproof during a deluge at Branson, Missouri.