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

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PS what ever they have left they still should do it ....
 
The chassis, running gear, engine and gear box were from another Atlantic of the same period, so the Aerolithe which had been believed to have been cannibalised for materials due to its full magnesium body before the war was the only way to reconstruct it. In the film Odyssey we see a stand in for Calypso that seemed to be a sister vessel.

P.S. Like many I regularly watched the TV show by the Guild as they put the Aerolithe body and interior together completely from scratch up until its final display at Dubai in front of oil rich sheiks who oohed and aahed at the multi-million dollar vehicle which was back from oblivion.
bugatti aerolithe original.jpg

bugatti aerolithe outdoors.jpg

With enough money you can do anything with cars and boats. The one and only Aerolithe ever built, except for the original which disappeared during the war. If the original was squirreled away in a mineshaft or cave, which seems hugely unlikely, it will now be worth many millions.
 
The Odyssey film which I have on DVD and which has also been shown on TV. Highly recommended viewing!
‘The Odyssey’ (‘L’Odyssee’): Film Review | San Sebastian 2016
Jacques Cousteau sails again in new film

As a side note one of the spanners in the works that has frustrated Cousteau’s legacy is his second wife Francine. She may have meant well, but torpedoed many plans that were set in place before Cousteau died. One was that Francine showed the door to Cousteau's long time female biographer and thus sunk what would have been his official autobiography. Other biographies have been written about Jacques-Yves Cousteau, but at a distance thanks to the boom lowered by Francine. The book written by eldest son Jean-Michel is probably the closest we can get, but he was estranged from his father for many years until his brother Philippe, Cousteau's natural successor, died in a seaplane crash, a restored Catalina flying boat.
 
the guild was 15 min drive from my previous home .....I have been there many times dave has a hard time keeping employees some I know ...and I was told that car was piece meal at best ..
 
I believe the Aerolithe owner is happy with it, I don't think it has been offered for sale. Hand work is always expensive, especially with fabricating magnesium sheet from strips as any heat in an oxygen environment and magnesium burns. The Calypso should be a straightforward job and has gone to a timber shipyard in Turkey where the necessary shipbuilding skills still exist.
 
I think the best way to restore is find a donor but they may all be in the same shape you don't see many people buy a boat and then store it for years in a barn .....I really wish I could win the big lottery getting and restoring that boat would be on my list ....
 
Just a final comment on the Aerolithe, the car is on its original numbered chassis, they have just redone the body. If the original is still stored somewhere it will just be a body shell and interior, which seems unlikely and would be disassembled in any case.
 
sorry pete but that is not the original chassis ........its all repo.....but still most amazing
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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