Monday’s Mystery Solved

On Monday we ran a video of a mysterious Unidentified Floating Object motoring past the St. Francis Yacht Club, entertaining the denizens gathered there for dinner. We hadn’t seen it before and thus posed the question to our readers: What the heck is it?

Jack Alden thought it might be "A recycled bit of Madonna’s bustier from the 2012 (XLVI) Super Bowl halftime show."

"There must be a Dr Who gathering in town," writes Ants Uiga of Bodfish. "The Tardis was getting so out of touch." (Ants, by the way, is planning to take a Moore 24 on this year’s Race to Alaska. More on that later.)

Turns out the vessel is a ‘Bubbleboat’. When we saw the video, we thought the UFO looked small, like a remote-controlled device or a robot. Turns out it’s an actual boat. The pilot operates the vessel from inside, using the clear glass bubble on top to see where he’s going and a 20hp outboard motor for propulsion. 

Max Perez of Oakland knew the real story: "The artist is Eric Staller. He also made a VW Bug with similar lights. He has some other art/sculpture/vehicles that are really great as well." See ericstaller.com/urban-ufos/bubbleboat. The vessel is festooned with 594 colored carnival lights that are programmed to put on a show and can be controlled from the vessel’s helm.

Turns out the Bubbleboat is nothing new. Staller built the project in 1986 and brought it out of storage in 2013 after he moved to San Francisco. Giants fans have spotted the Bubbleboat in McCovey Cove during games.

Thanks also to John Cole, who sent us a link to this story in SFGate.