A new concept for future boats.

You are right. The crankshaft length and a number of rods depend of a sine wave’s number we need. Of course we can use a sectional crankshaft (made of identical sections).

 

More explanations.
It is evident in order to set in the motion this traveling wave's propulsion device we need two the same crankshafts working synchronously.

 

Sorry to throw sand to the gearbox Vlad, but the travelling wave won't work on hard surfaces. For a simple reason. You have a membrane that doesn't move lengthwise, the friction ensures that the boat stays in place, only the point connecting to the surface below will change with the wave. On top of liquid it might work, because there's no similar friction.

To make a viable vehicle to travel all kinds of terrain, my money would be on a rubber track, the kind on caterpillars (the machine, not the animal), snowmobiles etc. They are proven technology in a wariety of applications. I have been around enough construction machines to know this.

Right kind of track surface pattern should get enough grip to move quite well on water too, after all, even snowmobiles have been driven over water, they even have competitions on it! WikiPedia article

Here's a sketch of what I had in mind.

Lurvio

 

More explicative pictures

 

Briefly about global traveling waves

It is little known that there are at least four separate but sometimes interfacing tides caused by lunar and sun gravitation in geometric relationship with locations on the Earth's surface. The best known is the sea-tide, the exact times of which repeat every so many weeks, months and years. There is also the inner-core tide affecting the molten core of the Earth (Core Tide) which plays a major role in the cycles of earthquakes and eruptions, the land-tide (called Earth-tide, where the ground rises towards the Moon about 8 inches per day as the Moon goes overhead and then recedes again when the Moon goes below the horizon) and the air-tide affecting the height of the atmosphere.
The gravitational pull of the sun and moon creates two types of sea-tides, high and low! As the moon rotates around Earth, tidal bulges occur. The bulge is really a large wave beneath the moon that moves across the earth. On the opposite side of Earth, there is a second bulge. These bulges are high tides. Between each high tide, there is a low tide. There are usually 2 high and 2 low tides occur each 24 hours and 50 minutes, because that is how long it takes the moon to rotate around Earth.
These Tides are the global waves traveling in one direction from east to west in the tropical belt of the oceans. Both the moon and the sun act as the driving force of these global traveling waves. Have you got any idea how to use them?
http://globalaircirculation.blogspot.com/

 

The Moon orbits the Earth about every 27.3 days. You may have meant to say "the Earth spins relative to the moon in 24 hours 50 minutes."
Of interest; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUSTXUis_ys&feature=fvw
Havn't tried, but probably not much good on water!

 

You are right. Just Earth spinning and gravity generate global traveling waves.

 

coming from the jellyfish idea, i can see that there would be a down/rest stroke as the membrane recoils. is this true? the swimming stroke "breaststroke" has a power stroke and a recoil, hence the reason you olrinate your legs and arms.
I may be totally wrong, but that's how I envisioned it.
if we are talking about a cuttlefish or sea snake then that's very different, and i totally agree on that idea.