The world's biggest solar-powered boat‎ launched in Germany

Oh, i wanted to say that i suspect they used a catamaran hull as the best option to get a large PV array, while keep the weight to a minimum.

Compared to the speed of previously built solar powered boats it is (and they think, they can do up to 15 kn): when the Sun 21 crossed the Atlantic, the average speed was only 6 knots.

Ah well, Walter, he didn't say in comparison to other PV boats. I was going by what's in the article. I'll take your word for it, though.

EDIT: Fifteen knots would be a respectable speed, if it could be maintained as a cruising speed.

I believe we need to change our mind set. This statement is only true if its made in relation to modern diesel powered boats.
The fast paced modern world we have today is leading us down a path of elecological destruction and we need to just pull back and slow down a little. If a boat like this can replace only pleasure boats used for day trips we must surely be ahead. A little more diesel remains available for essential shipping, less oil is being poured into the ocean and less co2 (and other chemicals) into the atmosphere.

HAs there been ANY sea trial? Im still needing to be convinced that this thing can get up and scoot at the reported 15 kt.

Dubious in Pa.
I have No experience in cats (just rode a coupla hobies and rode the Nova SCotia Ferry). There is a kind of "bump" that occurs when these things achoeve some sort of efficient speed where the shape overcomes the drag and its actually "flying".
That speed aint (IMHO) 8 knots for such a big ass boat.
Maybe Im just missing the obvious but , I dont know...

Right off the bat, let me say that there is no reliable, hard evidence that human-generated carbon dioxide is a major contributing factor to climate change.

I have no problem with slowing down. I'm just pointing out that eight knots is not "very fast." Columbus was sailing in convoy with two caravels, the purpose of which was to carry a much higher proportion of supplies than the main party in Santa Maria. Santa Maria herself was a carrack, and a slow, wallowing pig she was. Comparisons to that pathetic expedition aren't very enlightening. When the a replica of the Gokstad ship (a "Viking" vessel) was built in the 1890s, and sailed to the Chicago Colukmbian Exhibition, in honor of the occasion, she sailed on the same course as Columbus until she reached the West Indies. That was a vessel of a design created more than a thousand years ago, and her log reeled off the same distance in three days as Columbus' carrack and two caravels logged in four.

Certainly the lowest of the low--merchant brigs--in the 18th and the early 19th century could only log five or six knots--but so what? You're comparing cart horses to thoroughbreds. A slow naval convoy at the beginning of the 19th century expected to reel off 8 knots from one noon observation to the next, and packet ships and fast frigates expected to average twelve to fourteen knots. Once again, we're talking about wooden hulled sailing ships with none of the advantages of advanced materials and coatings (i.e., "paint") which are used on modern ships.

Once again, i have no problem with slowing down. Once again, eight knots ain't "very fast." And it ain't "very fast" even in comparison to "large ships" in the age of sail. Your source is full of horsie poop, too. The largest ships in the heyday of the age of sail were line of battle ships of the world's navies, and clipper ships in the China trade. They expected those ships to do a hell of a lot better than five or six knots (for information purposes, six knots is seven miles per hour)--even a frigate with a "dirty" hull (i.e., weed encrusted) was expected to do eight knots. As i've already noted, Flying Cloud averaged more than fifteen knots on July 31, 1851. I find your source suspect.

Well, in 2006/7 the first solar powered ever crossing that Atlantic was a cat, too, the Sun21



They actually did less than 4 knots as avarage.
Here's the arrival in New York


Source: John Ericson Society

Take the total resources required to design build and maintain that thing and you might as well have run clean diesel technology.

I argue that it is not that "The fast paced modern world we have today is leading us down a path of ecological destruction and we need to just pull back and slow down a little."

I argue it is the simple fact that man is breeding to self-destruction. Everyone could have most any lifestyle they might wish without excess ecologic damage and risk of self-destruction as long as there were not too many humans on earth.

Those that have children put the safety and security of man's future at grave risk thus it is not our so-called "fast paced modern world" per se that is pushing us into ecologic meltdown.

If you look at the hulls in the 2006 boat, they are twin hulls, the one you originally posted seems more ahull that needs to rise out of water to move . Like I said, Im no expert Im just interested in how she moves in the trials.

The TURANOR PlanetSolar left Monaco on 27 September heading west. It is now about 150km off the Spanish coast at Girona. The crew is made up of a French captain, two Germans, a Finn and two Swiss, one of them the founder and initiator of the project, Raphael Domjan.



According to swissinfo, the expedition, is financially supported by the Swiss foreign ministry, is expected to last at least eight months, and will take the boat to the east and west coasts of North America as well as Cancun, Sydney, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

And "Swiss embassies and consulates abroad will provide organisational and logistical support during the catamaran’s voyage at its various ports of call".

Here we have a guy who wants to go 'round the world in a solar boat. Almost all responses here were negative, so far. He has my good wishes to take along. I hope he makes it.
All dreamers had to ignore nay-sayers throughout history, nothing has changed.

Thats just your noinipo. Here on A2K mere knowledge never stops us from offering our own noinipo's.
Has anyone heard from this thing since last September? or is it layed up for the winter?

A true cat has a hull design that can act as a hydroplane. This ones hull looks kind of beefy to me. Its more like two sailboats lashed at the middle. Many years ago I owned a trihull sport boat (An outboard called a Thunderbird) It was very fast but had to be muscled up on plane by brute force. AND, when it ran on plane, it was a very wet hull. You got sprayed a lot because it had the prows stand too proud of the path. SO youd run into your own bow wave. Very cold running on any but the calmest of days. SO it was murder in big waters.

People have been discussing the performance and the design. To what "negative" responses do you refer?

Idealists should be admired. These people are trying something new; it might be improved with time. I wish them well.
The Swiss had a solar car drive around the world. It did not look like a Porsche.

The cat's streamlined design enables it to glide easier on the water(less drag) than a single V design. Such a small seacraft to navigate the globe, you would need the cat's wave piercing performance to reduce the effects of the rough seas.

The vessels speed certainly will depend on the prevailing winds.Opposite wind direction, then you would need to do some zig-zag stitching on the water. No wind, no speed.

That hole can't be a vagina because its in the front. If it were located at the rear, that would be a vagina alright. The hole you see will be for pinochio's nose.

Today, Turanor PlanetSolar, the world’s largest solar-powered boat, docked in Monaco and completed a 19-month, 28,618-nautical-mile circumnavigation.


Viedo at SwissInfo