Solar-powered catamaran goes around the world in 584 days | Hacker News Reader

Solar-powered catamaran goes around the world in 584 days

latimes.com

42 pointshristov21 comments

Just think... soon they will make boats out of other sustainable power sources. Maybe like wind or something else crazy like that.

I laughed, but actually, wind is being rediscovered for larger vessels:

http://www.plentymag.com/blogs/edge/2008/03/smoother_sailing...

The kite claims a 10-35% reduction in diesel consumption, which is pretty good for a permanent and passive contribution. And you still have the reliability and speed of traditional diesel propulsion.

Or make solar-based weapons against pirates, with a big lens.

You know, I recently helped a friend find a large, but light and flexible, plastic fresnel lens. You can make wood char and smoke instantly and light on fire within seconds, it's really cool.

Check out this wave powered drone: http://www.liquidr.com/

In action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eATawqVOXWI

In 2012, a sail boat went around the world in 45 days. Obviously sail will remain more efficient for a while.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Verne_Trophy

Was a little baffled by this part,

"It would be an adventure and a statement. If he could do it, he would prove to the world that there are other alternatives to powering sea travel besides fossil fuels and wind. It would also demonstrate just what solar power is capable of."

It didn't really prove anything ..

besides fossil fuels and wind

And nuclear reactors and human rowers. Oh, and wood.

It would also demonstrate just what solar power is capable of

Yep, pushing a huge expensive yacht around the world at an insanely slow speed. Clap clap.

They went a sunny-route through the panama-channel and not the route trough Kap Horn and the Kap of good hope, which is normally taken by round the world sailors. These routes have a high chance of storms, which come with clouds. 3 days of clouds would have rendered the boat unmanoeuvrable.

Nice experiment but solar powered boats are absolutely useless on high seas and better, cheaper and a lot more ecological (a lot of energy goes in the production of solar panels and batteries) alternatives (sailboats) have been around for ages.

Are you Dutch? Kap vs Cape seems to be a Dutch vs English thing.

Kap is something else in Dutch, the correct Dutch word would be Kaap.

German actually.

Sailing is still the best way to travel the oceans without using tons of fuel... however, if it was possible to retrofit existing diesel-powered ships with solar panels, that would be quite nice...

Twice as fast as Magellan!

In fairness, Magellan didn't have the Panama or Suez canals, made rather a lot of pitstops along the way, and died in the Philippines.

This is a cool story, I wonder how long a non-stop trip would take though.

Almost 2 mph. Whooosh!

If you want fast, fly a plane.

Or row.

Why is this boat considered a catamaran and not a trimaran?

because centre hull isn't sitting in water, only glides over it. but you're right, it isn't a true catamaran either. can't remember what is professional jargon for such designs right now.

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