Boats of the Future - Eco-Friendly Yachts
What will the pleasure boats of the future look like? As technology improves, and fuel costs go up, it's unlikely that the boats cruising the waters in 50 to 100 years will look much like they do today. We'd recognize them, probably, but not really understand how they work, just like someone from 1908 might say of today's roller-reefing, stainless-and-plastic, diesel-powered “sailing” yachts, bristling with antennas, solar panels, water-makers and such.
So, I wanted to start a discussion about some of the new designs, and I chose two that caught my eye this past week. Both completely different in concept, appearance, and intended market, yet both similar in that they each hope to harness natural energy to provide these boats (hard to call them sailboats) with useful - even thrilling - performance.
The first is the Kitano, a design by Stefanie Krücke, a passionate sailor and windsurfer from Germany, who submitted this for her diploma work in industrial design. So, yes, it is what it looks like, a giant kite-surfer. The kite flies up in the clean air, the center of force is lowered (no big lever of a mast), and thus the need for a heavy keel is gone – just a retractable keelboard to reduce sideslip. The kite itself is controllable, inflatable (helium for lift), and obviously stowable.
Stefanie's award winning design claims planing speeds in even light winds, and I have no doubt that the boat's performance would be exciting for powerboaters and sailors alike (“Oh my God! How do you stop this thing?”). Of course, you'd be talking about motoring upwind and sailing down, but who of us isn't guilty of that already? My first question: how do you reef?
The second design is the Volitan (aka Flying Fish). Where the Kitano is beautifully simple, the Volitan is beautifully complex, looking not a little like an angry water insect. It has articulating, rigid, solar-panel sails, articulating wing keels with electric motors on each, and an actual mast-like spar (which one imagines might be useful, along with some canvas, when things don't want to articulate).
This is a similar design to the solar/wind ferries in Sydney Harbour. However, the Volitan is fuel-free, relying on wind and sun on its massive, double layer solar sails for all of its power and propulsion. The 3D rendered video shows how everything moves, but not how it works, and I'd love to see how those sails and keels would function in the real world.
Both designs have a really high “cool” factor. The Kitano's “sail” is instantly understandable, whereas the Volitan's “sails” are not. This, the simplicity, and the probably lower development and production costs might make the Kitano easier to bring to market in many ways. On the other hand, a truly innovative, comprehensively fuel-free design like the Volitan may be more like the yacht of the future. With a few exceptions, we all seem to lean toward gadgetry, and that's a hell of a gadget!
Of course, there's no reason why the designs should be exclusive. The Volitan, with the Kitano's maneuverable kite, would seem to be the best of both worlds. An upwind cruiser and a downwind screamer, and think of how much power you could generate pulling those two big DC motors through the water!
There are a lot of other designs out there, and there will be technology advancements we can't even imagine right now (anyone for photovoltaic canvas, self-healing topsides, or nano-machine bottom paint that turns barnacles into beer?). Though I have no idea what the boats of the 2050's will look like, I will put myself out there and say that I'll be happy to test the prototype of these or any other designs at the designer's convenience, just as long as I'm not the first idiot to do so.
- B. Hampton exclusively for YachtPals.com
Submitted By YachtPals on 11 Feb
boats, boat, yachts, boating, sailing, future, boats future
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Solar sails
Hopefully, sails can be made out of something like Nanosolar SolarPly™
Volitan and other new ideas, from Tord
The problem is, the metrology experts tell that the sky will be more and more overcast, thus the usefulness of solar panels will decrease constantly, as times go by, unless we in the West stop using fuel-guzzling cars, and help the rest of the world, which have every right to live as well as we can, if they can afford it, to start their car revolution using efficient cars, not stinking two-strokes, and other energy wasters.
If we don't do that, our planet is surely going to hell, and solar panels will be the least useful of any modern toys we have!
High winds, like hurricanes, will be more common, rain and lousy weather will be more common, and the price for fuel will skyrocket!
Thus tomorrows boats will need to be sturdy, with storm-proof rigs.
Solar panels, even today, have a lot of problems: If part of the panel is in shadow, the output will be just a fraction of the possible, theoretical output. Sometimes it is enough to have a sail shadowing part of your panel, to make it produce less power than is needed to charge your batteries.
The Volitan seems to have too small panels to produce so much power that it can run like the photos (computer-aided) depict. Each panel looks like its about 20 square meters, and when one is exposed to direct sunlight the other is in shadow, so it produces very little, but for the argument, say it produces as much as the other: That's 40 sq. meters of panel.
Extremely efficient panels produce 200 W per square meter, thus we have 8 kW to play with, or a little over 5 hp for propulsion. Do anyone actually believe that any vessel can run at the speeds depicted on 5 hp? And in reality, the panels are worse than this, the photo-voltaic cells are, after being encased in a waterproof shield, much less efficient, so say we have 2 hp to play with, as long as the sun shines!
I believe much more in kite power, than solar power, unless you're prepared to go very slow!
Tord S Eriksson
the wings of volitan
dear tord,
first of all the wings is around 150 m2 (75x2) and they are daruiss sections. and it equals to 1.6x 150=240 m2 textile sail .
and ıt makes in a 6 knot wind conditions, 14-16 knots...speed. (only wind)
solar panels, that chosen in the volitan creates 1.8kw perm2/hour energy .active zone is around 120 m2 .and boat is lighter 1/3 times the similar ones
I 'think this gives some idea about the working principle of volitan concept. .
we believe the solar tech needs extra improvements, this is the reason why people believe that she is the boat of the future .. around 2040.
thank alot for the contributions
hakan gürsu,Dr
Industrial Designer
Ceo of Designnobis
Eco friendly?
How about making the hull from (sustainably grown) wood. Then sticking a (sustainably grown) wooden pole up from the deck and hanging a big sheet of cloth (organic of course) from it to catch the wind to propel the boat.
Or has someone already thought of that?
Mike
Electric Sailing Project.
Check out E.S.P. (Electric Sailing Project) Paul Mulder a Dutch/Canadian guy who is hoping to launch a project that would answer quite a few enviro questions.Here's the link to his sight. http://www.arseizavelsailing.com/the%20Electric%20Sailing%20project/new%20esp%20site/index.htm
Electric Sailing Project.
Spent a wet cold day today emptying out the Ar Seiz Avel so we can start the conversion to all electric. Order is in to Bellmann for a 10kw motor, new silent propeller shaft and controls. Will start by draining out the old fuel tank and removing the inboard deisel motor Dec. 01. Researching AGM batteries (lithium ion batteries would be better but too much $$$) This might end up being the first electric conversion here on the west coast. This will be our test project as we continue making head ways into realizing our goal of building a complete boat from the ground up. Just yesterday I read about a Ronautica ECO 340 that was launched at the Barcelona Boat Show Nov. 6-18. It is using a Bellmann motor as well, digital wiring, LED lighting, totally designed from the ground up to be as green as possible.So you see it's not just about EV's anymore. Trick will be to sustain motoring ability while keeping batteries banks charged up without the use of a genset. Under sail one thought is to change the pitch of the drive prop into a tow prop for charging but that still doesn't help sustain constant motoring. Wind generators, solar panels, hydrogen generators, fuel cells how do you eliminate the need for a genset?
Ulimate-Power?
Aloha from the "Friendly Isle". Here is the question for us to ponder? How can we "simply" and most effectively harness the Very-Best propulsion system in All the Universe/ The Most Efficient Propulsion System is the "Human-Collective-Energy" (more in-depth "Think-Tank" on this subject later). We ask our Hawaiian Studies students (our ciriculm being Voyaging and Wayfinding at the time)- What does your spirit, mind, and total Polynesian insight tell you the Future will be like to, have in place: (S F tt W) Sail faster than the Wind. Our "haumana" (students) answer was first a very profound state of Creative Imagination ( tethered underwater-n-surface piercing Sea-Gliding/Kite/Wing/Foil/Solar Gravity Propelled Penetrating-Surfing-SubMariner Katamarans. Our students then proposed these questions: 1. How do we solve the the continous problem of hitting obstacles (like marine life, semi-submersible logs, containers; and gyre of "plastic-garbage") while making an un-eventfull voyage!? 2. With NO-Emissions for "air" and "water" being the objective, can we come up with the most productive system/Systems to pass thru the "conditions" of the Tropical Convergence Zones "The Doldrums" most efficiently!? 3. In the Future as more and more Ocean piercing/foiling/surfing/flying vehiciles are averaging 50 knots Plus how do we Keep the Sea Lanes clear and safe from confusion and potential collisons at sea!? 4. What will be the remedy for the future traffic below the waves? As more and more high-performance projects and Future established Programs travel Ultra-Fast Underwater- How do we keep the different Ocean-going routes un-obstruted and Safe!? 5. When future Maritime comerce becomes "Tethered-Flight" Surface/Submersible/"Gravity-Powered-AeroPlanes" ect. Collectively as a whole. we will be in need to Keep everyone Safe, Swift. and Self-Sustainable- and Most Importantly Collision-Free ( both in the Air and in and under the Water)! Thankz so very much for this opprotunity to have the voice of our most Gifted-n-Talented Students share their thoughts and feelings. Their lasting conclusion that they proposed that will be the potenial answers to many of our future questions is taken from an ole' Polynesian/Hawaiian belief-system: Humbly. "All Knowledge does not come from One School"- Their proposal is to "Ho'oMana'o"- Huddle Together and share ideas, ideals; and create future Think-Tanks. for that more bright -n- clear "Colliding-Free" Maritime horizon. Teacher's Aide Volunteer/BeachBoy (JMC) iruka-san.
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