No wind, no sails, no problem for planned sun-driven PlanetSolar yacht
By APThursday, February 25, 2010
Sun, not sails, for solar yacht
KIEL, Germany — No need to hoist the sails aboard this yacht.
Sunshine is all Raphael Domjan, the skipper of a catamaran-style yacht that sports some 5,382 square feet (500 square meters) of solar panels, will need to power the PlanetSolar.
The boat — nearly 102 feet long, almost 50 feet wide and standing 24-1/2 feet high (31 meters by 15 meters by 7.5 meters) was unveiled Thursday at the Knierim Yachtbau shipyard in the northern city of Kiel where it took 13 months to build.
The next step is the formal launching which is slated for April and, beyond that, said spokeswoman Christel Varone, are plans to take the yacht on an around the world journey in 2011.
The boat was designed by PlanetSolar SA of Switzerland.
On the Net:
www.planetsolar.org
