This Giant Boat Is Powered Entirely By Solar Energy

submitted by magnora7 from youtube.com

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[–]AnarchySpeach 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Shadow from a sail might block light for half the solar panels.

That being said, on a cloudy day having the optional sail would be useful.

It's surprising there's no efficient solar-fabric sail for boats yet.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

There's also the other 50% of the time. When it's dark.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Because batteries don't exist?

Every single motor boat out there over 20 ft has at least 2 batteries already.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

For the motor and auxillary supply.

No boat over 20 ft runs on batteries.

I don't actually know this is true, but I wouldn't want to be near one if it sank.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Sails require specific trimming for efficiency - but it might be possible. Sails are also hella expensive already - and they're heavier than they look. If you had a the time and money I suppose you could embed panels in a sail that would fold up like origami - but you wouldn't really be able to move it and/or hoist it without some serious refitting. There are ways to sail certain directions to maximize wind propulsion. Adding sunlight to the mix would be possible, but complicates things and neither would be efficient except on occasion.

IMO, it would make more sense to have a little onboard diesel generator for back up power even though I dislike stink boats (motor boats) and prefer rag boats (sail boats).