SolarWave – A Solar Yacht with Four Cabins

Many sailors know the problem: you anchor in the most beautiful, quiet bay, and in the evening someone starts a diesel generator to charge the batteries. That bothered Michael Köhler and Heike Patzelt from Carinthia in Austria, two yachting journalists. Their answer was the SolarWave: a cruising yacht that runs completely on the sun.

SolarWave was launched in Bonn on the Rhine in December 2009 and christened at the boat show in Düsseldorf in January 2010. It is a catamaran 13.9 m long and 7.5 m wide, weighing about 10 tonnes. The roof is covered with 38 m² of solar panels (about 460 kg) that produce on average 50 kWh per day. The energy is stored in lithium polymer batteries weighing only about 150 kg and powers two electric motors plus the household.

And what a household: four cabins with double beds, three bathrooms with toilet and shower, a kitchen with an electric stove, freezer, air conditioning, satellite internet and Wi-Fi. No gas, no diesel; even the dinghies have electric motors. The boat makes its own drinking water and hot water with solar power. When the sun cooperates, it can stay out indefinitely.

From April 2010 SolarWave was on a long voyage. By October 2012 it had covered 8,000 nautical miles, 7,000 of them purely on solar power. The original plan to sail around the world was postponed when Tûranor PlanetSolar did it first. For anyone dreaming of a solar camper, SolarWave shows the same recipe on water: big roof, efficient appliances, good batteries. Compare it with the Stella Vita and the Solarcamper.

Technical data

Photos

• Top photo: Priwo / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The wide solar roof covers the whole deck. Photo: Priwo / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• SolarWave on the Rhine. Photo: Saint-ex at de.wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Sources

• Wikipedia (DE): SolarWave