The first solar-powered trimaran Solar Odyssey by Lemer Pax will be launched and exhibited at the 2010 Grand Pavois International In-water Boat Show held from the 15ht to 20th September at the Port des Minimes in La Rochelle. Solar Odyssey yacht’s first campaign is to attempt the official transatlantic and to be the first French boat to go down in the Guinness Book of Records on this course around the globe with no fuel consumption.
Sailing Trimaran Solar Odyssey
Sailing trimaran Solar Odyssey measures 19 metres and is 10 metres wide. Her central hull comes from an experiment on Alain Gautier’s trimaran Foncia and her floats were built for the first version of l’Hydroptère the flying hydrofoiler. Both hull and floats have a very light displacement, as well as low hydrodynamic friction factors, a maximum speed of 18 knots. Eight knots of average speed are expected for the crossing of the Atlantic. This performance should enable the solar paneled trimaran SOLAR ODYSSEY to beat the record of 29 days achieved in 2005 by the Swiss catamaran Sun 21 between the Canary Islands and Martinique.
Propellers and engines of the Solar Odyssey trimaran were assembled after hull-beams-floats, in spring/summer 2010, which made it possible to start the hydrodynamic tests.
Experiments platform
Solar propulsion is undoubtedly one of the most realistic environmentally friendly alternatives for marine propulsion because there are needs of substitutes to fossil fuels. By investing in this technological adventure through many internal technologies transfer and the ongoing search for viable solutions, the company Lemer Pax Nantes/Carquefou whose activities are all related to the protection of the human being, wants to persuade sailors to integrate this source of inexhaustible and clean energy in the development of marine propulsion.
A prototype that looks like a UFO has been designed by experienced sailors, and will be helmed by those same sailors: Pierre-Marie Lerner / CEO of Lemer Pax – who is also the owner of the former Alinghi (Lake Geneva 13 m trimaran) – Fredéric Dahirel and Jean Maurel.
Solar Odyssey will be launched in La Rochelle – France at the end of the Grand Pavois International In-Water Boat Show 2010.
