It is all about motivation! The question is, how can we use this in other aspects of life where we feel the need to change peoples’ behavior? Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer. Do you?
Nov 03
Something Different
This is a pretty cool YouTube video I wanted to share with you guys. Imagine the possibilities of such a tiny camera!
Nov 02
Saving Energy on Board
A red led port light
Energy efficiency on board
As with any project, there are many aspects that are important to make the whole project successful. Building a boat that can be powered solely by renewably generated energy is no different. Everything has to work together to make sure the boat can sail for as long as desired while being comfortable and save at the same time. Unfortunately many of these aspects are conflicting.
For example, it would be most efficient to create a very light boat. But this means that you have to remove as much as possible. But to make a boat comfortable and safe, you want to add things like a fridge, toilet and rescue equipment. As this will add a lot of weight to the boat, more energy is needed to sail for the same time.
Oct 11
Interesting Observation
Nuclear Power Plant
As you might have noticed, I added some Google Adds to support this website. Every time you click on an add on my site, I receive a couple cents. I use this to maintain this website and hope to cover the cost this year. So you know what to do to get me a buck or two…
Last weekend I showed my website to a friend. I was happy to hear that he liked it and thought that the site looked nice. But when writing about renewable energy for boats, it is a little strange to see ads for nuclear energy and another random add for Good Ideas from Statoil, the Norwegian National Oil Company’s public relation page. I have to admit, it is a pretty good page. And you can learn quite a bit too, so go check it out.
Sep 28
Frysian E-Power Challenge 2011
E-Challenge in Friesland
Last Sunday I spent the day in Sneek to watch 21 one electrically powered boats compete in the Frysian E-Power Challenge. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t too good and I didn’t envy the guys and girls sitting in their boats sailing around Friesland for more than 4 hours. I wanted to see this E-Power Challenge to see what the different possibilities of electrical sailing are at the moment. It was great to see the variety of boats that were participating.
Sep 18
Frisian E-Performance Challenge – Update
I had a great day in Sneek today watching all the electrical boats. There were 21 boats competing for the title of fastest e-powered boat. I will post a longer review about the day with some photos in the next couple of days. The photo you see here is the winner of the Dong Solar Challenge 2010, which used to be called the Nuon Solar Challenge. This boat did not compete today. It is a requirement for the competing boats that they are on sale and the public can buy the same version. This is clearly not the case with this one, as it was specifically constructed for the solar challenge.
Sep 16
Book: Electric Propulsion for Boats
Yet another book that is not dedicated to renewable energy for boats, but that can help you to install electrical propulsion on our boats. This is the first step to a boat only powered by renewable energy. The author, Charlie Mathys, has many years of experience with designing various boats and propulsion methods. He describes both his successes and the things that went wrong to make sure that you as the reader will not make the same mistakes as well.
Sep 15
Frisian E-Performance Challenge
Sunday 18th of September
As the title suggests, this is a challenge for electrical boats to see how long and how far electrically powered boats can go. They want to show the public what is possible with electrically powered boats. The race starts at 12pm and the boats are expected to be back in about 4 hours. The 10 fastest boats will receive a variety of prizes worth 15,000 euro.
Aug 27
A Day At The Beach
Aug 26
(No) Renewable Energy for my Boat
I have a boat and I love it. It is an old rescue sloop which I have had for some years now. In the years that I have had it, it has been seriously changed and re-worked. It looked so different when we first saw it, that we didn’t even realize that the original hull was that of a sloop. The superstructure was, well, weird for a boat. This boat was, so we realized later, clearly built by someone who did not have much boating experience. The wood work was technically ok, it did include some very nice details. It would be a very nice construction, if it was a closet or a walk in wardrobe.
Before any major work was done