Visionary yacht designer Richard Sauter, whose creations we’ve featured a couple of times, may not remain a maritime Don Quixote for long as he seems on the verge of finally realising his dream. Dutch-owned Atlantic Motoryachts of the Inmarcon BV group is taking the lead in building a new series of 10- to 22-metre “ultra green express cruisers” – the first of which will be Mr Sautler’s Atlantic Sea Hawk. This one’s a totally new species.
The Atlantic Sea Hawk is billed as “a hi-performance 18 meter Zero Carbon Cabin Cruiser” with a top speed of 50 knots. Her state-of-the-art solar hybrid design achieves a 50 to 100% reduction in consumption and GHG emissions by combining a plug-in SunPower solar array with an Allison Hybrid system to produce the cleanest marine propulsion in the world. Allison Transmission, a division of General Motors, in partnership with the US Department of Energy, developed this hybrid system under the DOE’s Advanced Heavy Hybrid Propulsion System (AH2PS) Program.
Specifications:
Overall Length: 18m
Beam: 4.4m
Draught: 0.75m
Double cabins: 2
Single cabin: 1
Weight: 22t
Hull: Carbon fibre/Kevlar composite
Fuel tank capacity: 2500l
Sewage tank capacity: 2X200l
Battery storage capacity: up to 100kwh (Allison ESS2 Nickel Metal Hydride)
Maximum Power; 3X300kw Allison Hybrid HP50 EPA “on road” Cummins Drive units
Propulsion: 3 Rolls Royce Kamewa FF water jets
Electric power: Plug-in SunPower solar cells generate up to 30kw per day
Maximum speed: 50 knots, 50% reduction in CO2 and fuel consumption
Cruising speed: 30 knots, 75% reduction in CO2 and fuel consumption
Battery powered Zero Carbon cruising range: up to 100nm
Annual Carbon Neutral cruising range: up to 1,000nm
The energy from the solar array combined with plug-in power sources charge an Allison Nickel Metal Hydride storage system that runs hotel services and powers this express cruiser to her maximum speed of 50 knots. This same UPS is capable of feeding 11Mwh’s of electricity to the grid, enough energy to offset up to 1,000 nautical miles of carbon-neutral cruising every year. RR Kamewa jets are safer and, in hi-speed jet-propelled yachts, will use less fuel than boats of the same size with propellers. The fastest commercial ferries in the world employ jets to reduce fuel consumption and GHG emissions
We’re no visionary like Mr Sauter, but we think the cruising world and the polar bears really need something like this. ~Barista Uno
