Me too, but what we should take notice of here is the guy in the white shirt. He didn’t sit around waiting to win the lottery, but did this instead. Now he probably have more money than any lottery winner, and all the cool boats he needs.
I bet there was a fight in the Fully Charged presenter team over who got to work on this one! It'd be interesting to see this tech applied on intercity boats like those on the Thames where the air pollution has much more of a negative effect.
The Brits are a bit bad off there: The solar power per sqm is relatively low and there are lots of shadows cast by trees on canals or buildings and bridges in the cities. It _can_ be done, but not with the same results a boat in the Mediterranean will achieve.
@@OlafFichtner so, than there is a need for having power plugs on every lighthouse around the island 🤣😂 But as we have seen, there was a diesel generator for emergency.
I've been fawning after these silent yachts for about 6 months now. Thanks for doing this video. What an incredible thing! If I ever come into money...
I wish they made a smaller, less fancy one. I'd love to live on one and cruise quiet areas, but these are way out of my price range. Get it down to comparable to a nice house and I might be able to consider it.
One thing we basically take for granted when going to the seaside is the noise of ICE motors on the water. Plus this noise is amplified under water so imagine the stress on marine life. Now imagine all boats being electric, no ICE engine noise just the sound of nature and those screaming kids next door .... ahhhh .... bliss
I am watching from a much more attenable version of this boat. We are in BC's Gulf Islands on a 34" sailing catamaran. We only have about 750 watts of solar but it is enough to run the fridge, keeps things charged and do most of the cooking. We don't have electric propulsion yet but hopefully in the not too distant future.
Do the math - guess how much power you use at cruising speed. And how long you run your engine. 1HP = 748 watts. For most sailboats electric power only makes sense if you just daysail the boat so the motor is used for getting in and out of the slip and coming back under power when the wind dies.
I also thought that until i saw a sailboat that also functions as a hydro generator to generate power while under sail. Now i am not so sure anymore. 😀( Also one of these companies who makes motor for this happens to be in same country as me and ofcourse i like to support companies that are in the country i live in if possible) 🙂
What a beautifully presented and filmed video this is. Outstanding production and an awesome boat. Thoroughly enjoyed watching this whilst also learning plenty about these game changing boats. Well done FullyCharged and well done Silent Yachts!
I loved the James Bond style edits in this :D I remember reading back in mid-1990s in a Finnish engineering magazine about a retired Finnish engineer who had built himself a monohull yacht completely covered in solar panels and I remember being very impressed by it, especially the fact that he could get enough energy to run an electric oven in it, in addition to running the motor. But because the industry and financiers here were what they were, our country lost that opportunity. Glad to see some Germans have seized it a couple decades later :D
Now that was interesting, maybe now with electronics, computerization and solar updated it becomes feasible. The manufacturers need to consider a reality beyond fossil fuel and 50mph, maybe POWERboat is overly emphasized.
I guess an e-bike makes most sense for me when we speak of going electric. This is more of a sci-fi movie. These cost upwards of 2.5-3M EUR. Let's say you rent it out for 20 years and there is no maintenance, infinite battery life, no repairs. It would still cost approx 3000 Eur per week. After adding real costs and profit we are talking about 5-6000 Eur per week. If you have 6 person on board that is 1000 EUR per person, probably a reasonable price for this luxury.
Awesome and thanks for the stats! It's very difficult to quantify the stats because of how much solar varies. Also the fact that the boat needs to burn fuel in order to travel long distances complicates things as well. Michael said they crossed the Atlantic all on solar but the consumption was actually 370 gallons. He wasn't being misleading on purpose, and 370 gallons is practically nothing but my point is that the boat does absolutely require fuel under way. Because the solar is intermittent, and varies then I feel like a very useful stat would be how much fuel the boat would burn on a long trip with the solar panels completely disconnected. Silent Yachts doesn't provide this number and nobody ever asks for it. It would be really cool to know what the worst case scenario is for fuel burn. Then you can pair that with a best case very sunny day scenario and know that no matter what you're going to land somewhere in-between those two numbers. I say all of this as a huge Silent Yachts fan but I would very much like them to be better at telling us the statistics about the boat.
@@allistairneil8968 Sails, masts, and rigging shade the solar panels. While they are free to use they do cost money to buy and maintain. Using them requires a high degree of attention and planning too (labor). For some people, burning a little diesel once in a while is absolutely preferred to the lifestyle that sailing forces on them. I'm a long way off from being able to get one but if I had a Silent Yacht I feel like most years I'd fill up the tank once or twice, with the exception being ocean crossing years. We need to remember that sailboats burn diesel too so lifestyle and how you use the boats are a big factor. So because of all of the variables nothing about this equation is simple or straightforward. A Silent Yacht fits the low maintenance, low labor, low worry lifestyle that I'd prefer to live on the water and I'm happy to burn a little diesel to ditch sails and all that the sailing lifestyle brings.
Nice job, 60 kWh of photovoltaic production per day and 2 engines of 250 kW each :D This means that the maximum power of 7 minutes can work (not counting the refrigerator, air conditioning, etc.) Either way, I like it very much :D
What an excellent programme. I think this is your best produced piece yet! I love the 2 presenter format. A definite winner. I didn't think this was going to be a particularly interesting VT but was very pleasantly surprised. Well done Fully Charged team!
Came across the silent yachts about a year ago and I'm sold on it, will be ordering one very soon! This vid just reinforces the great decision, thanks for covering this wonderful, innovative company
At ~6:20 he says the power consumed could be 80-100kWhr per day, but at the beginning we're told the solar panels only generate 60kWH max, so surely fully occupied you're going to run out of power fairly soon as you deplete the batteries. Also it must depend on how much actual cruising you do as to whether you need any top up charging - so contrary to the video title, you can't say it will *never* need charging.
Exactly. Day 1 sailing. Day two recharging. Etc. Or use the big diesel generator that will kick in when the battery is at 30% charge. It is a diesel hybrid cruiser or a green day boat
You ever seen a lithium battery pack have a heat buildup failure? Its quite the sight, not the sight you want to see from the coast guard vessel as your ship goes up in flames. I would have like to hear about the battery monitoring software and heat sensors in the battery compartments to prevent these issues of a single faulty cell causing a lithium fire cascade as well as the fire prevention system on the boat as well to deal with this.
IF this is possible at a reasonable price. Why aren't there companies making small electric boats to replace pontoon boats? In essence, people could have their solar-powered lake boat supplying some energy into the house when they aren't cruising around on the lake.
Solar powered party barges are very possible. At a reasonable price? No. Batteries,panels,and controllers are still substantially higher in cost upfront than a traditional outboard.
Sounds like a good idea! I quite like the powering the house angle as well. Could even charge your Tesla. When will you get started on your business idea? Need help?
Actually, thinking about the pontoon. If you build the battery packs in a cylinder shape, perhaps using 2170s, you could easily water proof them and store them in the pontoons themselves. If you install the motors in the rear of the pontoon you remove a lot of cabling as well as add built-in redundancy given 2 motors. No chance you'd ever get stranded on the lake with that, a huge up on ICE boats. Tie in some solar and you've really got something, sounds like fun!
These will be great... once they get the price down on them. (A 2016 Silent 64 on Yachtworld is $2 million.) The filmography on this video is awesome! Good job!
I've been on sailboats my whole life. Perfectly good way to move a boat using zero power and with a small amount of solar (wind/water turbine) even the air conditioning and accessories or docking motors can be fossil free. Same speed, No generators and we don't live in Majiorca where cloudy days are common.
Instead having a diesel generator as backup power, you could have a kite sail that not only would produce a lot of speed for free, you also can use your electrical engines as generators.
Imagine a situation where the weather is turning really against you for days. sky covered with cloulds reducing solar input from 60kwh / day to 2-3 kwh / day, high waves and strong winds. If you near land and you need to get your anchor out and maintain a position, or if you are out in the ocean and you need to maintain a specifc angle so you don't get damaged by the high waves, that's when you need the generator when the batteries are drained out. You definitely don't want to mess with a sail in such circumstances.
@@histvan81 Any sail on storms is your best friend, this is like a golden rule for any sail boat. It is what it gives you the higher direction authority of any propulsion system to face waves in the right way. It may not even be the need to have 2 different size of kite for this task, one advantage of kites is that you can set the kite angle eto manage exactly how much force you want. Of course this should be done by software which may increase the cost of the system, but taking into account how many similar kite power systems are coming out, this would become quite popular fast. A diesel generator + fuel become quite expensive fast.. Even if your fuel tank is big, you still have a very limited capacity. With solar+sail.. There is no way you would run out of power, even if you try to cross the ocean. In case you are in a river as you said, and you want to maintain your position with an anchor.. Maybe the same river current could be enough to move your propellers and generate some power. At least.. if I would be the buyer.. I would prefer the kite option, it expand a lot the use cases. It provides more freedom. But I understand that many people may find less problematic the generator option.
@@terje5723 i was thinking the same or some watermills in the water, an ocean or river is never still, water always moves somewhere so when you are stationary they could drop the mills and get power from the moving water when the sun is not showing up and the maintance is better than solar wich you need to keep very clean for the best results and i dont know if it easy to clean these... while something in and out of water is easy to clean and maintain i geuss
Working for a University in the south of Turkey, 12 years ago, I have worked of the design of a green yacht which could produce its own hydrogen from fuel cells powered by deployable solar panels and VAWTs. The ship can even designed that the deployable solar panels are also wind turbines. I have published some papers. Awaiting investors to join along.
Absolutely loved this. Way out of my league, but seeing the application of green tech bodes well, and of course these super rich toys funds more practical solutions that may one day work for me. Such levels of solar presumably also create additional opportunities to go (and stay) in places where there is no diesel. Definitely left wanting to see more.
No kidding, these boats could anchor off an island and last weeks until you deplete your food stores. You don't even have to worry about water as the watermakers would last over a month before you need to swap filters.
What a fun thing to see! If I had one of these ships, I would be cheering up a bunch of people I know with some fun boating and relaxing moments to help get their minds off work.
Desalination, if that's what it is, takes alot of energy. It's probably 150l a day of drinkable water. If they have a reverse osmosis system, 150l an hour is still quite an impressive system.
Last I heard that the silent yacht that crossed the Atlantic used something like 1400L of diesel with extra onboard the deck in fuel bladders.which is fractional of a M/Y fuel consumption. Have they since crossed the Atlantic with just the built in fuel tanks??
This concept is such a no-brainer - I used to own an island on a lake (2000 to 2020) - I made a fairly large floating dock and then turned it into a barge/fishing platform with 500 W of solar and a powerful trolling motor - it was awesome!!!!!! (I miss it more than the island)
how powerful? the figures offered for motors seems unrealistic. Even on their site they say hundreds of kw motors. It may be oversized to run very safe at lower power. but generator is claimed to be 100kw. It really looks more than 10 times smaller. am I wrong?
Great idea! Just for good measure sailing boats are also very obvious conversion to pure zero emissions traveling. All you have to do is remove the diesel engine for an electric motor, then when you are sailing use that electric motor as a generator to your batteries. It will make you boat slightly slower but fully powered by the wind. There is no need for diesel engines in the future luxury boating and sailing.
Your talking about hydrogenerators. They have been around for years. It's nothing new. Problem is they are harder to install and maintain and can fowl up easy. Plus in theory they taking power away from your forward motion. Solar is the best way and everyone just tends to go for that. Just not to thrust as thats plain stupid. As is this yacht.
People suggest adding sails as an edition/backup. But sailing takes skills and those skills take time and experience. Fine if you've got those skills and want to take the time to learn. But this version opens up the possibility for people who want to replace a petroleum-driven yacht. I don't understand the diesel backup though. Can't they depend on one motor to limp to a port? Can't they just add a backup electric motor system? How big is the diesel fuel tank and what's the estimated range? If unused, how long does the fuel remain effective?
I think the idea of the diesel backup is that, on a normal leisurely cruise, finishing a day at 20% battery and waiting for the battery to recharge on the sun is just fine, but if you're out of range of land and somebody has a medical emergency, you want some way of getting back to land faster if you really have to, and the diesel backup provides that. I'm not sure how much range the diesel has, but even if your distance from land exceeds the range of the engine, there's enough container ships out there that it ought to at least be able to take you to a larger ship with a helipad. A helicopter can then land on the larger ship and pick up the injured person for transportation to the hospital.
Been watching and dreaming about Silent Yachts for 3 years now! This is the future. Teamed with the new kites for range extension There's great chance for this tech!
Andy went into the sea on the way out to the boat wearing shoes, next time we saw him underwater he was wearing flippers. Did he pick them up from the sea floor on route? 😜
I can see this being viable around equatorial regions, Caribbean, Florida, Baja, Southern CA, but up around Maine, Oregon, Alaska, Canada probably be stranded after a week of cloudy weather? I believe what I heard was after 5-6 hours of running the boat all systems , need the following morning of good sun to recharge, and then ready to go again by mid-day? Run the generator and charge up? But then you have to pack fuel.
Absolutely love that - especially useful given how things appear to heading worldwide (in terms of supply chains for fuels, etc.). I'd like to see that approach used on cargo vessels as well, catamaran barges with a large/long surface area and panels on top.
I dream of a day when solar panels can be printed on a press like wallpaper at 50¢/kWh or less. Years ago, I was looking at a mega yacht at a boat show. Just the fuel use for one of these things was shockingly expensive. Solar, possibly solar/sail, is positively the way of the future.
Wouldn't really help, the energy density of sunlight is way too low. To be able to capture enough energy to replace gas, diesel or oil the vehicle would be impracticable large. Let's assume we would try to replace the oil used by a large container ship. They consume around 200 ton of fuel a day. In kWh with the inefficiencies of the engine included we're talking about 1000 MWh a day. Solar gives us around 1 kWh/m2 per day. For solar to replace oil the panels would occupy a total area of 1 million m2, or 1000x1000 meter. The ships in question have a surface area of around 50 000 m2, or 5 percent of what's needed. This even if we would cover both the topp and the sides with solar panels. So even if the panels were free it would still demand a major shift in our expectations in how long shipping should take. 3-4 weeks from China to Europe or US would turn into 3-4 months or more.
@@SweBeach2023 LOL. I knew some luddite will give me an 'It'll never fly' reply. You're lack of imagination doesn't undermine my post. It undermines you.
@@readtherealanthonyfaucibyr6444 the presenter literally said he can't wait to see this implemented on cargo ships. Can you understand how clueless these people are. They don't ask any real questions because the real answers wouldn't help sell this scam of a boat
I'm a sailor and I love this concept. I do question the comparison to home energy though, at least homes in colder climates like mine, which is a 5 bedroom house near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Over the past 20 years (I collect data), we've used an average of 45,000 kWh's and maxed out at 55,000 kWh's on a few of those years. I realize that we could do more and we are doing more to improve our energy efficiency profile, but I don't see anyway to get it down to 6,000 kWh's per year. Perhaps if we didn't have to heat the house in sub-freezing temps, but still. Anyway, this boat is awesome and if I were young and healthy and rich, I'd have one for sure!
good idea for something that tends to bob around in the Med where running a generator or getting needing to be at a powered berth must be restricting. 100 miles at 7 knot sounds a nice occasional day's relocation. Not going to get that at 20 knots of course. Boats never shadowed unlike cars, and you get plenty of roof
Or on the larger dams as a houseboat, which can also double as runabout, as it can go pretty much everywhere on the larger dams and the Great Lakes. Also perfect for use in the island nations as a general ferry vehicle, as there you often have a need to travel from one to the other, and in the tropics, with good weather forecasts you will find this useful.
Absolutely... but should you bother when sails are such an efficient way to move yachts without using any power source? I could see hybrid sail/electric boats becoming big. Electric motor for maneuvering into and out of ports, sail for out at sea. Sailing Uma do that.
Boating is an interesting use of full solar. Most people only use their boats a few times a month, plenty of time for a modest system to recharge the batteries to capacity. A more robust system could provide daily range and living needs. Can't remotely afford one of these, but I am in the process of building up a solar powered pontoon boat for lake use with my children. Actually less expensive to do than replacing the gasoline motor that it currently has installed.
is this really fully charged? What happened to the slightly dottering old man making videos about his leaf in england? its amazing how far this channel has come.
What I want to know is can you sail continuously? That seems to be missing in this video. So in other words, can you sail all day and all night and still have plenty of power without having to start up the generator? Or do you have to stop for periods of time because you're out of energy? Or would you have to kick in the generator say during the night?
No you can't and depending of you are in the tropics or not and how you can sleep without aircon. The aircon uses most of the energy and that is never mentioned.
Yes, for a boat, that doesn't move as much as a car, solar panels absolutely makes sense. That emergency diesel engine can hopefully be replaced with an aluminium air battery in the future. Aluminium air batteries have extremly high energy density, but are not rechargeable so they are perfect for emergency situations.
Emergency use is maybe a bit extreme, if you have several cloudy days and need to reposition the boat then you'll have to use it. Also many yachts cross the atlantic twice a year, to escape hurricane season. While it is possible to cross on only solar power, the speed would have to be dropped to around 4kts assuming full sun which in the atlantic is very rare, and 4kts is slower than all sailing boats and would just be a hassle so it would be easier to run the generator from time to time. I have been following this boat for years, and if you plan around the weather it is possible to be 100% solar powered but in real world conditions its going to be closer to 80-90%. Still a massive improvement on ICE boats
The car doesn't move too much either. Most of the time it just sits. But unlike the catamaran, the surface of the car usable for solar panels is too little.
@@florinadrian5174 Check out the Aptera, there are other cars similar but none as good as it! It's an electric car (three-wheeler technically) but it is covered in solar panels and is so aerodynamically efficient that in certain parts of the world it might never need to be recharged! There are lots of good YT videos about it
You can use wind just needs a Vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) Helical Darrieus turbine & Vortexis turbine (even on it side Vortexis one can go horizontal) You can get power from Storms 360° and multi Direction simultaneous cross winds (when the sun isn't shining) Better for locations not as sunny or Cold ) Some of the small ones Can output A few KW to MW and beat soler
Have you seen Vertogen's VAWT? Having 4 of those on the corners of the boat, only transparent and made to swivel out/in and collapse when not needed would be ideal IMO.
I had the same thought... A robotic kite-sail like those proposed for cargo ships would be perfect, since it could provide sailing propulsion without shading the panels!
@@stephen-boddy I had to dig on their site to find it, but you are right! I wonder why it wasn't mentioned in the video, the addition of a wind sail adds a lot of flexibility to these vehicles
Quick math. 60 kWh/day = 2.5kW of power generation. 2x250kW engines = 500kW of power consumption. 500kW/2.5kW = 20 hours of charging for 1 hour of driving. I'm sure the backup generator is there only for "emergencies".
I agree that they're being super optimistic, but 500kW engines is peak power. At cruising speed they are likely running much less than flat out. How much, who knows. But I doubt it allows for very long run times. And certainly is still much greater than the 2.5kW panels
I actually came back and decided to do some math Cruising speed (most efficient) at 6-8 knots. So we'll use both ranges for optimistic and conservative estimates here on: Range (at cruising speed[assuming no recharging while driving - see math below]) = 115 miles Capacity = 225kWh @ 6 knots (6.9 mph) you would drain 115 mile range in 16.7 hours. 225kWh/16.7 = 13.5kW @ 8 knots (9.2 mph) you would drain 115 mile range in 12.5 hours. 225kWh/12.5 = 18kW So to settle that question on your quick math *at cruising speed* the boat probably consumes roughly 12-20 kW of power. So yeah it's not great. But a far cry from your 500kW figure. Again, that's just the peak power of the motor. Your car wouldn't great its stated fuel economy either if you just floored it the whole time.
@@wyatt.photos dont know where your numbers come from but there is no engine whose cruising consumption is 5% of max. It is rediculous to think you will go 8 knots on this with 18 kW.
Great in the Med, but try it where I live in the Pacific Northwest In December. When the sun at noon is blocked by the Clouds and never gets high enough to feed those panels.
Brilliant video Imogen/Andy, i remember hearing about that 64 foot Silent Yacht crossing the ocean through a friend who's a physicist at U of P who is somewhat of a Solar buff himself, when Mr.Kohler spoke of how much diesel a conventional diesel powered Yacht would use , I believe he was being conservative in his estimate, friends of mine have an 75 foot Yacht in the south of France equipped nicely, just not as nice as this one you reviewed and cruising for a weekend, only a few hundred nautical miles averages a 1000 euros a day and this was from the summer of 2019 and since then they've retrofitted solar to a number of parks of their Yacht and are surprised at the difference it has made, the payback time is 5/6 years and to them the nicest part is the quietness when anchored at they destination, no need for a generator, so upgrades are also a good alternative for anyone Yachting or boating 👍
Goodness grief. Do the math buddy. A few hundred miles over a weekend burning 1000 euros of fuel a day. And you think this boat with a few solar panels can come close. It's a scam. He said his solar panels replace the equivalent of 80 litres of fuel taking into account the inefficiency of diesel engines. How far do you think 80L of fuel would get you on this 50 foot cat?? He says over 100 miles. Please tell me your not this stupid to fall for this?
@@alann8117 Apples and oranges... Bob said "a few hundred nautical miles" - and this on a 75ft single hull (presumably, since most are) yacht, which - as the video explained - is less efficient than a catamaran. No - this boat clearly can't "come close", it's not going to do "a few hundred" nautical miles per day. But then, it doesn't need to does it? It's designed for pottering around in the Mediterranean, with maybe an occasional side-trip around to the Adriatic; which I'm sure it's eminently capable of, provided you don't mind taking your time to get there. As for the 80L - Someone else in the comments has suggested that's an extremely conservative estimate... Certainly every time I've longingly looked at boats, the fuel consumption is horrendous.
I must mention that I'm loving these solar based videos lately, they are soo cool. Considering everything on our planet requires the sun to live, we are just following the natural course ourselves and artificially using it for our needs. Silent Yachts are ground breaking, I'm not sure if there are others out their but this is epic
But you're falling for the electric everything trap batteries cause way more pollution than a normal fuel powered car or boat or anything do some research
I've been thinking about this for a while. Maybe a semi-rigid wing sail made from flexible solar panels. They would provide power for more of the day because you not only get light direct from the sun but reflected off the water.
Another option is to wrap the mast in solar panels, it won't push the boat forward, but would be enough to power the electrics etc. This could also be left up when at anchor, unlike a sail.
Would be awesome to be able to rent one for 3 weeks summer vacation, cruising around the different harbours in the country. Love this type of content, more of that please.
@@tbone5654 True. But normal luxury yatchs also use up tons of fossil fuels to build, so if people are in the market for a new yatch, hopefully they go for the solar version as then at least on-going it won't be so polluting? In the scheme of things, the luxury yatch buyers probably aren't making much of a difference to overall fossil fuel use whichever yatch they choose, but every little bit helps I guess (hope)
I hope they make a sailboat with oceanvolt saildrive cus i think it might be good. Not every place has that much sun so it might make sense to also make a boat that isn't as dependend on solar.🙂
Why is there a backup diesel generator? Do diesel ships have sails as backups? Does a petrol car have a backup battery and motor. I find it really weird, is it a legal thing?? Like why does it need to be there?
Completely off topic, but did you just casually say that the "super efficient" electric car uses as much energy as a full on 5 bedroom house? Is it just me that finds it odd that we use half of our energy moving our cars around?
My base model Tesla Model 3 (the most efficient electric car out there) consumes about 200kWh a month. Far more than my 2 bedroom condo by a factor of 4. My two bedroom boat runs all the house appliances off a 12kWh battery bank (which is considered fairly big for a 43' boat), it lasts me several days off the grid. Cars (especially gas ones) are terribly power hungry. Factor in that the average north American drives 10-15 hours per week versus the average boater who probably doesn't cover the same distance in a year. Moving a silent yacht at the same speed and distance a car goes is obviously gonna take way more energy, but most boaters putter a few hundred miles a year at slow speeds. Very few boats ever travel 100kmph but almost every car does. Indeed moving thousands of pounds of steel around at high speed tens of thousands of kilometers per year is quite the use of energy!
I love the silence and solar, but i want to enjoy a vacation, not a home, on the water. Now that silent has shown us what a full roof usage can do, hopefully all manufacturers sees a full boat sized roof can power a boat for distance and silence, albeit at a slower pace in comfort. Me? I’d like a 35’ coastal cabin cruiser (monohull is ok) that’s personalized for 4 passengers instead of an ocean crosser entertaining a group.
as modern man, we live through cloudy or sunny weather by making the best use of available resources...in the open sea we have wind & sun...therefore miniaturized vertical wind turbines & foldable solar blankets must be parts of the power system if an affordable & considerate option is my choice...
There has to be a way to combinate this with sails, of course, you'll lose solar panel area and some charging availability due to the sail shades, but I bet it is worth it.
I've been following Silent Yachts since their prototype days. My life's goal is to buy one, hopefully on the next crypto bull run. Planning on retiring on a solar boat in the Gulf, with day trips to the Caribean. 😀
you could probably run one as a business while living on it as people on holiday won't want to drive it and may not be the best idea anyway. Possibly sell it as a timeshare?
Silent yachts are pretty cool but I think they need to work on their interiors a bit more. It also beggars belief that other yacht companies aren't LEAPING onto making electric boats. ICE powered boats are noisy, smelly and expensive to operate. Not to mention the inconvenience of taking the boat over to the fuelling dock just to fill it up, or the horrifying bill you get for doing so. Or even having to pay for shore power. Seems like a no brainer that at least some kinds of boats, the kind content happy to do 10kts should be solar by default these days.
Looks like a standard yacht interior to me, all storage and light in mass, plus corrosion resistant. Not everybody buying a hole in the water will pay for the expensive mahogany and faux marble finishes, they normally will want both hard wearing, long lasting and above all waterproof fixtures. Yes it looks like the 1980's, but that is more because the marine panel specialists do tend to make that in bulk, for both the boat and upmarket RV market, where you need the same sort of functionality and light mass.
@@SeanBZA I don't think they are quite the same quality as other yachts costing 1.5-2 million. There are TH-cam channels that give walkthroughs and something like a Princess would have a lot more attention to detail and finishing touches.
Stop talking crap!!!! You just like to be negative lol…… diesel boats are way better they have amazing range! Possibility to go wherever you want all year round, yes fuel is expensive but at least you have more freedom and also it doesn’t stink like you say 🤡
@@alanmay7929 I sail, I know what engines smell and sound like. They're noisy, they vibrate, they smell, they pollute, they're a pain to keep running and expensive to service. I also know what a pain in the ass it is to refuel a boat, to have to find a fueling dock, queue up, dock and pay a fortune. And that's a yacht as opposed a motor boat with 5x the horse power, guzzling fuel - maybe 15 gallons an hour depending on various factors. And the reality is that most people are NOT doing long trips in their boats. They're cruising 50-70nm up the coast to the next marina. This thing has 100 mile daily range so its ample. Ah but you might say - some people want the range. Except these Silent yachts have crossed the Atlantic because they also have a backup generator that can take up the slack or be fitted with a sea kite too. Even so the fuel consumption is vastly lower. It doesn't mean these yachts are right for everyone and they're still expensive and have limitations. But this honestly is a no brainer proposition for many uses once the cost of batteries drops as it's doing - no stink, noise or pollution and virtually unlimited range.
I would note that you can generate electricity from a sail. If you have electric motors attached to the props you can essentially get regen with a sail - have the flowing water turn the props which turns the motors (now generators) and viola, electricity.
Everything here is impressive, but being able to do a piece to camera on the tender without the roar of a gas powered outboard impressed me the most. Small gas outboards are *so* noisy, and that little Torquedo outboard really moves the inflatable along..
Amazing use of solar power, it’s silent and fuel smells it’s technically a reverse hybrid were electric drive is the main and the combustion engine is for backup.
#1 reason get solar powered yacht is little maintenance! I heard so many yacht owners complaint about repairs, fixing thing and maintenance. Imagine buying a new car and having things break, fall off, stop working.
Have you heard about sails? You would go faster, you would go farther, and you would be much greener. The production of batteries and panels pollutes the environment.
Loved the content of this vid, and I applaud Silent Yachts. I suspect they're gonna make a fortune. I have two major criticisms of your coverage though. Why can't you ever give us a price of what this weird stuff goes for, even if it's only ballpark???? I had to go Google myself to find out these start at 1.5 million and increase to over 21 million $US. Secondly we know these are for the ultra rich, so don't you think we're curious what the amenities are??? You could have showed the cabins. Come on, you guys can do better.
yes, but he told you how much water is desalinating per minute :) however, it really looks like he got it wrong. 150 liters per minute seems not realistic. Why produce in a minute the necessary amount for a day? Maybe he meant per hour? It is still a lot. and those motors. 250kw??? I may have a problem with my ears. Hmmm, checked on their site, and yes there cannot be a mistake done at speed talk. All moors are claimed to have hundreds of Kw. Even the generator, it is noted to have 100 or 150 kw depending on the boat. But in the movie looks like a normal generator of 3 or 5 kw. Really really curious. The motors OK, I understand, can be really powerful, but run at fraction of power and never get hot hence the lifetime warranty. But 100kw generator? Something is not right.
Really cool idea but these sort of vessels are surely a lot less sustainable than, say, a sailing yacht with a much smaller battery/solar system just as a back-up for motor power and to run the utilities off? I love the idea of a sailing catamaran that uses a solar power low speed manouvers and the internal systems. Maybe at some point in the future we'll have PV panels that are strong and felxible enough to act as a sail, so you have a huge surface area for solar while using the wind to propel you! That's the dream, sailing the big blue yonder on nothing but the sun and the wind, fishing for food and only making land to top up the wine cellar!
I was hoping to see some footage of how it is all managed at night in a 60 - 80 kt. wind for hours. I'm not sure why such a low range is okay. As I would use it, that would be very constraining.
![Electric Catamaran FULL TOUR [44' L X 23' W, 7.2KW of Solar + 32kwh Lithium Battery Bank]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_rUUlnHr40c/mqdefault.jpg)
If I ever won the Lottery this would be the boat for me. I absolutely love it. Thanks for covering it.
Me too, but what we should take notice of here is the guy in the white shirt. He didn’t sit around waiting to win the lottery, but did this instead. Now he probably have more money than any lottery winner, and all the cool boats he needs.
@@Alfahippie you gotta be a rich mofo to start making boats to begin with.
So it's quite unlikely 😁
@@Alfahippie To be fair, to get started in yachts, you need to already have enough money similar to winning the lottery.
Starting price 2 million... Yeah, you need to have some coin.
I bet there was a fight in the Fully Charged presenter team over who got to work on this one! It'd be interesting to see this tech applied on intercity boats like those on the Thames where the air pollution has much more of a negative effect.
There is the channel „cruisingthecut“ on TH-cam and he presented full solar powered narrow boats.
Maybe this is interesting for you.
The best models are in the Mediterranean, especially of the Cedar of Lebanon🇱🇧.
The Brits are a bit bad off there: The solar power per sqm is relatively low and there are lots of shadows cast by trees on canals or buildings and bridges in the cities.
It _can_ be done, but not with the same results a boat in the Mediterranean will achieve.
@@OlafFichtner so, than there is a need for having power plugs on every lighthouse around the island 🤣😂
But as we have seen, there was a diesel generator for emergency.
I reckon whoever can pull-off the Sun-Drenching Outfits was gonna get the job...
.
I've been fawning after these silent yachts for about 6 months now. Thanks for doing this video. What an incredible thing! If I ever come into money...
I wish they made a smaller, less fancy one. I'd love to live on one and cruise quiet areas, but these are way out of my price range. Get it down to comparable to a nice house and I might be able to consider it.
You won't come into money with an "if" attitude.
@@yarpenzigrin1893 thanks for the advice, Warren Buffet.
@@JJ-zg1hh You're welcome. Now stop dreaming and figure out how to make money.
@@JJ-zg1hhread Rich Dad Poor Dad, you’re welcome
One thing we basically take for granted when going to the seaside is the noise of ICE motors on the water. Plus this noise is amplified under water so imagine the stress on marine life.
Now imagine all boats being electric, no ICE engine noise just the sound of nature and those screaming kids next door .... ahhhh .... bliss
I am watching from a much more attenable version of this boat. We are in BC's Gulf Islands on a 34" sailing catamaran. We only have about 750 watts of solar but it is enough to run the fridge, keeps things charged and do most of the cooking. We don't have electric propulsion yet but hopefully in the not too distant future.
The silentyacht 60 does have 16kwp
I’ve always wondered if the silent yachts could do more range / speed with a see through spinnaker or something.
@@jaybenny7719 they use a kite sail
Do the math - guess how much power you use at cruising speed. And how long you run your engine. 1HP = 748 watts. For most sailboats electric power only makes sense if you just daysail the boat so the motor is used for getting in and out of the slip and coming back under power when the wind dies.
Good luck in open water with no wind.
I’ve hoped you’d cover one of the silent yachts for a few years. Deffo my dream purchase.
Agreed. On my wishlist too.
SAME!
I also thought that until i saw a sailboat that also functions as a hydro generator to generate power while under sail. Now i am not so sure anymore. 😀( Also one of these companies who makes motor for this happens to be in same country as me and ofcourse i like to support companies that are in the country i live in if possible) 🙂
Hey!! Bots have reached fully charged! Though annoying, it's a sign they consider this channel big enough to deserve their attention. Good news!
@@Leon_George we need a exterminator 😂
What a beautifully presented and filmed video this is. Outstanding production and an awesome boat. Thoroughly enjoyed watching this whilst also learning plenty about these game changing boats. Well done FullyCharged and well done Silent Yachts!
I loved the James Bond style edits in this :D
I remember reading back in mid-1990s in a Finnish engineering magazine about a retired Finnish engineer who had built himself a monohull yacht completely covered in solar panels and I remember being very impressed by it, especially the fact that he could get enough energy to run an electric oven in it, in addition to running the motor. But because the industry and financiers here were what they were, our country lost that opportunity. Glad to see some Germans have seized it a couple decades later :D
Now that was interesting, maybe now with electronics, computerization and solar updated it becomes feasible. The manufacturers need to consider a reality beyond fossil fuel and 50mph, maybe POWERboat is overly emphasized.
Imogen, she's a treat. Great addition to the team. Can't wait to see her do more content like this.
She was definitely rocking those cut-offs!
@@LG123ABC DON'T SELL ANDY SHORT, HE'S LOOKING SWEET.
Less mechanical maintenance to worry about and no need to worry about fuel, this is awesome.
just thermal runaway on the batteries 😲
I guess an e-bike makes most sense for me when we speak of going electric. This is more of a sci-fi movie. These cost upwards of 2.5-3M EUR. Let's say you rent it out for 20 years and there is no maintenance, infinite battery life, no repairs. It would still cost approx 3000 Eur per week. After adding real costs and profit we are talking about 5-6000 Eur per week. If you have 6 person on board that is 1000 EUR per person, probably a reasonable price for this luxury.
To rent a comparable conventional sailing cat in BVIs off season is around £9000 a week so how do those figures add up?
@@andrewmullen4003 I just did a napkin calculation. It is probably overpriced.
Right. Its dreamy . like EVERYTHING ELECTRIC
Awesome and thanks for the stats! It's very difficult to quantify the stats because of how much solar varies. Also the fact that the boat needs to burn fuel in order to travel long distances complicates things as well. Michael said they crossed the Atlantic all on solar but the consumption was actually 370 gallons. He wasn't being misleading on purpose, and 370 gallons is practically nothing but my point is that the boat does absolutely require fuel under way.
Because the solar is intermittent, and varies then I feel like a very useful stat would be how much fuel the boat would burn on a long trip with the solar panels completely disconnected. Silent Yachts doesn't provide this number and nobody ever asks for it. It would be really cool to know what the worst case scenario is for fuel burn. Then you can pair that with a best case very sunny day scenario and know that no matter what you're going to land somewhere in-between those two numbers.
I say all of this as a huge Silent Yachts fan but I would very much like them to be better at telling us the statistics about the boat.
somebody else said they use a kite
Why don't they put sails on it? Bit daft, considering it's free.
@@allistairneil8968 Sails, masts, and rigging shade the solar panels. While they are free to use they do cost money to buy and maintain. Using them requires a high degree of attention and planning too (labor). For some people, burning a little diesel once in a while is absolutely preferred to the lifestyle that sailing forces on them. I'm a long way off from being able to get one but if I had a Silent Yacht I feel like most years I'd fill up the tank once or twice, with the exception being ocean crossing years. We need to remember that sailboats burn diesel too so lifestyle and how you use the boats are a big factor. So because of all of the variables nothing about this equation is simple or straightforward. A Silent Yacht fits the low maintenance, low labor, low worry lifestyle that I'd prefer to live on the water and I'm happy to burn a little diesel to ditch sails and all that the sailing lifestyle brings.
Nice job, 60 kWh of photovoltaic production per day and 2 engines of 250 kW each :D This means that the maximum power of 7 minutes can work (not counting the refrigerator, air conditioning, etc.) Either way, I like it very much :D
What an excellent programme. I think this is your best produced piece yet! I love the 2 presenter format. A definite winner. I didn't think this was going to be a particularly interesting VT but was very pleasantly surprised. Well done Fully Charged team!
Thanks for a very interesting review of these solar powered boats.
Came across the silent yachts about a year ago and I'm sold on it, will be ordering one very soon! This vid just reinforces the great decision, thanks for covering this wonderful, innovative company
At ~6:20 he says the power consumed could be 80-100kWhr per day, but at the beginning we're told the solar panels only generate 60kWH max, so surely fully occupied you're going to run out of power fairly soon as you deplete the batteries. Also it must depend on how much actual cruising you do as to whether you need any top up charging - so contrary to the video title, you can't say it will *never* need charging.
Exactly.
Day 1 sailing. Day two recharging. Etc. Or use the big diesel generator that will kick in when the battery is at 30% charge. It is a diesel hybrid cruiser or a green day boat
You ever seen a lithium battery pack have a heat buildup failure? Its quite the sight, not the sight you want to see from the coast guard vessel as your ship goes up in flames. I would have like to hear about the battery monitoring software and heat sensors in the battery compartments to prevent these issues of a single faulty cell causing a lithium fire cascade as well as the fire prevention system on the boat as well to deal with this.
The probably use LiFePo cells which are significantly more stable. Even when they do fail they vent out hot gas as opposes to a 2000 degree fire jet
IF this is possible at a reasonable price. Why aren't there companies making small electric boats to replace pontoon boats? In essence, people could have their solar-powered lake boat supplying some energy into the house when they aren't cruising around on the lake.
Solar powered party barges are very possible. At a reasonable price? No. Batteries,panels,and controllers are still substantially higher in cost upfront than a traditional outboard.
They are but mass producing products is really hard. And lots of companies fail before it becomes mainstream
Sounds like a good idea! I quite like the powering the house angle as well. Could even charge your Tesla. When will you get started on your business idea? Need help?
Alibaba does
Actually, thinking about the pontoon. If you build the battery packs in a cylinder shape, perhaps using 2170s, you could easily water proof them and store them in the pontoons themselves. If you install the motors in the rear of the pontoon you remove a lot of cabling as well as add built-in redundancy given 2 motors. No chance you'd ever get stranded on the lake with that, a huge up on ICE boats. Tie in some solar and you've really got something, sounds like fun!
These will be great... once they get the price down on them. (A 2016 Silent 64 on Yachtworld is $2 million.)
The filmography on this video is awesome! Good job!
I've absolutely loved Silent Yachts from the very first day. Only one thing's that keeping them behind is their interiors.
I've been on sailboats my whole life. Perfectly good way to move a boat using zero power and with a small amount of solar (wind/water turbine) even the air conditioning and accessories or docking motors can be fossil free. Same speed, No generators and we don't live in Majiorca where cloudy days are common.
Instead having a diesel generator as backup power, you could have a kite sail that not only would produce a lot of speed for free, you also can use your electrical engines as generators.
Imagine a situation where the weather is turning really against you for days. sky covered with cloulds reducing solar input from 60kwh / day to 2-3 kwh / day, high waves and strong winds. If you near land and you need to get your anchor out and maintain a position, or if you are out in the ocean and you need to maintain a specifc angle so you don't get damaged by the high waves, that's when you need the generator when the batteries are drained out. You definitely don't want to mess with a sail in such circumstances.
@@histvan81 Any sail on storms is your best friend, this is like a golden rule for any sail boat. It is what it gives you the higher direction authority of any propulsion system to face waves in the right way.
It may not even be the need to have 2 different size of kite for this task, one advantage of kites is that you can set the kite angle eto manage exactly how much force you want. Of course this should be done by software which may increase the cost of the system, but taking into account how many similar kite power systems are coming out, this would become quite popular fast.
A diesel generator + fuel become quite expensive fast..
Even if your fuel tank is big, you still have a very limited capacity.
With solar+sail.. There is no way you would run out of power, even if you try to cross the ocean.
In case you are in a river as you said, and you want to maintain your position with an anchor.. Maybe the same river current could be enough to move your propellers and generate some power.
At least.. if I would be the buyer.. I would prefer the kite option, it expand a lot the use cases. It provides more freedom.
But I understand that many people may find less problematic the generator option.
Put some mini windmills on the roof :)
@@terje5723 i was thinking the same or some watermills in the water, an ocean or river is never still, water always moves somewhere so when you are stationary they could drop the mills and get power from the moving water when the sun is not showing up and the maintance is better than solar wich you need to keep very clean for the best results and i dont know if it easy to clean these... while something in and out of water is easy to clean and maintain i geuss
Working for a University in the south of Turkey, 12 years ago, I have worked of the design of a green yacht which could produce its own hydrogen from fuel cells powered by deployable solar panels and VAWTs. The ship can even designed that the deployable solar panels are also wind turbines. I have published some papers. Awaiting investors to join along.
Absolutely loved this. Way out of my league, but seeing the application of green tech bodes well, and of course these super rich toys funds more practical solutions that may one day work for me. Such levels of solar presumably also create additional opportunities to go (and stay) in places where there is no diesel. Definitely left wanting to see more.
No kidding, these boats could anchor off an island and last weeks until you deplete your food stores. You don't even have to worry about water as the watermakers would last over a month before you need to swap filters.
What a fun thing to see! If I had one of these ships, I would be cheering up a bunch of people I know with some fun boating and relaxing moments to help get their minds off work.
my favorite part of any electric engine is how silent they are!
Same here
Modern IC engines are just as silent tbh
Yeah great for marine life!
The production values on this channel just keep getting better and better
"150 liters per minute" equals to 2.5L per second - I highly doubt it. Likely it's per hour, which is fine.
The M1 Abrams uses 8 gallons just to start up
@@jasongooden917 they weren't talking about fuel consumption but water generation
yeah i also think that's too much. I don;t think it is possible to use that much water co why whould you generate it that fast
Desalination, if that's what it is, takes alot of energy. It's probably 150l a day of drinkable water. If they have a reverse osmosis system, 150l an hour is still quite an impressive system.
Yeah, I caught that too. Seems way too high and overkill. But possible.
The production and presentation of this video was fantastic!!!
Moar!!~!!
Wow, we really appreciate the work you put into these difficult assignments. It's a tough job etc
I had a smile on my face watching this video. Such a good vibe. Thank you :)
This is soooo awesome. My favourite fully charge video for a while, well done guys!
Last I heard that the silent yacht that crossed the Atlantic used something like 1400L of diesel with extra onboard the deck in fuel bladders.which is fractional of a M/Y fuel consumption. Have they since crossed the Atlantic with just the built in fuel tanks??
yes 2000L of fuel exactly
There's a few of these electric boat companies. A good looking product. I could see myself crusing the Caribbean in this boat.
This concept is such a no-brainer - I used to own an island on a lake (2000 to 2020) - I made a fairly large floating dock and then turned it into a barge/fishing platform with 500 W of solar and a powerful trolling motor - it was awesome!!!!!! (I miss it more than the island)
how powerful? the figures offered for motors seems unrealistic. Even on their site they say hundreds of kw motors. It may be oversized to run very safe at lower power. but generator is claimed to be 100kw. It really looks more than 10 times smaller. am I wrong?
I was expecting a tour of the boat and all it's amenities but still a good video.
How much are the batteries when they need to be replaced?
Great idea!
Just for good measure sailing boats are also very obvious conversion to pure zero emissions traveling. All you have to do is remove the diesel engine for an electric motor, then when you are sailing use that electric motor as a generator to your batteries. It will make you boat slightly slower but fully powered by the wind.
There is no need for diesel engines in the future luxury boating and sailing.
Yep...and you can do that fir about 15k. This crap is for posers
Your talking about hydrogenerators. They have been around for years. It's nothing new. Problem is they are harder to install and maintain and can fowl up easy. Plus in theory they taking power away from your forward motion. Solar is the best way and everyone just tends to go for that. Just not to thrust as thats plain stupid. As is this yacht.
@@alann8117 No I am not. An electric motor / electric generator has nothing to do with hydrogen.
Edit: Alan is right 😀 I misread 🤣🤣
Jesus I'm out.
@@alann8117 haha, sorry I misread.
There is just always someone who brings up hydrogen 🤣
People suggest adding sails as an edition/backup. But sailing takes skills and those skills take time and experience. Fine if you've got those skills and want to take the time to learn. But this version opens up the possibility for people who want to replace a petroleum-driven yacht. I don't understand the diesel backup though. Can't they depend on one motor to limp to a port? Can't they just add a backup electric motor system? How big is the diesel fuel tank and what's the estimated range? If unused, how long does the fuel remain effective?
I think the idea of the diesel backup is that, on a normal leisurely cruise, finishing a day at 20% battery and waiting for the battery to recharge on the sun is just fine, but if you're out of range of land and somebody has a medical emergency, you want some way of getting back to land faster if you really have to, and the diesel backup provides that.
I'm not sure how much range the diesel has, but even if your distance from land exceeds the range of the engine, there's enough container ships out there that it ought to at least be able to take you to a larger ship with a helipad. A helicopter can then land on the larger ship and pick up the injured person for transportation to the hospital.
Been watching and dreaming about Silent Yachts for 3 years now! This is the future. Teamed with the new kites for range extension There's great chance for this tech!
I think we have a new intro to the next Bond film right there, with the two leading actors! :)
Andy went into the sea on the way out to the boat wearing shoes, next time we saw him underwater he was wearing flippers. Did he pick them up from the sea floor on route? 😜
Don't question James Bon... Andy. 😛
I can see this being viable around equatorial regions, Caribbean, Florida, Baja, Southern CA, but up around Maine, Oregon, Alaska, Canada probably be stranded after a week of cloudy weather? I believe what I heard was after 5-6 hours of running the boat all systems , need the following morning of good sun to recharge, and then ready to go again by mid-day? Run the generator and charge up? But then you have to pack fuel.
Absolutely love that - especially useful given how things appear to heading worldwide (in terms of supply chains for fuels, etc.). I'd like to see that approach used on cargo vessels as well, catamaran barges with a large/long surface area and panels on top.
Fantastic... Thanks for sharing.
I dream of a day when solar panels can be printed on a press like wallpaper at 50¢/kWh or less. Years ago, I was looking at a mega yacht at a boat show. Just the fuel use for one of these things was shockingly expensive. Solar, possibly solar/sail, is positively the way of the future.
Yeah the only thing the yacht in this video could use is an optional sail
Wouldn't really help, the energy density of sunlight is way too low. To be able to capture enough energy to replace gas, diesel or oil the vehicle would be impracticable large. Let's assume we would try to replace the oil used by a large container ship. They consume around 200 ton of fuel a day. In kWh with the inefficiencies of the engine included we're talking about 1000 MWh a day. Solar gives us around 1 kWh/m2 per day. For solar to replace oil the panels would occupy a total area of 1 million m2, or 1000x1000 meter. The ships in question have a surface area of around 50 000 m2, or 5 percent of what's needed. This even if we would cover both the topp and the sides with solar panels.
So even if the panels were free it would still demand a major shift in our expectations in how long shipping should take. 3-4 weeks from China to Europe or US would turn into 3-4 months or more.
@@SweBeach2023 LOL. I knew some luddite will give me an 'It'll never fly' reply. You're lack of imagination doesn't undermine my post. It undermines you.
@@SweBeach2023 Nobody is arguing for solar container ships
@@readtherealanthonyfaucibyr6444 the presenter literally said he can't wait to see this implemented on cargo ships. Can you understand how clueless these people are. They don't ask any real questions because the real answers wouldn't help sell this scam of a boat
I'm a sailor and I love this concept. I do question the comparison to home energy though, at least homes in colder climates like mine, which is a 5 bedroom house near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Over the past 20 years (I collect data), we've used an average of 45,000 kWh's and maxed out at 55,000 kWh's on a few of those years. I realize that we could do more and we are doing more to improve our energy efficiency profile, but I don't see anyway to get it down to 6,000 kWh's per year. Perhaps if we didn't have to heat the house in sub-freezing temps, but still. Anyway, this boat is awesome and if I were young and healthy and rich, I'd have one for sure!
good idea for something that tends to bob around in the Med where running a generator or getting needing to be at a powered berth must be restricting. 100 miles at 7 knot sounds a nice occasional day's relocation. Not going to get that at 20 knots of course. Boats never shadowed unlike cars, and you get plenty of roof
Or on the larger dams as a houseboat, which can also double as runabout, as it can go pretty much everywhere on the larger dams and the Great Lakes. Also perfect for use in the island nations as a general ferry vehicle, as there you often have a need to travel from one to the other, and in the tropics, with good weather forecasts you will find this useful.
Wring Duffy boatc100 Mike's 22 fit cab in crus e
Absolutely... but should you bother when sails are such an efficient way to move yachts without using any power source?
I could see hybrid sail/electric boats becoming big. Electric motor for maneuvering into and out of ports, sail for out at sea. Sailing Uma do that.
The problem with boats with sails is that you have to sail them......!
@@andymccabe6712 how's that a bad thing? Sounds like fun to me.
Absolutely right. This thing is a monstrosity that only hinders our move away from fossil fuels
Could Fully Charge check out Sparky the electric tug boat, Auckland, New Zealand. Not a toy, a fully functioning tug boat.
Boating is an interesting use of full solar. Most people only use their boats a few times a month, plenty of time for a modest system to recharge the batteries to capacity. A more robust system could provide daily range and living needs.
Can't remotely afford one of these, but I am in the process of building up a solar powered pontoon boat for lake use with my children. Actually less expensive to do than replacing the gasoline motor that it currently has installed.
is this really fully charged? What happened to the slightly dottering old man making videos about his leaf in england? its amazing how far this channel has come.
Yeah full of snake oil salesmen now trying to sell solar powered 50ft Cats.
What I want to know is can you sail continuously? That seems to be missing in this video. So in other words, can you sail all day and all night and still have plenty of power without having to start up the generator? Or do you have to stop for periods of time because you're out of energy? Or would you have to kick in the generator say during the night?
No you can't and depending of you are in the tropics or not and how you can sleep without aircon. The aircon uses most of the energy and that is never mentioned.
Yes, for a boat, that doesn't move as much as a car, solar panels absolutely makes sense.
That emergency diesel engine can hopefully be replaced with an aluminium air battery in the future. Aluminium air batteries have extremly high energy density, but are not rechargeable so they are perfect for emergency situations.
Emergency use is maybe a bit extreme, if you have several cloudy days and need to reposition the boat then you'll have to use it. Also many yachts cross the atlantic twice a year, to escape hurricane season. While it is possible to cross on only solar power, the speed would have to be dropped to around 4kts assuming full sun which in the atlantic is very rare, and 4kts is slower than all sailing boats and would just be a hassle so it would be easier to run the generator from time to time. I have been following this boat for years, and if you plan around the weather it is possible to be 100% solar powered but in real world conditions its going to be closer to 80-90%. Still a massive improvement on ICE boats
The car doesn't move too much either. Most of the time it just sits. But unlike the catamaran, the surface of the car usable for solar panels is too little.
Aluminium is a no no with salt water even galvanized.
@@florinadrian5174 Check out the Aptera, there are other cars similar but none as good as it! It's an electric car (three-wheeler technically) but it is covered in solar panels and is so aerodynamically efficient that in certain parts of the world it might never need to be recharged! There are lots of good YT videos about it
@@florinadrian5174 Solar also works a lot better on the sea. The only obstructions are clouds. With a car you have mountains, trees and buildings.
You can use wind just needs a Vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT)
Helical Darrieus turbine & Vortexis turbine (even on it side Vortexis one can go horizontal) You can get power from Storms 360° and multi Direction simultaneous cross winds (when the sun isn't shining) Better for locations not as sunny or Cold ) Some of the small ones Can output A few KW to MW and beat soler
Have you seen Vertogen's VAWT? Having 4 of those on the corners of the boat, only transparent and made to swivel out/in and collapse when not needed would be ideal IMO.
Add a mount and control for a large parasail (to help up the speed in favorable winds) to connect to the front and I'm in!
I had the same thought... A robotic kite-sail like those proposed for cargo ships would be perfect, since it could provide sailing propulsion without shading the panels!
Erm... they already have them as an option.
@@stephen-boddy I had to dig on their site to find it, but you are right! I wonder why it wasn't mentioned in the video, the addition of a wind sail adds a lot of flexibility to these vehicles
Good catch! I was not able to find it on their site either. Also no photos of one being used. Great that they thought to include the option!
Great! Now I know what I want for Christmas!!!
I’ve never been a boat type, but I really could go for this. As for it being the Tesla of the sea, I think not, no panel gaps on boats.
more of a sion (sono motors) of the sea ;)
Great to see Silent Yatchs
Quick math.
60 kWh/day = 2.5kW of power generation.
2x250kW engines = 500kW of power consumption.
500kW/2.5kW = 20 hours of charging for 1 hour of driving.
I'm sure the backup generator is there only for "emergencies".
I agree that they're being super optimistic, but 500kW engines is peak power. At cruising speed they are likely running much less than flat out. How much, who knows. But I doubt it allows for very long run times. And certainly is still much greater than the 2.5kW panels
I actually came back and decided to do some math
Cruising speed (most efficient) at 6-8 knots. So we'll use both ranges for optimistic and conservative estimates here on:
Range (at cruising speed[assuming no recharging while driving - see math below]) = 115 miles
Capacity = 225kWh
@ 6 knots (6.9 mph) you would drain 115 mile range in 16.7 hours. 225kWh/16.7 = 13.5kW
@ 8 knots (9.2 mph) you would drain 115 mile range in 12.5 hours. 225kWh/12.5 = 18kW
So to settle that question on your quick math *at cruising speed* the boat probably consumes roughly 12-20 kW of power. So yeah it's not great. But a far cry from your 500kW figure. Again, that's just the peak power of the motor. Your car wouldn't great its stated fuel economy either if you just floored it the whole time.
60kw per day in solar production
@@wyatt.photos dont know where your numbers come from but there is no engine whose cruising consumption is 5% of max. It is rediculous to think you will go 8 knots on this with 18 kW.
Great in the Med, but try it where I live in the Pacific Northwest In December. When the sun at noon is blocked by the Clouds and never gets high enough to feed those panels.
Brilliant video Imogen/Andy, i remember hearing about that 64 foot Silent Yacht crossing the ocean through a friend who's a physicist at U of P who is somewhat of a Solar buff himself, when Mr.Kohler spoke of how much diesel a conventional diesel powered Yacht would use , I believe he was being conservative in his estimate, friends of mine have an 75 foot Yacht in the south of France equipped nicely, just not as nice as this one you reviewed and cruising for a weekend, only a few hundred nautical miles averages a 1000 euros a day and this was from the summer of 2019 and since then they've retrofitted solar to a number of parks of their Yacht and are surprised at the difference it has made, the payback time is 5/6 years and to them the nicest part is the quietness when anchored at they destination, no need for a generator, so upgrades are also a good alternative for anyone Yachting or boating 👍
Goodness grief. Do the math buddy. A few hundred miles over a weekend burning 1000 euros of fuel a day. And you think this boat with a few solar panels can come close. It's a scam. He said his solar panels replace the equivalent of 80 litres of fuel taking into account the inefficiency of diesel engines. How far do you think 80L of fuel would get you on this 50 foot cat?? He says over 100 miles. Please tell me your not this stupid to fall for this?
@@alann8117 Apples and oranges... Bob said "a few hundred nautical miles" - and this on a 75ft single hull (presumably, since most are) yacht, which - as the video explained - is less efficient than a catamaran. No - this boat clearly can't "come close", it's not going to do "a few hundred" nautical miles per day. But then, it doesn't need to does it? It's designed for pottering around in the Mediterranean, with maybe an occasional side-trip around to the Adriatic; which I'm sure it's eminently capable of, provided you don't mind taking your time to get there. As for the 80L - Someone else in the comments has suggested that's an extremely conservative estimate... Certainly every time I've longingly looked at boats, the fuel consumption is horrendous.
I must mention that I'm loving these solar based videos lately, they are soo cool. Considering everything on our planet requires the sun to live, we are just following the natural course ourselves and artificially using it for our needs. Silent Yachts are ground breaking, I'm not sure if there are others out their but this is epic
But you're falling for the electric everything trap batteries cause way more pollution than a normal fuel powered car or boat or anything do some research
@@jase1911 What a load of bollocks! YOU need to do some research
"how would you run the same with a sail, wrap the power in the sail?"
Me, imagining flexible solar panels woven into sails: *Yes*
surely north sails are looking into this already..
I've been thinking about this for a while. Maybe a semi-rigid wing sail made from flexible solar panels. They would provide power for more of the day because you not only get light direct from the sun but reflected off the water.
Another option is to wrap the mast in solar panels, it won't push the boat forward, but would be enough to power the electrics etc.
This could also be left up when at anchor, unlike a sail.
@@marc0523 I think whoever invents a folding mast that lets the solar sails fan out to form a sunshade will make a tidy sum of money in the future. ;)
Thanks for doing this piece. I have been waiting four years for this. Well done.
Would be awesome to be able to rent one for 3 weeks summer vacation, cruising around the different harbours in the country. Love this type of content, more of that please.
Great for posers who can't sail
This is an incredible product that needs to be adopted by anyone who cares about the future habitability of our planet. Very impressive!
Do you realize this thing took many many tons of fossil fuels to mine and refine the materials used during production, just for extreme luxury?
Maybe a wooden boat with sails might be more fitting to that comment ah?
@@tbone5654 True. But normal luxury yatchs also use up tons of fossil fuels to build, so if people are in the market for a new yatch, hopefully they go for the solar version as then at least on-going it won't be so polluting?
In the scheme of things, the luxury yatch buyers probably aren't making much of a difference to overall fossil fuel use whichever yatch they choose, but every little bit helps I guess (hope)
I hope they make a sailboat with oceanvolt saildrive cus i think it might be good. Not every place has that much sun so it might make sense to also make a boat that isn't as dependend on solar.🙂
This boat isn't dependent on solar. Its has a dirty fossil fuel burner hidden under back end. But "Ssshhhh, its only for emergencies"
@@alann8117 An emergency on the ocean could very well be life threatening so it would make sense to have a back up means of power.
Why is there a backup diesel generator? Do diesel ships have sails as backups? Does a petrol car have a backup battery and motor. I find it really weird, is it a legal thing?? Like why does it need to be there?
To extend the range I presume. You can't count on sunny days to charge the battery. Imagine getting caught in a storm and the battery goes flat.
@@rjbiker66 at the same time though, imagine going out to sea and running out of fuel, similar thing no?
Just imagine if someone could come up with a boat that can be powered by wind. That would be such an amazing innovation!
Even better if it could go upwind.
Looks so pleasant on the Med with a very quiet non-polluting boat.
Completely off topic, but did you just casually say that the "super efficient" electric car uses as much energy as a full on 5 bedroom house? Is it just me that finds it odd that we use half of our energy moving our cars around?
80% of the energy in the fuel you burn is lost. EV that loss is less than 20%.
My base model Tesla Model 3 (the most efficient electric car out there) consumes about 200kWh a month. Far more than my 2 bedroom condo by a factor of 4. My two bedroom boat runs all the house appliances off a 12kWh battery bank (which is considered fairly big for a 43' boat), it lasts me several days off the grid. Cars (especially gas ones) are terribly power hungry. Factor in that the average north American drives 10-15 hours per week versus the average boater who probably doesn't cover the same distance in a year. Moving a silent yacht at the same speed and distance a car goes is obviously gonna take way more energy, but most boaters putter a few hundred miles a year at slow speeds. Very few boats ever travel 100kmph but almost every car does. Indeed moving thousands of pounds of steel around at high speed tens of thousands of kilometers per year is quite the use of energy!
I love the silence and solar, but i want to enjoy a vacation, not a home, on the water. Now that silent has shown us what a full roof usage can do, hopefully all manufacturers sees a full boat sized roof can power a boat for distance and silence, albeit at a slower pace in comfort. Me? I’d like a 35’ coastal cabin cruiser (monohull is ok) that’s personalized for 4 passengers instead of an ocean crosser entertaining a group.
How does it hold up in a hurricane or tsunami?!
The same way every other boat that size and shape would.
It sinks just like any other boat.
in a tsunami you are safe floating in a tub... :))) tsunamis are dangerous only on shore.
as modern man, we live through cloudy or sunny weather by making the best use of available resources...in the open sea we have wind & sun...therefore miniaturized vertical wind turbines & foldable solar blankets must be parts of the power system if an affordable & considerate option is my choice...
There has to be a way to combinate this with sails, of course, you'll lose solar panel area and some charging availability due to the sail shades, but I bet it is worth it.
i'm sure it is! the sea always has a bit of wind.
better than the small fueltank
the most perfect boat are this one i love this boat no one can replace it
I've been following Silent Yachts since their prototype days. My life's goal is to buy one, hopefully on the next crypto bull run. Planning on retiring on a solar boat in the Gulf, with day trips to the Caribean. 😀
you could probably run one as a business while living on it as people on holiday won't want to drive it and may not be the best idea anyway. Possibly sell it as a timeshare?
Ya me too. Get a starlink dish (when the price drops) on there and if you can work remote...you could work from the Boat!
Best silent yacht review yet - great job
What an extraordinary yacht! - I just wish the normal, smaller boats also were availabe with solar power. I hate the petrol-burning out-board motors!
Buy. Duuffe solar ektrc 22 cudeo can 100 Ile rabge
This video really makes me miss Johnny on this channel. He would have knocked this one out of the park.
Silent yachts are pretty cool but I think they need to work on their interiors a bit more. It also beggars belief that other yacht companies aren't LEAPING onto making electric boats. ICE powered boats are noisy, smelly and expensive to operate. Not to mention the inconvenience of taking the boat over to the fuelling dock just to fill it up, or the horrifying bill you get for doing so. Or even having to pay for shore power. Seems like a no brainer that at least some kinds of boats, the kind content happy to do 10kts should be solar by default these days.
Looks like a standard yacht interior to me, all storage and light in mass, plus corrosion resistant. Not everybody buying a hole in the water will pay for the expensive mahogany and faux marble finishes, they normally will want both hard wearing, long lasting and above all waterproof fixtures. Yes it looks like the 1980's, but that is more because the marine panel specialists do tend to make that in bulk, for both the boat and upmarket RV market, where you need the same sort of functionality and light mass.
@@SeanBZA I don't think they are quite the same quality as other yachts costing 1.5-2 million. There are TH-cam channels that give walkthroughs and something like a Princess would have a lot more attention to detail and finishing touches.
Stop talking crap!!!! You just like to be negative lol…… diesel boats are way better they have amazing range! Possibility to go wherever you want all year round, yes fuel is expensive but at least you have more freedom and also it doesn’t stink like you say 🤡
Because that is a 50ft Cat! Anyone who wants to actually move it about will be starting that diesel generator.
@@alanmay7929 I sail, I know what engines smell and sound like. They're noisy, they vibrate, they smell, they pollute, they're a pain to keep running and expensive to service. I also know what a pain in the ass it is to refuel a boat, to have to find a fueling dock, queue up, dock and pay a fortune. And that's a yacht as opposed a motor boat with 5x the horse power, guzzling fuel - maybe 15 gallons an hour depending on various factors. And the reality is that most people are NOT doing long trips in their boats. They're cruising 50-70nm up the coast to the next marina. This thing has 100 mile daily range so its ample. Ah but you might say - some people want the range. Except these Silent yachts have crossed the Atlantic because they also have a backup generator that can take up the slack or be fitted with a sea kite too. Even so the fuel consumption is vastly lower. It doesn't mean these yachts are right for everyone and they're still expensive and have limitations. But this honestly is a no brainer proposition for many uses once the cost of batteries drops as it's doing - no stink, noise or pollution and virtually unlimited range.
I would note that you can generate electricity from a sail. If you have electric motors attached to the props you can essentially get regen with a sail - have the flowing water turn the props which turns the motors (now generators) and viola, electricity.
Wait for the tech to catch up and make a sail that IS a solar panel, and you might have a winner. Doesn't make sense without a sail.
Of COURSE it makes sense - it runs on sunshine!
For FREE!
And you don't have to sail it.....
Everything here is impressive, but being able to do a piece to camera on the tender without the roar of a gas powered outboard impressed me the most. Small gas outboards are *so* noisy, and that little Torquedo outboard really moves the inflatable along..
The yacht from the video is the SILENT 55 and is listed on their website used for 2.25 milion euro without VAT. I'm not sure what I was expecting...
Fantastic video. Thank you!
Amazing use of solar power, it’s silent and fuel smells it’s technically a reverse hybrid were electric drive is the main and the combustion engine is for backup.
#1 reason get solar powered yacht is little maintenance!
I heard so many yacht owners complaint about repairs, fixing thing and maintenance. Imagine buying a new car and having things break, fall off, stop working.
Buy eltrc cares low meat l I w c ist
Have you heard about sails? You would go faster, you would go farther, and you would be much greener. The production of batteries and panels pollutes the environment.
Yet another mindless comment from yet another fool who hasn't a clue.......!
Next....
Good to see Andy, he needs to do more videos!
Loved the content of this vid, and I applaud Silent Yachts. I suspect they're gonna make a fortune. I have two major criticisms of your coverage though. Why can't you ever give us a price of what this weird stuff goes for, even if it's only ballpark???? I had to go Google myself to find out these start at 1.5 million and increase to over 21 million $US. Secondly we know these are for the ultra rich, so don't you think we're curious what the amenities are??? You could have showed the cabins. Come on, you guys can do better.
yes, but he told you how much water is desalinating per minute :)
however, it really looks like he got it wrong. 150 liters per minute seems not realistic. Why produce in a minute the necessary amount for a day? Maybe he meant per hour? It is still a lot.
and those motors. 250kw??? I may have a problem with my ears. Hmmm, checked on their site, and yes there cannot be a mistake done at speed talk. All moors are claimed to have hundreds of Kw. Even the generator, it is noted to have 100 or 150 kw depending on the boat. But in the movie looks like a normal generator of 3 or 5 kw. Really really curious. The motors OK, I understand, can be really powerful, but run at fraction of power and never get hot hence the lifetime warranty. But 100kw generator? Something is not right.
This is the dream boat. I wish you did a tour of the inside of the boat also.
Wow, that must be nice. Beautiful floating solar home.
Your videos are such good quality!
Really cool idea but these sort of vessels are surely a lot less sustainable than, say, a sailing yacht with a much smaller battery/solar system just as a back-up for motor power and to run the utilities off? I love the idea of a sailing catamaran that uses a solar power low speed manouvers and the internal systems. Maybe at some point in the future we'll have PV panels that are strong and felxible enough to act as a sail, so you have a huge surface area for solar while using the wind to propel you! That's the dream, sailing the big blue yonder on nothing but the sun and the wind, fishing for food and only making land to top up the wine cellar!
link where to ... buy !!!!???
What an amazing Engineering achivement!!! The future is looking good!
I was hoping to see some footage of how it is all managed at night in a 60 - 80 kt. wind for hours. I'm not sure why such a low range is okay. As I would use it, that would be very constraining.