Four men in a boat (around the world) – Part One
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Do you remember what Gino Paoli used to sing? “We were four friends at the bar, wanting to change the world, destined for more than just a woman and a bank job.” I don’t think the four French boys whose story I am about to tell you, four friends, in fact, knew this song when they decided to set off on their great adventure. Because they were about to finish their studies and were about to enter (or at least try to enter) the working world. In the world of the great. First, however, there was a dream to be fulfilled: to travel the world “Because after that we might not have had the time to do it,” says François, who along with Bérenger, Martin and Pierre is the protagonist of this story.
A DREAM TAKING SHAPE
It all began in 2012 when, a year before the end of his studies, it was Martin who confessed his dream to his friends: to make a round-the-world sailing trip! There is only a few “small” problems. First of all, two of the boys have never (really never!) been on a sailboat. “But we quickly got hooked on the idea of this incredible trip, learning how to ride a boat was the least of the problems.” Yeah, the main one is quite different-it’s really the boat that’s missing! However, the four of them manage, after a long search, to recover Amasia, a 1978 Jeanneau Gin Fizz 38 two-masted ketch (a solid boat; it is no coincidence that the feat of 16-year-old Laura Dekker, who in 2011 became the youngest sailor in history to circumnavigate the globe solo, took place on a Gin Fizz), which they decided to transform to make it completely energy autonomous and zero-emissions: “We wanted to experience something more than just an adventure among friends; we had always been big fans of nature and concerned about ecological issues, and we looked for a way to transform our round-the-world voyage to meet these needs. And here’s the idea: change the diesel engine to an electric one so that we can circumnavigate the world with only the energy of the sun, wind and sea!”
HOW TO MAKE A BOAT “ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY”
The first step is to eliminate the endothermic motor and replace it with an electric one. Energy sources for recharging are solar panels, a wind generator; but what really makes a difference and allows the guys to get a great recharging capacity is a propeller from the Italian company Ewol that (when not flagged down) provides as much as 700 watts of instantaneous power (at 7 knots of speed). More than what a hydrogenerator can usually do. This is because the propeller is already there for propulsion and is larger than that of a hydrogenerator; moreover, since power generation occurs when the propeller is in the backward position, it is more efficient than a fixed or retractable propeller. When the batteries are sufficiently charged, the propeller is automatically flagged, and then returned to “regeneration” or “propulsion” mode when needed. “To design the new propulsion system, we took the 40-nautical-mile-long Panama Canal as our target: the engine had to have enough power and range to cross it. To achieve this, we combined two 10 kW motors that could also be used as generators. On deck, we mounted eight flexible solar panels on which you can also walk and which provide enough power for the on-board systems. Finally, two lithium batteries allow us to store a lot of clean energy with a minimal footprint in terms of space and weight.”
VIDEO: HOW DOES AMASIA WORK? (ITALIAN SUBTITLES)
THE SEARCH FOR PARTNERS
Finding partners to support the project, however, was the most difficult part, even more so than finding the boat. “We realized that we had to make our idea credible, and to achieve this we involved two prominent names; Raphael Dinelli (1997 winner of the Jacques Vabre and four times on the starting line of the Vendée Globe), director of the Océan Vital Foundation, which specializes in sustainable mobility, and Nicolas Hulots, France’s most famous scholar on environmental issues.” Help that proved to be crucial in being able to convince technical partners. http://www.ecosailingproject.com/
CONTINUED…
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