As I intended to assist a music therapy institution in Ramallah/Palestine I decided to travel there via Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran and Turkey to see what is being done there. As usual, I decided not to fly….. but from Larnaca/Cyprus I had to be unfaithful to my principle, and since I will probably be travelling to Palestine from time to time in the future, I had the idea to open a micro ferry from Mersin to Haifa (450km): the Levante often has little wind, but a lot of sunshine: ideal for a sail/solar hybrid boat, which I fortunately know a little bit about. In Portsmouth/GB I found a suitable/affordable boat, which I equipped with electric motors and PV instead of diesel. In December we reached Le Havre under sail, after which the E-drive could be tested extensively: via the Seine, the Yonne, the Marne, the CCB (Canal de la Champagne à la Bourgogne), the Saône and the Rhône we reached Lyon, where a defective lock forced us to take a 4-week break. During the summer we sailed to Cyprus but due to covid-19 Israel closed its borders for non-Israelis. So I stocked my boat on Leros/GR.
Summer 2022: As Israel still does not allow entry by pleasure craft we sailed back to Marseille and Lyon to Montbéliard where we enlarged the PV to 2,8 kWp. 2023 we intend to sail by the Rhine, the Maine and the Donau to the Black Sea…
Performance
1kW/6km/h, 2kW/8km/h, 4kW/10km/h, 8kW/12km/h, 15kW/14km/h
E-power is at low speed extremely efficient!
Version Solar 2,8kWp/Sails 20m2
Version Sails40m2/Solar 1,2kWp
Version Sails only