New York welcomes the “Swiss Columbus”
New York. Big, bright, yellow sun in New York. This Tuesday of early May is one of these beautiful Spring days in Big Apple. Perfect weather conditions for Sun21’s (Photo Daniella Zalcman) last few nautical miles. The solar-powered catamaran built in Switzerland is the first motorized to have crossed the Atlantic without oil or steam. Aboard the Calypso, a boat that met Sun21 under the Verrazano Bridge for the last part of the journey into the New York Harbor, Marc Wüst, the shipbuilder, is a happy man: “It is an old dream come true, he says. We first had this idea to cross the Atlantic on a solar-powered boat ten years ago. We followed Columbus’s route to Martinique. And we did it! We proved that solar energy works”. Marc Wüst was part of the five-member crew who left Spain aboard Sun21 on December 3 2006. He drove the boat with Swiss skipper Michel Thonney until they reached the Martinique on February 2nd of this year. He has fond memories of that day when they reached the island after crossing the Atlantic at the average speed of 3.5 knots: “I remember when we docked in Martinique, he says. Shutting off the engine made me feel something incredible. I realized that our technology worked.” Sun21 only needed sun to cross the Atlantic. On its roof, 48 silicon cells collect energy from the sunlight and transmit half of it to the engine and the other half to the 3,600 pounds of batteries. “Our challenge was to use the energy we had, Marc Wüst says as Sun21 is sailing by the Statue of Liberty. We had to keep enough energy for night time”. In bad weather, Sun21 can draw and store enough power to function for 20 hours. It was never caught in a storm though and never had any mechanical problems according to Marc Wüst. Ten people worked on Sun21 and three unusual adventurers crossed the Atlantic with Mr.Wüst and Mr. Thonney: Martin Vosseler, a doctor, David Senn, a professor of zoology, and Beat von Scarpatetti, an historian who had never been to New York before. MW-Line, the Swiss company which built Sun 21, now hopes to able to sell similar vessels: “We crossed the Atlantic to inform people, Mark Wüst says. But we also want to be able to make some profit with that project”. Sun21, a 45.9-foot-long catamaran cost a million Swiss francs ($820,000). The shipbuilder thinks he will be able to bring the price down when he starts building a line of similar boats. The speed is also an issue. Sun21 is still slow compared to vessels powered by oil. It is now 3.00 pm in New York. Sun21 is gently sailing into the North Cove Marina on the southern tip of Manhattan. After a five-month journey, the boat is right on time. Call it Swiss precision. After a few days in New York, Sun21 will go back to Europe. But on freighter this time. Jean-Cosme Delaloye / New York CommentsYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
||
 |
 |
 |
