As a concept that was conceived about 2 years ago and now in full swing, the planning of the vessel that I will be spending a lot of time on alone is crucial. It is a small living space that will be occupied for at least 200 days without setting foot on land. And this for somebody that is terrified of the open ocean will be a feat in itself.
The main concern for me is safety. As the sea can throw almost anything at you at any time, day or night, it is of utmost importance for me that I will not land myself in the water and hope to be rescued at some stage.
A lot of research has gone into the types of pedal boats used for long distance travel. The one drawback that most of these vessels have is the lack of space for provisions, especially for a journey of this duration.
I have researched the down sides of vessels like the vessel of explorer Jason Lewis that did 4,833 days and 46,505 miles rounding the globe under your own muscle power. As Lewis made regular stops to replenish his provisions, I will not have that luxury. That is why the decision was made to rather go with a catamaran configuration for this journey.
The catamaran configuration is more stable than the mono hull that all these adventurers use, and have a lot more storage room for provisions. There is also more deck space for the solar panels that will provide night time power to the vessel (remember this is a solar and human powered vessel).
The one major down side to using a catamaran configuration is that in the event that the vessel capsizes, it is very difficult to get it right side up. A plan has been made to make use of a new safety device that will assist with getting the vessel back right side up. But about this in later posts as the prototyping is still underway.
The drag induced by the catamaran configuration is in some cases greater that a mono hull vessel, but for safety and storage reasons, this makes more sense than a mono hull. As this will be a non-stop journey, all the provisions that will be needed will need to be carried from day one.
The main factor will be the weight issue of a fully laden vessel. To get the vessel as light as possible, a foam sandwich construction hull will be made. This will reduce the weight of the hull a lot. Another way to get the fully laden weight down is to use dehydrated provisions where possible. This reduction in weight will help with a lower displacement and wetted area of the hull. The lower the wetted area the less drag and the less energy will be required to power the vessel.
More on the vessel in a later post.
Now what are required are contributors and sponsors that will fund the building of the vessel.
If you are aware of any entity, private or corporate that would be interested in helping with the funding please contact me with their details or ask the entity to contact me directly.
Thank you
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