Turanor PlanetSolar

Turanor PlanetSolar

IMO : ??

Build : 2010 by Knierim Yachtbau GmbH – Kiel in Germany, nr ??

After banging on about the evilness of Green Ships I now present to you a true “Green Ship”: the Turanor PlanetSolar. This time there is not a single bit of green paint in sight but to stay true to the ugliness of green the vessel itself is the source of it. I can quit understand that in this case forms follows function but OMG! Couldn’t they have come up with a more subtle form?

Picture by Ruud Coster, via http://koopvaardij.web-log.nl

The vessel is propelled by electric motors which are supplied by batteries charged by the sun and nothing more. The entrepreneurs behind this vessel are planning an Around-the-World trip with this vessel, this 34,000-mile journey will take them & their green floating stallion across the Atlantic, the Panama Canal, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean over a scheduled 160 days. Average speed is going to be abt 7-8 knots: See the ocean in Slow-motion!

Picture by Ruud Coster, via http://koopvaardij.web-log.nl

Brave guys! And for us it is very fortunate that this trip is going to take soo long because that means we won’t be seeing her that often…….but I’m afraid that the lack of visual images on the long hauls will be more than made up by all the publicity generated in every port they visit.

BTW: Turanor is a term originating from Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring and means “Power of the Sun”.

Well, these guys are quit smart in what they do, how they name it, etc etc, hopefully next time they will think a bit longer & deeper about the visual impact of the whole project.