Finn

The bathers who tried to suffocate the high temperatures of the latest heat waves swimming around Cabo de Gata last sundaythey watched in astonishment the passage of a very unusual boat. It sailed close to the shore, with a lower hull than usual and an extremely quiet engine. It had no mast or visible bridge. Some thought it was a drug boat. Others, directly, in a submarine. It was nothing like that. According to collected Hybrids and Electricswhat was crossing Las Salinas was the Helios 11. When a Civil Guard patrol boat, equally surprised by the appearance of the boat, came to closely inspect that boat on El Zapillo beach, it only found solar panels and batteries. The dream of a Finn who wanted to sail cheap The person that the Civil Guard found on board the boat is Lukas Sjöman, Finnish adventurer, designer and builder of the most sustainable yacht that the Andalusian coasts will see this summer. He built it alone, without a shipyard, in a shed at his house and its price has not exceeded that of a modest car. As Sjöman himself tells in the videos from his YouTube channel, it took about 200 days to have the hull ready, made with a structure of marine plywood and fiberglass. The result is a yacht 11 meters long and 2.4 meters wide, weighing close to 1.5 tons. Inside there is space for some amenities including an electric stove, a light refrigerator and a bathroom with cisternjust enough to live on board, but without the luxuries that millionaires’ yachts usually equip. However, Sjöman’s obsession is not sailing through the most exclusive ports of the Mediterranean. emulating Koru of Jeff Bezos or the superyachts of Arab sheikhs. Their goal was to create a boat that was as sustainable as possible. To achieve this he only had to do one thing: look at the sky. The entire roof of the Helios 11 is covered with solar panels, and as it says on your channelreaches a power close to 6 kW and an expansion to 40 kW is already planned. The system runs on 48 volts and charges the batteries while the boat is underway. The electric motor supported by solar panels allows almost infinite navigation since it does not need to stop to refuel like alternatives with diesel or hybrid engines. Sjöman assures that the boat consumes less while sailing than a domestic blender. On a normal day it travels about 145 miles, about 270 kilometers. In bad weather, the decrease in the charging capacity of its batteries and the greater demand for power during navigation to overcome storms, the figure can drop to 40 miles (about 70 km per day). Helios 11 sailing near the coast A 6,000 kilometer trip to put it to the test And what’s the best way to test that a boat really works? Effectively taking to the sea. Sjöman began a journey of thousands of kilometers to demonstrate that the Helios 11 is a viable alternative to build cheap yachts and with propulsion systems that do not depend on fossil fuels. The Helios 11 route started in Finland and went down rivers and canals, crossing several European countries until reaching the Mediterranean. Sjöman arrived in Ibiza after going through some 5,700 kilometers without refueling. From there he continued his particular Mediterranean cruise approaching the Andalusian coast: Mazarrón, Cabo de Gata and now Almería. Helios 11 anchored in Ibiza The trip has not been perfect. According to collected Supercarblondiewhen he was anchored on the coast of San Carles de la Rápita (Tarragona) his auxiliary boat was stolen. So he had to build another one to continue because the Helios 11 cannot anchor on shallow beaches or in small docks to resupply with supplies, so without the boat the Finn was left “incommunicado” on board. Solar energy solves fuel. It does not solve the logistics or unforeseen events of sailing alone. A clean alternative to the most polluting yachts Current superyachts take more into account comfort and nautical luxury than the emissions from their engines. The few hybrid alternatives that alternate electric and diesel engines are aimed at obtaining quieter navigation and anchoring, not to reduce emissions. According to the report ‘Carbon emissions inequality kills Elaborated by Oxfam International, the yachts of the richest billionaires generated in a single year a carbon footprint which is equivalent to 860 years of emissions from the average person. The problem with these boats is that, as the seized superyachts to the Russian millionaires for the war in Ukraine, they must keep their engines running to feed the air conditioning that prevents the noble materials inside from deteriorating, generating fuel consumption of several thousand dollars a day. In Xataka | If the question is why only the rich can afford to buy a yacht, the answer is more than obvious: the 10% rule Image | TRUE NORTH