Cruising with the sun

[OperaHouse]

Saturday I was at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk river and saw the electric boat RA.  Fifteen solar panels in the 200w range, two electric outboards.  One severely smashed up from some accident.  It passed us by 15 miles up river about 6 hours later. It had to go through seven locks, not that slow Even from 500ft away you could hear the  3khz drone of the inverter. 

[CraigM]

I like the fishing rod holder off the port quarter.

[SparWeb]

My eyes were drawn to the occupant of the starboard side, myself...

The boat almost looks almost purpose-built for solar power.

...Ah, found it on Facebook (of course).

[DanG]

http://solarboatchronicles.com/about-ras-solar-power/

[OperaHouse]

I figured there must be something on the internet.  Had googled RA and electric boat and nothing came up.  They were just buying an Erie canal permit.  At 48 feet that is pricey.  I would be nuts after two days listening to that motor whine.  They should have reasearched some isolation mounts.

[SparWeb]

I notice a bit of sag around the panels on the outriggers.  I can't see much structure supporting the outboard edge.

As usual the FB page and blog about a "technical" project has mostly pictures of peoples faces and scenery, but no details about the "reason" this is happening.

[DanG]

There is a brief title appearing on a few pages 'solar powered reality TV adventure' or somesuch...