OceanCo’s Solar-Powered Superyacht Will Dwarf A Football Field.....

Ever fantasize about sailing off into the sunset, nothing but the open ocean and horizon ahead of you? Living out this dream is reserved for the uber wealthy few, but if money were no object, we’d prefer to do it in OceanCo’s forthcoming 348-foot superyacht called Project Solar.

A joint effort of OceanCo, Nuvolari Lenard Design, and Dykstra Naval Architects the price tag isn’t the only huge feature of this unique sailing vessel. Cleantechnica reports that the length of the vessel, when completed, will be greater than the playing area of an American football field. Now that’s a serious party boat.

“We are very proud of the project; it’s not only the largest project but a very environmental project, said Mohammed Al Barwani, Owner of Oceanco, in this video. “The project is called Solar and it would rely heavily, or chiefly, on power from solar energy.”

Oceanco has produced some of the finest yachts on the water, all with a distinctive characteristic which has set the yard aside as one of the greatest yacht builders in the industry. We sat down with Mohammed Al Barwani, Owner of Oceanco, and Marcel Onkenhout, the CEO of the Dutch shipyard, to discuss Project Solar; the construction project set to be the largest sailing yacht in the world upon her launch in 2015.

“We have, at the moment, six yachts under construction all above 80m, so that’s not a bad start for 2013,” says Marcel Onkenhout. “The future is looking bright.”
Mohammed Al Barwani acquired the company in 2010 and noted how the yard has grown in the past few years, encompassing what we can expect for 2013. “We are growing, we are quite busy and we are investing in new facilities, new concepts and new architectural drawings, renderings and so on Oceanco recently introduced one of their current projects under construction at the moment, the exciting 106m Solar – an environmentally friendly sailing yacht equipped with a Dyna Rig System which will be the largest yacht ever built in Holland upon her launch. This project was brought to the fore by designers at Nuvolari & Lenard and project managed by Moran Yacht & Ship.

In addition to sporting battery-saving solar panels, the superyacht will also employ a rigid sail system called a Dyna Rig. If you think back to the sailing vessels of centuries past, you’ll recall that all of those massive sails and rigging required a crew of dozens of sailors to keep the ship on course.

Unlike those complicated rope and canvas systems, Dyna Rig is operated electronically, so no manual labor is required. This means that when conditions are favorable, the massive yacht can be propelled by clean wind energy rather than a combustion engine.