A yacht for the greenies

If Environment Minister Peter Garrett suddenly takes up boating, it could be because of the continuing development of Independence Green Yachts amazing 60 footer.

The IGY60, which is being built in the town of Cockeysville, Maryland, in the US, is designed to have no internal combustion engines, no exhaust, no noise and no vibration. The company claims the boat will completely eliminate the use of fossil fuels.

IGY has now announced it is going into partnership with HB Marine, a company which has a patented process for the production, storage and use of hydrogen gas as the sole power source aboard boats. The partnership will allow the IGY60 to run on either solar power or hydrogen sourced from pure water extracted from the ocean by the boat's desalination system.

IGY's president Fred Berry says the technology bought to the project by HB Marine will allow the "dream to become a reality".

The boat Berry and HB Marine managing director Bruce Wood envisage will be just under 60 feet overall, with a beam of 14 feet, a draft of 4 feet and a displacement of 30 tonnes. He claims the boat will have a range of 600 nautical miles at 8 knots when fully charged. The expected top speed will be 13 knots.

While the boat's engines can run on direct power from the solar panels, the vessel will also be fitted with a battery bank. When cloudy days prevent the production of electricity, the hydrogen power system will take over. The system apparently uses an electrolyser to extract hydrogen from the pure water made by the watermarker. The gas can then be stored and sent on demand to a fuel cell which will generate electricity.

Wood says he has been searching for a suitable partner to bring his technology to the market and he envisages an era of "simple, clean, quiet, reliable and sustainable yachting."

Check out the Independence Green Yachts website for more details.