Meet Marvin, the ginormous solar-assisted catamaran

Nah, it's not actually able to get engine power from the insanely large solar panels adorning its roof, but Marvin still utilizes the 35 square meters of photovoltaic panels to run everything else in an eco-friendly fashion. Sadly, this 50 foot fiberglass cruising catamaran is merely a concept for now, but we're hoping that a few VCs get together in order to make this bad boy a reality. Surely there's a Russian billionaire in need of a boat to visit his new home in Newark, right?

[Thanks, Panos]

[TheSpoonyBard Posted Jul 8th 2010 9:46PM]

But does it come with a strange device that turns my pee to water, and Kevin Costner?

[Punisher Plum Posted Jul 8th 2010 9:48PM]

is there some reason catamarans need nets at the front except to save weight?

Also, it should have panels that swing out the sides since these things spend so much time idling in bays

[Wyko Posted Jul 8th 2010 10:05PM]

@Punisher Plum
Concepts never have full accurate art anyway. Just sit back, nod, and admire till we see the real things.

[Bawkboomcow Posted Jul 8th 2010 11:34PM]

@Punisher Plum Giant trampolines!

[waterboy99troop Posted Jul 8th 2010 10:13PM]

I'll have you know I'm feeling very depressed right now...

[Diggler Posted Jul 8th 2010 10:23PM]

@waterboy99troop Life! Don't talk to me about life.

[superluser Posted Jul 9th 2010 3:29PM]

@waterboy99troop Does this catamaran have a rat cavity?

[InTheRye Posted Jul 8th 2010 10:35PM]

i think that russian billionaire already owns a 377 ft yacht to visit his new home which is another 538 ft yacht..

[cashclientel Posted Jul 9th 2010 4:27AM]

There's a lot of wasted surface area on that boat. You could put panels on the hull as well to collect the reflected light from the water and all over the deck.

Its just a badly rendered catamaran with some solar panels on the roof section - not exactly anything original... All we've got here is a design companies idea of a possible future design. It's not even like a prototype car as these are made by the actual manufacturers and generally tend to exist and have practical elements - it's just a sketch.

[DrTrent Posted Jul 9th 2010 10:17AM]

Rule #1: if you're designing an eco-friendly boat, put a sail on the damn thing

[Ed T Posted Jul 10th 2010 8:04AM]

Ooh - a whopping 350W of power on a sunny day - that will get you places for sure.

[trainboy19 Posted Jul 14th 2010 2:38AM]

"Here I am solar panel the size of my deck and they ask me to power the internal systems!"

[Tijok Posted Aug 5th 2010 11:12AM]

@ DrTrent Rule #2: If you're going to put a sail on it, make the sail out of a flexible solar cell and spend your time doing some real innovation.

They've already got beach umbrellas and awnings with solar panels built in, let's take it to the next step.

[Albatross Posted Aug 12th 2010 12:36PM]

Why couldn't this catamaran tow a floating array of solar panels to power its engines? Of course there's the additional load posed by the solar panels, but I suspect there's a way to make it work.

Also, how fast does a boat need to go anyway? Is there a minimum speed that a ship need to be able to achieve to maneuver against currents and wind?

[icke Posted Aug 23rd 2010 9:16AM]

there is already a luxury solar driven yacht from germany, the Suncat 46. Check http://www.solarwaterworld.de/en/products/yacht/suncat-46.html