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22.06.2021 6:13:30
On biminis, in the sails, as a source of energy for zero-emission sailboats with electric motors, the prospects for Power Sail are multiple.
See full version: PowerSails: The French solar sail innovation award in the USA
On biminis, in the sails, as a source of energy for zero-emission sailboats with electric motors, the prospects for Power Sail are multiple.
"I learned our distinction by chance on the internet," says Alain Janet. "It's always a pleasure because the road to innovation is a long, expensive and tortuous one. And then a European with an award across the Atlantic, it's like winning in Hollywood, it's not easy!"
Presented by J-Boats at the Newport and Annapolis boat shows, it caught the eye of the Pittman Award jury. here
The award obtained by Solar Cloth System and UK Sails France for the Power Sails is the fruit of work begun on the Route du Rhum 2014 alongside the 50-foot D�fi Martinique. This yacht is the first to benefit from the Power Sails system. It demonstrates on the transatlantic race and beyond the reliability of the photovoltaic sensor device integrated in the sails developed by the French sailmaker. "After 4000 miles in real conditions, the equipment is still working today," says Alain Janet, head of UK Sails France.
Since then, the product has attracted various American and European shipyards such as J-Boats US, Arcona, Oyster or Elan, in their work towards the zero-emission ship.
Created in honor of Freeman K. Pittman, former editor of the magazine, and organized annually by Sail Magazine, the Pittman Award honors innovative equipment presented during the year. In contrast to the METS DAME Award, for which the product has to be unveiled at the show, which is why Power Sail was unable to compete, it is here the journalists on the jury who choose the nominees. They then evaluate the product on site. The price is then announced in the newspaper columns.
Spurred on, no doubt, by the continuing extraordinary demand for sailboats of all sizes, the catamaran industry has made a point of not letting the events of the past year stop it from continuing to innovate. If you’re in search of the perfect boat for relaxing on the hook, look . read more
After the success of his prototype, Janet knew he was on to something. “I shopped around at a couple of yards, but really wanted to work with one where I knew the owner was thinking on the same wavelength,” he says. “There were boatyards that said they’d be really interested—once they know it works. You know, the ‘none of our Euros are going to prototypes’ situation. We had to do all of the R&D on our own with the UK Sailmakers group, and we had no financial and technical support—it was homegrown. We kept on trying new products.”
Three years ago Janet and the folks at UK Sailmakers developed an eco-friendly line of sails known as Titanium Blue, which eliminated the plastics in the sail by replacing the polyester and mylar with cellulose-based film and swapping out carbon yarn with yarn made naturally from basalt.
The controller is below decks[/caption] [links]
It was a simple craigslist ad that started all the rumpus. A guy named Milo in Belfast, Maine listed a well-worn 1969 Tripp 29 sloop for sale for $6,000. A young acquaintance of mine, Emily Greenberg, who maintains an intriguing sailing blog at dinghydreams.com and sometimes . read more
His idea was put to the test last year when Daniel Ecalard used a Power Sail prototype—a Titanium Blue mainsail that had been fitted with solar panels—during the Route du Rhum race. Janet figured a grueling 3,542-mile transatlantic race would be a good testing ground for his new project. “The test is the conditions of racing, if the sails can withstand the water, the salt, the rough pounding—there was a lot of rain during the Route du Rhum, and the storms didn’t affect the charging,” Janet says. “The solar panels and the electronics didn’t short out. The sail got flogged a lot, and that didn’t affect the charging either.”
Founded in 1946 in New York City as Ulmer Sails, UK Sailmakers is one of the world's most established groups of sail makers with nearly 50 lofts and service centers. It is our goal to deliver sails using the most advanced design technologies and materials. Our lofts retain the personal touch that sailors expect since all UK Sailmakers lofts are owned by local sailors, who know the needs of their sailing communities. That's why each loft prides itself in providing quick, high-quality service along with well-designed, long-lasting sails.
Arcona Yachts of Sweden, Oceanvolt Electric Engines of Finland, and UK Sailmakers have teamed up to create the first zero emissions cruising sailboat: the Arcona 380Z, where the “Z” stands for zero emissions. Their combined efforts won Best-In-Show at the 2015 Helsinki Boat Show. The primary source of electrical power generator will be seven square meters of photovoltaic film attached to each side of the Tape-Drive mainsail built by UK Sailmakers Sweden and outfitted with the solar panels and components by UK France. The PowerSails® solar cells developed by Alain Janet, owner of UK Sailmakers France, will generate an average of 1,000 watts (1KW) per hour. According to Janet, “Modern thin-film photovoltaic cells do not need direct sunlight to generate electricity. In fact, the panels on the sail opposite the sun will generate 30-40 percent of their maximum output with the indirect and reflected light.”
Durability of the system was tested in the singlehanded Route du Rhum race in Nov. 2014, which is over 3,700 nautical miles from France to Guadeloupe. Daniel Ecalard used the PowerSails system on his Open 50 DEFI MARTINIQUE. If the PowerSails system was going to fail from abuse, Ecalard was the perfect test pilot. He sailed through a gale in the Bay of Biscay that knocked out 10% of the fleet in the first two days of racing. Ecalard figures that the main was unreefed for only 7 of the 25 days he was racing. In the reefing process, the sail flogs while the halyard is raised or lowered and as the reef outhaul is trimmed. Along with the flogging and high wind use, the solar panel stood up to 12 hours of a heavy rain squall. Putting sails through abuse like this is the best way to test how rugged the flexible solar panels are and how well the wiring and electrical connections stand-up. The whole system, solar films, electrical connections and wiring all performed flawlessly and kept pouring fresh power into the boat’s batteries. Adding to the system’s utility, when Ecalard got to Martinique and put his main under it’s cover, he was able to unzip the panels from the sail and zip them onto the sides of his sail cover so that he could keep charging his batteries at the dock.
Janet said, “When I pulled up the steps and looked into the engine compartment of the Arcona 380Z at the Helsinki show, I could not believe how small the electric motor is. The engine room is now a big, bright extra storage area on the boat. There is no smell of diesel or oil and there won’t be a huge hunk of dirty, rusty metal in the space as years go by.” According to Janet, the boat’s lithium batteries take up the same space as the standard Arcona 380’s fuel tank and the batteries weigh the same as a full tank of fuel. For more information on PowerSails, call your nearest UK Sailmakers loft.