Solar-powered pride

And that’s what led him to discover a YouTube video by Staley Weidman, a Florida broker and CEO of The Catamaran Company, showcasing a Sunreef Yachts project. Sunreef piqued his interest – as did another builder with in-water models rather than concepts.

“I wasn’t going to buy something that’s not real,” the owner says. A subsequent visit to the shipyard with his wife, during which he spent two days with Nicolas Lapp, Sunreef’s Chief Technical Officer and Co-founder, grilling him westions, and he was sold.

“Sunreef was the way to go, and a catamaran was a by-product of wanting a green boat,” the owner enthuses.

Even though he’d grown up boating, he’d never built a boat. “I needed to be comfortable,” he admits, so during that initial visit, he poured over nitty-gritty details about the technology behind the 80 Sunreef Power Eco with Lapp, from how the solar panels work to the electric engines and the gensets.

Following the contract, he flew to the shipyard in Poland seven more times during the two-year design and build process. Gesturing around Sól, he explains, “We wanted to help Sunreef and show the world this is real and it works – and how cool it is.”

Among the things that convinced him were Sól’s 210 square metres of solar panels integrated into the hull, superstructure and hardtop, which are a solar skin, the result of Sunreef’s own R&D. According to Sunreef, they’re among the lightest weight photovoltaic systems, delivering 36 kWp of power. (Kilowatts peak, or kWp, is the power production under standard test conditions, generally equivalent to bright sunny days.) Suffice to say the system delivers plenty to keep the battery bank fed.

The 23.8-metre Sól has the largest battery bank of all recreational yachts up to 24 metres LOA, and it can power the twin 360-kilowatt electric engines plus the air conditioning and other hotel loads. The electric powerplants permit cruising silently and fume-free up to 300 nautical miles at 10 knots. “What we don’t want is to hear or smell a generator,” the owner says, so he worked with Sunreef to ensure the capacity was more than enough for the time he and his family – and charter guests in the Caribbean – plan to spend on board.

While there are gensets, they serve only as backups. In that capacity, the owner says they use one a maximum of one or two hours a week. And they confer another benefit – he says they can recharge the battery in an hour.

The owner further worked with the yard to incorporate enough chargers to accommodate different voltages and phases in anticipation of equipment varying supply.

“If we’re sitting at a dock for five days, the battery can charge while we’re doing nothing but running a little air-con,” he explains, “unlike our 140-foot charters, where the generators were on 24/7 at the dock and every time the wind changed we’d have to call the captain to switch off one side and turn on the other.”

Additional things about working with Sunreef made him happy, too. For instance, he and his wife made custom requests well beyond the decor. They extended the bimini for a little extra shade over the sunpads, which also gave more solar panel space, and relocated the hot tub aft on the flybridge to the bow lounge.

It replaces one of the two standard bow seating areas, better complementing an ample sunpad (also standard) here. Simultaneously, they felt moving it improved the aesthetics and layout up top, allowing seamless flow from an even larger sunpad aft to the seating and dining/cocktail areas beneath the hardtop and on to the bar (with a pop-up TV) fully forward.

They added an L-shaped buffet to starboard too, in proximity to the bar and dining area. Abundant stowage for glassware and dishes, along with a dedicated dishwasher, is in the bar as well. Though Sól sleeps eight in four cabins, the owner says they’ve had a lot of large functions on the boat for up to 30 people, so the working surface area is a real boon.

A significant custom request lies inside. To provide their chef with a larger work area, double the fridge and freezer space plus a flip-up table, they wanted to move an internal stairway forward. Admittedly, they had no idea this would require additional extensive engineering and in turn additional expenses, but rather than dismiss the idea, Sunreef welcomed the challenge. “We wouldn’t have done it differently,” the owner asserts. “We didn’t feel constrained in terms of design.”

Having spent nearly 40 days aboard in the first four months following delivery, the owner is delighted his family ganged up on him. From composting on board to using only natural and alternative materials rather than leathers and teak, Sól proves that extra research and education can make all the difference. “Building a boat is complicated,” he reflects – and adding in other global complications, it could have been a nightmare.

“I’ve really good things to say about Poland and Sunreef,” he asserts. “Being able to make a call or be heard, having a great project manager you can talk to every week, and visiting whenever I wanted were all crucial.”

The owner foresees future customers, especially those able to take advantage of the new facility in Dubai, benefitting too. Then he adds, “Co-founder Francis Lapp just keeps a foot on the pedal.”

sunreefyachts.com
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