Such a cool project. Now, if only I didn't live 1000 km from the sea in a small apartment...
this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
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Amphibious vehicle it is, then.
Just mod it into a helicopter to carry the boat, easy.
Yeah I'll make a design on the back of a napkin. Nothing can possibly go wrong.
Just build it out the window and wait for the waters to rise. Biblically correct method 👍
You might be better off buying an old aluminium tinny and modifying that. Lasts longer than plywood, and is already a boat. Hardest part done. Making a roof and adding solar panels is relatively easy
I think the best option is to take two old sailboats (already efficient hulls) and connect them together into a large catamaran with a platform in between them. This greatly increases the possible surface area for solar panels, with a minimum of water resistance added. It allows you to add a large section of solar panels in the middle without anything adding drag in the water in that section.
Catemaran hulls are specifically designed as such, you can't use normal hulls.
You do gain the extra room for solar, but equally you also make the boat wider, making it less flacrical in confined waterways like canals and rivers.
In high latitudes having a vertical solar sail might actually work quite well to well as both a solar array and a wind sail. But that will require significant engineering design time to get right.
Uhm. This is not done by welding a bit or using big bolts. If done wrong, your “catamaran” will not survive a single wave, let alone the conditions of the open sea. Don’t forget how much force water has.
So if you do this on a lake, you’ll be fine, but not in open waters.
A single-hull can be made self-righting, in case it flips in bad weather. A 35 foot catamaran? You're not getting that back up-right with a crew of one - you basically hope and pray a bigger boat comes along at that point.
... Now I've watched the video, there is no ballast, not even a dedicated bilge space, and with the shallow draft, I am uncertain how the boat in OOP isn't too top-heavy to stay up-right. Forget the "Sovereign Living" bit at the end, I'mma need to see some solid design and build data before listening to another word from that guy.
In short: I take back any mean things I said or implied about Catamarans.
I was just stanning one of my favorite things about, and pet criteria for, properly-designed boats. I just sold my first sail-boat because I wanted a bigger one, with a better capsize-rating.
Now I've watched the video, there is no ballast
He does end up adding ballast later. Added batteries, living stuff and about 150KG of rocks.
His takeaway was that it didn't really affect cruising speed and that he should have made a sturdier, heavier bottom hull.
Edit: he's in the process of turning it into a trimaran at the moment also for stability.
Except that the risk of a 35 foot catamaran flipping over is very significantly lower in the first place.
LOL! That's the best option? Why wouldn't you just start with a catamaran?
If you ever built a thing like that please give me the link to your YouTube, that would be funny as hell to watch.
Fiberglass and resin or epoxy on plywood can last very well and is easy to repair if you go for "work boat finish".
I have every book I can find on this. Phil Bolger, Dynamite Payson, Jim Michelak, all easy and good designs.
The Birdwatcher style would lend itself well to solar panels, or Michelak's IMB (International Marine Beacher, from a magazine competition).
I have a half-built "Cartopper" in my shed. I need to go work on it more. Sometimes it's more fun to read about than do.
The birdwatcher is beautiful!
How long does the cartopper take to build? (In theory)
And yes, Birdwatcher is great. I bought the plans for IMB; if I ever finish this one, that's next. It is just short enough to not have to be registered in my state, and you can camp in it easily. And I think the sit inside with windows thing is neat. Safer to bring nieces and nephews along.
Actually the cartopper was used as a guest cabin towed behind a larger boat also, but one person only.
Here is a video of someone sailing the IMB https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XGVhZzj3JlE
Does he say how much it cost him?
No, he only says that it is affordable to a medium sized budget.
My educated guess is that it costs around 25,000€ to build this. The ePropulsion engine and battery you can see in the video is about 10,000€ of that.
I remember reading about a Finn who spent 5 years, half part calculating, half building a small aeroplane in his apartment. Neighbours were let in on the knowing when he needed them to open their doors to poke a plane part into their apartements to get the thing down from IIRC third floor and out.
He flew it too!
I read it in the early nineties and the thing was maybe from the eighties. He didn't solder anything but drilled like 30.000 holes and riveted it all together.
Finns are cool.
And then there's this German champ hobbying together an entire tank in their basement:
The man had also been keeping an anti-aircraft gun in his basement
How big is this man's basement??
Reminds me of Richards Reactor, a dude in Sweden who attemoted to build a smal scale nuclear reactor of some sort in his apartment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Handl
Not too long ago his blogg was still up, found this but the nuclear stuff is gone:
https://richardsreactor.blogspot.com/2017/02/170222-visit-from-police.html?m=1
Someone in the comments said it best, it's a very cool canal boat but nothing that light would stand-up to open ocean waves.
This specific design maybe not, but similar light plywood-epoxy catamarans based on designs by James Wharram are well regarded and proven open-ocean sailboats.
its ok for coastal mediteranean too. He did use it through canals of northern europe to get down to spain.
He want's to make it
AI controlled
aww man
I respect his solar commitement, but listening to him it's obvious he's a libertarian Elon-Bro... my immediate reaction is "oh no... it's stupid."
And the concept isn't new, solar boats have been a thing for ages now and most of them are (like @OwOarchist@pawb.social suggested) catamarans or trimarans.
Can we please avoid using abelist slurs in this community?
Heard and edited.
AI is completely irrelevant to his project, I really don't know why he mentioned that. The solar/battery/motor setup looks like off-the-shelf from victron — we can see a screenshot of the app at some point.
I'd like to second Povoq's request and ask that we're more mindful of the words we choose and their impact please.
Honestly not a terrible use of ai. I imagine it's pretty good at spotting things in a sparse environment like the middle of the ocean.
Wouldn’t that just be a regular software that uses ML for just image detection?
I suspect voice control + a small LLM for tool uses qualifies it as "AI"
AI can be fine, I cringed at the mention of Starlink, even though that's a case where it makes sense.
There's currently not really an alternative to Starlink for this type of use sadly. If speed isn't a concern then there are, but for typical internet usage there really isn't.
Sadly true
Leaving a comment so I can watch this later.