The list of mega activities available to the obscenely wealthy eco-tourist is shrinking at an alarming rate. Robert Frank's article on the megayacht in yesterday's edition of the Wall Street Journal is just the latest example. How does one express their wealth without also having to express their expanded carbon footprint? It's an issue, people!
The first and saddest way is to drop the “mega” from whatever activity you are trying to enjoy. Mega anything is typically pretty bad for the environment: mega-cars, mega-planes, mega-spaceships, none of these are going to give you a clean ride. But, if you’re willing to take things down a notch, and reenter the unfortunate realm of regularity, you might find a few better options.
Stefanie Krücke’s “Kitano” is a kite-sailing yacht designed to pick up wind currents at a much higher altitude than normal sails. This allows it to pull the yacht along in even moderate wind conditions. It’s lightweight, aerodynamic, and contains a dual water jet propulsion system powered by a fuel cell to keep it out of trouble when the kite is down.
It runs clean and silent, and causes the user substantially less carbon impact than any other similar model. More importantly, it houses eight very lucky guests in absolute luxury, yet keeps the entire cruise nice and green. Krücke’s design has won her awards, international praise, and a diploma from her design school. Check her out.
Another cool design is the “Volitan”, a motor yacht designed by Dr. Hakan Gürsu and his assistant Sözüm Doğan from the Turkish design firm of DesignNobis of Ankara. The Volitan utilizes solar sails, along with wind energy to deliver power to its massive 220 horsepower electric motor.
It’s made of a lightweight carbon fiber material that is also UV resistant, and can operate smoothly in up to 60knot winds.
So, let’s not jump off the cliff just yet. These are just two green yachts that really are quite innovative. Sure, the megayacht is still too big to be practical, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be, or won’t be. Indeed, it seems almost inevitable that all vehicles will become cleaner burning as time goes on. Frank’s article doesn’t disagree with this, but it certainly doesn’t go very deep into the issue … even for a blog entry. Eco yachts are out there my rich friends. You just have to google them.
VIA: www.yankodesign.com, www.yachtpals.com
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