Solar Odyssey on show at La Rochelle

by Grand Pavois on 7 Sep 2010 The Grand Pavois International In-water Boat Show will be held from the 15th to the 20th of September 2010 at the Port des Minimes in La Rochelle, featuring many innovative vessels - among them, Solar Odyssey.

850 exhibitors are expected on 100,000 m² of exhibition. 300 boats will be exhibited afloat over 700 presentations at the show. Spaces for all the visitors and Tahiti and her Islands as the guest of honour of the 38th edition. Benchmark for pleasure sailing fans, the Grand Pavois offers a unique opportunity to try the boats at sea before purchasing. The Grand Pavois is one of the top 5 international boat show afloat.

Solar Odyssey by Lemer Pax will be exhibited at the Grand Pavois 2010. Solar Odyssey’s first campaign is to attempt the official transatlantic and to be the first French boat to go down in the Guinness Book of records on this course around the world consuming no fuel.

She is 19 m long and 10 wide. For the design lessons were drawn from the field of sport. Recycled for Solar Odyssey the central hull comes from an experiment on Alain Gautier’s trimaran Foncia and the floats were built for the first version of l’Hydroptère the flying hydrofoiler. Hull and floats are very light displacement and have very low hydrodynamic friction factors, a maximum speed of 18 knots. 8 knots of average speed are expected for the crossing of the Atlantic. Performances that should enable it to beat the record of 29 days achieved in 2005 by the Swiss catamaran Sun 21 between the Canary Islands and Martinique.

Propellers and engines were assembled after hull-beams-floats, in spring/summer 2010. That made possible to start the hydrodynamic tests: Solar Odyssey will be launched in La Rochelle at the end of the Grand Pavois.

Solar propulsion is undoubtedly one of the most realistic environmentally friendly alternatives for marine propulsion because there are needs of substitutes to fossil fuels. By investing in this technological adventure through many internal technologies transfer and the ongoing search for viable solutions, the company Lemer Pax Nantes/Carquefou whose activities are all related to the protection of the human being, wants to persuade sailors to integrate this source of inexhaustible and clean energy in the development of marine propulsion.

A prototype that looks like a UFO (unidentified floating object), it has been designed by experienced sailors, and will be helmed by those same sailors: Pierre-Marie Lerner / CEO of Lemer Pax - who is also the owner of the former Alinghi (Lake Geneva 13 m trimaran) - Fredéric Dahirel and Jean Maurel.
www.solar-odyssey.com

Characteristics
Length overall 60 ft/18.28m
Max Beam 30 ft/9.00m
Loaded displacement 5t
Maximum speed 18 knots
Record speed 8 knots


SHOW STATS
Name: Le Grand Pavois
Venue: Port des Minimes in La Rochelle
Dates: Wednesday 15th / Monday 20th September 2010 from 10 am to 7 pm
Area: 100 000 m2
Exhibitors: 850 from 35 countries
Boats: More than 700 with 300 afloat
Specificities: Villages and theme spaces, trials at sea, World previews…
Visitors: + de 100 000
Guest of honour country: Tahiti and her Islands

More at www.grand-pavois.com