I would like to introduce you to a new project called CMG – Charge Made Good. The objective of this project is to design and build a boat which is capable of traveling from any two destinations and offer a completely comfortable lifestyle on board. In addition, there should be absolutely zero input from outside resources, and most importantly, there should be no fossil fuels on board at all and the project will be as close to zero emissions as physically capable.
We intend to design a 50 to 60 ft catamaran as the basis for this project. The idea behind the energy system is actually very simple and we will explain it in detail in further blog posts.
Instead, I want to introduce you to the most exciting news. We have officially started the business!
The company is called Charge Made Good GmbH. It’s located in Graz in Austria. We applied and were successful in getting an incubation of 2 years with the European Space Agency. Recently we also won a Science Park Graz Innovation prize in category Space!
Just last week, our company entered into a design agreement with LOMOcean Design Limited in Auckland, NZ, a company which specialises in radical, efficient, and robust marine design projects. For example they designed the boat used in Earthrace using biodiesel that was eventually sunk by a Japanese whaling boat in the Southern Ocean. LOMOcean is also the designer of the boat the Planet Solar which is a solar powered vessel traveling around the world with zero-emissions.
In principal it’s quite easy to design a zero-emissions boat if you take the approach of using very little energy and water, and are quite happy to sit and wait for the wind conditions. Think of the IMOCA 60 sail boats, most now use hydro-generation and solar, but some still have a diesel generator for house loads. Such races show it is easy to sail great distances and cross oceans with no emissions. It is however, not very comfortable to be in these boats and it is not a place to live for an extended period of time. The objective of this project is to try and find some sort of balance between living on boat with all the comforts that you have at home and being emissions-free.
I’d really like to shout out to Jimmy Cornell who has set out to do the El.Ca.NO Challenge and sale a trade route with a zero-emissions yacht. His first attempt was exciting however, he found that his Hydro-generation system was not enough to cover even just the basic house loads, even in trade-wind sailing. This project will be quite different and we hope to not only supply house loads, but to be able to offer a very high level of comfort and amenities on board this vessel.
In the following weeks I will endeavor to bring you more details about the design and the energy systems onboard, introduce the key partners that we get involved, the prizes that we win, and the businesses which join us to make a truly zero emissions vessel – capable of sailing around the world and be as comfortable as a modern apartment to live in.
Please share this blog with your friends in the community – feel free to ask questions, follow along via the web page and the social media links below. We have some really exciting opportunities for those who are enthusiastic about this project, and we would like to offer prizes such as a week or weekend on board when the vessel is built. You can come and share a drink with us as we attend all the world’s boat shows demonstrating this fantastic vessel. Thanks for joining us – and we’ll speak to you next week.