| | | Innovative green power The Green Cat is a luxurious and spacious sailing-class catamaran that can reach top speeds, just like African Cats' other crafts. The difference is that it is the only sailing-class catamaran without a fossil-fuel engine. Instead, it is powered by an environmentally friendly electric generator and motor - the Green Motion electric propulsion system. This innovation allows sailors to power their catamarans in an environmentally friendly way. "Apart from propelling the craft when there's no wind, this motor powers the air conditioning, the heating, the lights - it provides electricity for the whole boat." says Gideon. "The Green Motion system also produces its own power: when the catamaran is sailing under wind power alone, the motor becomes a dynamo, generating and storing electricity And when the battery's full and there's plenty of wind, the motor can be lifted out of the water for a more streamlined shape and faster sailing." Critical weight This combination of luxury, high-powered sailing and green electric power is unique to the Green Cats. "We've been building light, fast and luxurious catamarans for seven years," says Gideon, "and although they were lighter than other sailing-class cats, our cats still needed the impressive power-to-weight ratio of a fossil-fuel engine to get them moving." To combat this problem, African Cats have reduced the weight of their catamarans from 8,900kg to just 5,000kg. "Without such a light structure, it wouldn't be feasible to use electric motors. An electric motor that could propel a normal catamaran would be huge, increasing the craft's weight even further and slowing it down so much it would hardly move." What's more, with luxuries like cappuccino machines and king-size bedrooms onboard, each cat would have a very heavy interior. This meant that, to reduce the craft's weight enough, not only did every piece of furniture and each | | Did you know...? • African Cats' catamarans are between 12 and 16m long: all beds are king-size and the state rooms large • While conventional sailing-class catamarans weigh from 11.000 to | | |
| | | little accessory need to be super light, but the weight of the craft's entire structure also needed to be vastly reduced Creative solutions African Cats first looked at using vacuum-injection technology to reduce weight. "With this method, each layer of the hull is assembled inside a mold and sealed in a vacuum pack before the resin is added - a technique that reduces weight and cuts pollution," says Gideon. But this didn't reduce the catamaran's weight enough, so African Cats decided to develop their own approach. "Our new vacuum-injection method uses a unique foam that absorbs 78% less resin than conventional materials. And unlike other yacht builders, we use vacuum injection for every part of the craft, not just the hull." They also replaced conventional hull materials with lightweight modern alternatives. "For example, we replaced the traditional glass-fiber reinforcement with Twaron para-aramid fibers, because Twaron has a much lower unit weight and is much stronger than glass fibers. This has significantly lightened the hull, and we're currently looking for ways to use Twaron in the decks as well. Without this kind of high-performance material, our catamarans wouldn't be light enough to make the Green Motion motor feasible." www.africancats.com | | |
| | | To make their ultra-lightweight catamarans. African Cats use: • Vacuum injection to construct each structural component -not just the hull • Twaron fiber instead of glass fiber for reinforcement • A unique foam that absorbs 78% less resin • Lightweight epoxy resin instead of traditional polyester resin • A spray-paint coating instead of a heavy gel coating, saving 8% in weight. | | |