Solar megayacht

For 585 days, Swiss adventurer Raphael Domjan braved storms, pirates and cloudy skies in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe on a boat propelled by nothing but sun beams. The boat, christened "Turanor" after a word meaning "power of the sun" in JRR Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, is Domjan's brainchild.

As heavy as a whale and 30 meters long, it's adorned with enough photovoltaic panels to cover two tennis courts. After eight years of fundraising, 64,000 hours of construction, and 19 months at sea, the "Turanor" made history on May 6, when it cruised into Port Hercules, Monaco, completing the first ever round-the-
world journey by a solar-powered vessel.

From the coast of Miami to the shores of Mumbai, Domjan and his four-man crew visited 28 countries on a voyage designed to showcase the practical applications of solar energy. "The aim of this journey was to show the world that this technology is not science fiction, it is very real and it can help us change how we do things now rather than in the future," said Domjan.

Full story on CNN >>> http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/23/tech/solar-powered-boat-circumnavigation/index.html