Pangea (yacht)
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With a length of 35 meters, the sailing yacht Pangea is the largest sailing expedition yacht in the world.It was built by its owner, the South African adventurer and sportsman Mike Horn in 2007/2008 to draw attention to the earth's environmental destruction on a four-year global expedition .
The Pangea is named after the last global supercontinent that existed before about 250 million years ago. The Greek name literally means everything one country . This is where Mike Horn comes in with his project when he takes the expedition ship Pangea, supported by the main sponsor Mercedes-Benz, on his expedition trip from 2008 to 2012 with a total of 144 Young Explores (= young researchers) from all continents who do research on board should. The project motto of the trip is: Explore, learn, act - explore, learn, act . It is only from this objective that the yacht Pangea and its berth capacity can be explained: 30 berths are available.
During the construction of the Pangea , Mike Horn had to overcome almost insurmountable obstacles. Shipyards in France, Germany, Great Britain and in some Baltic states refused to manufacture them within the specified tight timeframe of 12 months. The budget of three million euros raised by well-known sponsors was nowhere near enough for the asking price of eleven million euros from the European shipyards. Mike Horn then embarked on an adventurous path of boat building . He built a makeshift shipyard in the favelas , the slums of the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo . Here he found cheap aluminum and inexpensive production conditions. The locksmiths who welded the aluminum parts together in a hangar in the middle of corrugated iron huts were instructed and trained by him. 200 families found wages and bread and Mike Horn was able to get people who had never built a ship so enthusiastic about the project that the yacht was finished after 13 months of construction and 22,000 working hours: hull, fixtures, equipment and electrics.
The hull structure was made particularly strong, as the yacht should also be used to sail the Arctic seas . Ribs and stringers (longitudinal stiffeners) are attached at a distance of 36 cm, 60 cm is usual for yachts of this size. The outer skin can withstand a pressure of a good two tons per square meter. The draft was designed to be variable, as you not only want to navigate oceans, but also rivers and bank zones. The solution is a swivel keel with which the draft of the yacht can be reduced from six meters to two meters. The finished hull was brought to the coast 120 kilometers away by flatbed trucks. The aluminum hull was left untreated and received no protective paint. The sailing characteristics turned out to be excellent after extensive test trips off Greenland.
The construction of the yacht is very consistent down to the last detail. In addition to environmental protection, the yacht has also been ecologically optimized. Wind generators , hydrogen and solar cells are used to generate electricity . Flexible solar panels are attached to the sails. LED lamps and dimmable light sources are used to reduce power consumption . Cleverly placed light shafts created a bright ambience below deck. The pantry has a waste separation and recycling system. The yacht has space for 20 tons of waste deep in the hull. Mike Horn wants to use nets to recover floating plastic waste on the world's oceans and later dispose of it on land in an environmentally friendly manner.
Despite the environmental concerns, the yacht is equipped with two 440 hp diesel engines provided by sponsor Mercedes-Benz. They are the engines with the lowest emissions there is. Horn says that without a motor the yacht is not safe enough to move. The 37,000 liters of diesel are stored in many smaller tanks for safety reasons. Under the cockpit one were dinghy -Garage and a material storage installed.
The yacht is very modern for media work with flat screens , computer interfaces, communication center, conference room and interfaces for the production of film material.
If there is no new use for the yacht Pangea at the end of the 2012 project, which started in October 2008, Mike Horn plans to recycle it systematically.
Web links
- Photos: Pangea Gallery
- Homepage: Mike Horn - Pangea Expedition 2008-2012
- Homepage: Mercedes-Benz - Pangea Project
Individual evidence
- ↑ Expedition ship "Pangea" (video: yacht-tv) . yacht.de. November 25, 2008. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
- ↑ Mercedes Benz World: Pangea - Mike Horn - Explore, learn, act . Mercedes Benz. Archived from the original on December 6, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
- ↑ Get Nautos supply Deck Hardware for 105ft 'Pangea' . yachtsandyachting.com. March 13, 2008. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
