TORQEEDO CRUISE 4.O FP
THE POD DRIVE
Voila....this is it. The old engine, the tank, the tubes, the smell, the fuel, the holes for emission and cooling water are all gone. They are being replaced by this little shining plug inside the boat, and the sleek pod and folding propeller underneath it.
4) A VOTE FOR SUPPORTERS – Nov 3, 2022
Five more days to go before the voting door closes. This time we will be honoring a few of the great people who have supported this project since we started on World Environment Day in Oslo 2018. Great people can move mountains and this project would not have been what it is without all of them backing us.
Voting for the Smaragd is a vote for electric sailing, for youth and for our supporters, but possibly, even more so, for re-use, up-cycling, and caring for the limited resources we have available on this planet. As simple as that, and if that is enough for you, here's the link to the voting blog post (Voting Closed).
Talking about great people. The current world population is 7.98 billion as of November 2022 according to the most recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometer. In order for us to get on top of the mountain again – meaning basically the climate situation – we need to try to be loyal to the goals that have been agreed upon and signed by the Heads of State in 196 countries. Signed already back in 2015. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
UN's Secretary-General at the time, Ban Ki-moon, called it "Humanity's most important To-Do-List" and he was probably right. If we focus on these goals together, we can make life on this planet so much better. The odds should be good. If we can place a vehicle that drives around on planet Mars, we should be able to handle a soda bottle on planet Earth. And manage to ditch fossil fuels faster while harvesting the energy we need from the sun.
Our little project has been guided by 9 of these 17 goals. We just decided to go for them. Nobody needs to ask the UN for permission to start working toward these goals. They are there for a reason. Just do it. Read them and use your common sense and get some people together and get going.
We did read them and shaped our own six 100% missions. Things we felt could be reasonable to strive for onboard our sailboat. What we learned is that more or less everything we found suitable for life onboard, is applicable to everyday life back home as well. Or anywhere else for that matter.
100% FOSSIL FUEL FREE
100% TOXIC FREE
100% ZERO WASTE
100% SOLAR FOOD
100% FEMALE RACING
100% OCEAN ARTIVISM
Sailing 7.660 nautical miles up around Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea does not mean perfect conditions all the time even if most of our images were shot on those days. Thunderstorms, heavy rain, snowfall, and harsh winds are of course conditions we face as well. Or no wind at all. Boring, but those are the moments when thinking of our supporters enlightens the mood the most. Being supported when sailing for a purpose, is pure gold. It makes all those wet and cold moments worthwhile.
DEE CAFFARI MBE / WORLD SAILING TRUST What a blessing and honor to have you as our Patron. We grew a lot just knowing you acknowledged us and meeting up on Zoom when we launched in Stockholm in 2020 was fantastic. Our female racing crew grew even more, and your comforting greeting to them when sailing the Gotland Runt Race is a treasure we all will keep in our hearts.
LOUISE DEDICHEN / ROYAL NORWEGIAN NAVY We could not have had a better start on World Environment Day than you coming down to Aker Brygge and officially kicking us out onto the water for this adventure. An Admiral from The Royal Norwegian Navy! Being 50% Norwegian I wish my grandparents were there in spirit to see it happen.
NORA J HEYERDAHL / NORWEGIAN PARLIAMENT We admire your guts for, with only 30 minutes notice, pack a bag, bike down to Aker Brygge, and jump onto a sailboat with Klara, Erik, and me – three people you had never met before. Your ambitions and accomplishments in the green sector and in the Norwegian Parliament are so great to see and read about. And your book – haha, so cool and with spot-on insights for old-school uncles!
ANDREAS GYLLENHAMMAR / SWECO The Jämtland's Al Gore...it has been very inspiring to work together and share thoughts with you over the years and we bow for your insights along the road and for the great interview we made in Gotland back in 2019. I have still not given up on the green screening concept by the way...
STEPHANIE GERRETSEN / UNEP CLEAN SEAS Being welcomed as a partner for UNEPs Clean Seas is truly an honor and has truly strengthened the depth of this project's purpose and performance. Looking forward to continuing on the path and cooperation we've started for our blue ocean and seas – an assignment more important than what one can grasp.
MARTIN HASSELLÖV / GOTHENBURG UNIVERSITY Our science advisor and rock when it comes to scientific boundaries and marine questions and answers. Borrowing your microplastics trawl back in 2018 gave us a crash course straight into one of the world's most urgent environmental dilemmas. It definitely sparked an interest in oceanography and led to partnerships with UNEP Clean Seas and further onto The UN Ocean Decade Program via Sailing4 Science. Can't wait to get out on the water together for more ocean missions.
JULIA, HELEN, AND INGA / ESTONIA-LATVIA The wonderful EST-LAT Interreg friends from East Baltics who turned a pretty naive idea into a bet – that we would never make it to Tallinn. Here is the quote: "I talk to many people who spend months going from Stockholm to Tallin, What makes you think you can cover four times the distance in half the time without a proper engine? You gonna be cold, wet, and disappointed."
CHRISTOPH BALLIN / TORQEEDO The Steve Jobs of electric engines for boats, and CEO of Torqeedo at the time. Starting in a garage creating a world-leading brand and service network and never giving up helping a sailor who wanted to make a "Tesla on Water" already 2018 by being 100% off-grid power independent. It is great to see the innovative development of electric engines for boats nowadays, and it brings hope to the up-cycling of the global sailboat fleet.
HENRIK KEIM & CO / KGK MOTOR The loyalty from Henrik and KGK Motor can't be valued high enough. Thank you. During these years we have had lots of encounters with the hydrogeneration, charging, updates, changes, and testing of engines, and everything else between the pod and the battery bank. What they don't know about electricity's watts, volts and amperes are not worth learning about.
NICLAS LINDELL / LIDKÖPINGS BÅTSNICKERI The leader of the Up-Cycling Wizard Team at the shipyard. Managed the transformation from fossil fuel to electric, and from an almost 30-year-old sailor into a shining carrier for hope and new ideas. And a home for a larger crew than anyone of us would ever imagine back then in 2018.
CHRISTIAN FEODOROFF / SEA BOOST OY A coating David against Goliath trooper, having the guts to fight the dominant brands in the anti-fouling industry by introducing a toxic-free anti-fouling on the northern European market. A coating that gets hard as glass and works well to brush if keeping an extra eye on the barnacles. Also, a great supporter when our boat turned into a canvas for Julia’s artistic expressions.
FAMILY, CREW MEMBERS, FRIENDS, PARTNERS... The list goes on and on...will stop here and include everybody else in some form and in times to come. The book, the film, the seminars, the interactive AI-experience...who knows where all these great people and experiences will pop up? One thing is obvious though – this has been really fun and we're utterly grateful for everybody involved and everything that has happened.
Sailing into Oslo on August 28 this year was meant to be the grand finale, but we feel now that it possibly was just the beginning of something bigger.
Your kind vote can absolutely make it very much bigger:-) https://www.100sunwindwater.com/single-post/nominated-the-world-s-best-electric-sailboat-2022
Thank you, and hugs from all of us🙏🏼🥰🌏☀️💨🌊