The Houseboat Centre has already completed four Solar Power projects and is currently preparing for the fifth.
- The Houseboat Centre’s second home was a wooden Chalet built beside a lake where research into houseboat style plumbing, rainwater collection and solar power generation was undertaken.
- Moving to it’s third home on the shore of Lake Colibita The next project was a Self-driving solar powered boat with remote digital controls. This was successfully completed. The research boat has now been sold and you can buy car-toppable self-driving solar boat kits and parts resulting from that research at e-marine.uk .
- The next project was a small (7 metre = 21′ )all-electric solar powered houseboat for canals lakes and slower rivers. You can see what happened on https://www.facebook.com/marextouringsport/ .
4. the next progression was among other things, to try using a catamaran hull to see how that helped the low powered electric motors. Trials have been concluded . The cathedral hull did help a little and made the boat very stable. Not a major difference though. See the boat here. https://www.facebook.com/RekopR600
5. The current project boat is a Rocca Panthera 232, 6.48 metres long by 2.27 metres beam
There is full headroom in the cabin a two burner gas cooker, a sink and a toilet.
currently has a single 170 hp Mercruiser diesel engine with outdrive leg.
Displacement 1600 Kg. Reduced displacement after removal of engine, drive leg and fuel tank is now 1200Kg.
https://www.facebook.com/Rocca-Panthera-108380781071165
