"What began as a family venture, has evolved into the desire to professionally build sailing yachts. Christophe Schepens (an engineer and certified RYA Yachtmaster) has established Optimus Yachtbuilders in Belgium. They will be building ZERO-emission sailing cats near Antwerp. For their first yacht, an Optimus 45, they'll combine the very light and performance-oriented composite construction (foam, carbon, epoxy) with the electric propulsion and charging systems of Oceanvolt. Sizing of Lithium battery-banks and solar capacity will be optimized in collaboration with the Flemish Innovation partner VITO. All the yachts will be built to comply with CE-certification A. The first ZERO-emission "Optimus 45" can be expected in the water second quarter of 2017. Optimus Yachtbuilders will be offering the complete Arrow Series by Schionning Designs as ZERO-emission, high performance sailing cats."
Technology used in the zero emission Optimus 45 catamaran:
- Designer: Schionning Designs
- Boatbuilder: Optimus Yachtsbuilders
- Lenght overall: 13.6 m
- Beam: 7.4 m
- Boat weight: 6800 kg
- Electric motor system: 2 x Oceanvolt SD10 electric saildrive motors
- Electric motor system nominal power: 2 x 10kW
- Electric motor system voltage: 48 V