Marathon 2005

SOLORAY
FLAGSHIP

Ron and Jenni Mathews in their Soloray Flagship are more then half the way down the Murray River. They have covered 1100Km in 19 days, despite the weather being mostly overcast, lot of time raining and sometimes strong winds as well. All the traveling is done on solar energy only. They have only two batteries which at best would last them up to 6 hrs of traveling.

They purchased Soloray Flagship from me, equipped for a trip down the
Murray River, over 2000km trip, on solar energy.

They have 8 solar panels, 2 motors, one with autopilot.

First part of the trip I did go with them.

I had another boat, Soloray Explorer with 4 solar panels.
We did the first stage of this together, from Albury to Yarrawonga,
about 230km distance. We did this in less then 4 days.
All on solar energy. Great way to travel.

It proves beyond doubt that this type of energy usage is on par with the
traditional usage of wind propulsion. It means that solar powered boats are
not just for experimenting and racing under special conditions, but it
proves they could be a practical proposition is some special sircumstances
where combustion engines are not allowed, muscle power would not last and
sailing is not suitable.

Ron tells me that the biggest problems they have are all the skiing boats at
many reagions of the river.

Usually they start at 6am and carry on untill sunsett. Most of time they
ignore the no wake and speed limits signs and consequently make the journey not as pacefull as they were hoping for, like we experienced in the upper section, from Albury.

Regards

Michael Haber

Haber Pilot Pty Ltd

NEWS