All language subtitles for impossible.engineering.s05e10.worlds.greatest.yacht.480p.webrip.x4.rmteam

This time on
"impossible engineering"...

The largest sailing yacht
on the planet...

Nobody has attempted to
do anything like this before.

This is one of a kind.

Nautical
construction on an epic scale...

It's like a living animal.

There's so much engineering
in this structure,

it's mind-blowing.

And the pioneering
historic innovations...

Eventually,
this airplane will stall

and fall out of the sky.

This is not how I usually
start my days.

That made
the impossible possible.

captions paid for by
discovery communications

sailing is the passion of
millions around the globe,

but when it comes
to harnessing the wind,

there's often a choice
to be made...

Size versus speed.

The two seldom go hand in hand.

But now a brand-new boat
is rewriting the rule book.

Black Pearl, the world's
largest sailing yacht.

Welcome to the Black Pearl...
106 meters,

7.2 meters of draft,

14 1/2 meters of beam,
sails at 22 knots.

We expect her to do 30 knots.

Without a doubt, that is unique.

Never before has
a yacht of this scale

been built to sail so fast.

Good morning.

Welcome on board
the sailing yacht Black Pearl.

Today, this $200 million feat
of engineering

is setting out on crucial
sea trials in Tarragona, Spain.

Captain Chris Gartner
heads up its crew.

The Black Pearl is completely
different

from almost every other
sailing ship ever built.

She's just designed to sail.

Drop the ground lines.

It is really a modern-day...

Miracle.

The world's largest
sailing yacht,

Black Pearl is the length
of 10 city buses.

Its tri-deck design is equipped
with a helideck,

state-of-the-art tender garage,

and can accommodate
38 guests and crew,

all powered through the sea by
an innovative three-masted rig

equipped with over 31,000
square feet of sail.

It is a sailing machine.

It is so on the cutting edge.

Yeah, it's exciting.

However, creating such
a vast vessel

poses many impossible
engineering challenges.

Looking good.

How do you ensure
the largest hull of its kind

will glide through the water...

- 14 close.
- Two, two, one.

And stand up to
the unpredictable ocean?

Every time we leave the dock,
it feels great.

But perhaps the biggest problem
is making this 328-foot-long,

nearly 3,300-ton superyacht
a world-class racer.

And we're only
10 degrees starboard

on turns that quick.

Peeewww!

We want to sail fast.

Sure, there's a lot of boats
out there that are real fliers,

but they're a quarter
of the size.

To get up to speed,
this marine giant requires

a staggering 31,215
square feet of sail area,

but how do you rig and control
such a vast amount of canvas?

Could a marvel from the past

help with this
seemingly impossible problem?

Well, this is not how
I usually start my days.

Naval architect Nick Bradbeer

is in Greenwich, London,

scaling a supersized
150-year-old speed machine...

I am climbing up a tall
ship's rigging,

and I've never done this before.

I'm a little bit nervous,
as well as excited.

That incredibly could provide

an answer for Black Pearl's
design challenge.

Equipped
with 154-foot-high masts,

the 278-foot-long
maritime masterpiece

was once one of the fastest
ships on the planet.

This is the Cutty Sark,

one of the last
surviving clipper ships,

and back in 1869,
when she was built,

she was an astonishing
piece of engineering.

This amazing vessel was
the result of a nation's quest

for a decent cup of tea,

a thirst that started 200 years
before it was built.

Tea was imported from
China, from India,

and it was all imported
by the east India company.

They were the only people
allowed to bring tea

into England.

With no competition,
their ships,

known as east indiamen,
weren't built for speed.

Their slow, bulky boats
now had a major problem.

Wealthy Londoners were
willing to pay a premium

for that first batch of tea
back from every harvest.

So an enterprising group of
merchants and sailors realized

that they could make
a lot of money,

and that meant they would need
a new kind of ship,

something that was much faster

than anything
that had gone before.

Scottish shipping entrepreneur

John "jock" Willis
and engineer Hercules Linton

came up
with a trailblazing solution.

The Cutty Sark was a legendary
British tea clipper named

because of her ability
to clip off the miles

at breakneck speed.

The Cutty Sark
was a very fast ship.

She did speeds up to 17 knots,

which is about twice as fast as
the ships that came before her

and actually is about
the same speed

as a lot of merchant ships
do today.

Her secret...
A towering square-rigged,

three-mast design,

a sailing powerhouse that could
inspire the Black Pearl's team.

One of the things that really
sets a clipper apart,

because she has to go fast,
is the sheer quantity of sail

that she's designed to carry.

Looking up, we've got 11 miles
of rigging, 32 sails,

nearly 3,000
square meters of canvas,

which is just
an unbelievable amount.

I can't even quite fit them
all in my field of vision.

She's just a machine
for carrying as much canvas

as possible
because it's all about speed.

The more sail she carries,
the faster she can go.

The Cutty Sark
and this new class of ship

slashed 20 weeks off
a round trip to China,

its awesome rig making the most
of whatever wind was available.

If you're in light wind,
you want to cram on

as much sail as you can.

If you're in a heavy wind,

then there's only so much sail
you dare pack on.

But the clipper captains
were driven by speed,

so even in high winds,

they keep packing it on
to keep that speed up.

The Cutty Sark spent the 1870s

speeding tea
across the world's oceans.

By the 1880s, she was working

the Australian wool
trade routes,

holding her own
against a new breed of ship.

Even in the age of steam,
she was still far outstripping

the speed of those steamships
over that long run.

She's a piece of history,

and she's an incredible piece
of engineering.

Like the Cutty Sark,

the Black Pearl
is built for speed.

In 2016, its super-sleek
hull is delivered.

But this engineering marvel
only comes to life

when its epic rig is installed.

Keep going. Keep going.
Keep going. Keep going.

Keep going. Keep going.
Keep going. Keep going.

That's it.
We're down.

Get the bolts in.

Inspired by
the historic clipper,

a trio of masts resembles
the Cutty Sark's iconic design,

but their 216-foot height
would tower above it.

Engineering on this scale
produces something special...

The world's largest
sailing yacht.

Chris Gartner captains
this extraordinary vessel

that's shaped by the past.

Based on all the
principles of the clipper ship,

we've incorporated everything
that worked for them

using modern-day technology
and materials,

and now we've built a flier.

Black Pearl's
standout engineering

is its game-changing
square-rigged mast system.

This is the dynarig
of the Black Pearl.

It's a carbon-fiber structure
that stands about 66 meters

from the water
up to the masthead.

There's so much engineering
in this whole structure,

it's mind-blowing.

Each of these three
masts is flanked by a series

of rib-like structures
known as yardarms.

These subdivide the rig
into 15 low-loaded sections,

allowing the engineers to unfurl
over 31,000 square feet of sail.

Today, a sail test is about
to get underway.

First, a manual inspection
must be carried out

on one of Black Pearl's
massive masts.

Going up there, I leave that
for the young guys.

In case they fall, we're not
really losing as much

as if I were to fall off
the rig.

The vertigo-inducing job falls
to rig master Declan clamp.

It's basically getting
hoisted up by winch.

And stop.

He's on truss number six,

and he will begin
his inspection from up there.

View's great.

Always a good view
from 60 meters up.

We take a lot of safeguards

in order to prevent any mishaps.

Everything's okay up here.

Cool.

You get a real scale
for the boat up here.

You realize how big it all is.

Now that the checks
are complete,

Chris can automatically bring
this engineering marvel to life.

And I'm going to set the sail.

Right now, the four
outhaul winches are pulling on

the four corners of the sail
and dragging the sail out.

It's fast to set.

Days of old, the poor sailors
on those boats would be working

their you-know-whats off...
Climbing up the rigs,

pulling them up
towards themselves

while they're balanced on
little, tiny footropes...

And to do all of their sails
probably would take them hours.

Today, Black Pearl's
sails can be set

in less than seven minutes.

But the Black Pearl's sails
can't just be quick to deploy.

They also need to be
quick to maneuver.

To make these megamasts
seaworthy,

the engineers behind the ship

must bring sailing
into the 21st century.

Revolutionary racing
yacht the Black Pearl

can deploy its massive sails
in a record seven minutes flat,

but how could engineers
keep their 31,215 square feet

maneuverable enough
to preserve the smooth ride

this luxury ship demands?

We simply rotate the rigs.

The entire mast rotates,

and that, in turn, trims
or eases for tuning the sails.

It just facilitates something
that's much easier to do,

much safer to do on a big ship.

The innovative engineering
that makes this possible

is concealed below deck.

Yeah, Declan, can you please
rotate the foremast 180?

Yacht manager Derek Munro
is putting it through its paces.

So, we're now in
the foremast's technical space,

and in here, we have the
foremast tube that comes down.

There are four of these
mast-rotation units

to turn the mast around as
and when we need it.

And in the middle,
as the mast rotates,

we need to manage the cables

so that they don't get
tangled up,

and that's what all this
is up here,

the cable management system.

This phenomenal technology

rotates 35 tons
of carbon-fiber mast.

Its immense capacity
for canvas propels

this 3,300-ton superyacht
to a jaw-dropping 20 knots.

It's revolutionary as far
as ease, safety, and efficiency.

When we have a full set
of sails up,

you can actually see
the masts moving.

It's like a living animal.

You can have a maximum of about
three to four meters of flex

at the masthead from zero.

These rigs are living
and breathing.

They're just moving
all over the place.

The dynarig is one of the most
incredible advances in sailing.

In fact, almost
everything about the Black Pearl

is wildly advanced.

It's the largest sailing yacht
in the world,

a brand-new engineering colossus
currently

taking marine engineering
into uncharted territory.

At almost 350 feet long and
weighing in at over 3,300 tons,

this mammoth ship is equipped
with two diesel engines.

But its crowning glory
is its trio of nearly

200-foot-high rotating rigs

capable of propelling
Black Pearl to over 20 knots.

It's captained by Chris Gartner.

The horn on the Black Pearl,

as impressive
as the rest of the boat.

Black Pearl's unique
supersized design

is built to race
and break records.

For her to fulfill that destiny,

every part needs to be
in ship shape.

Chief engineer Richard Tatlow
must ensure her hull

is in perfect shape.

When we're racing,
we're under sail,

and want to ensure that
everything underneath the hull

is as streamlined as possible
to maximize our speed,

'cause it's all about
winning the race.

- Hi, Alberto.
- How's it going?

Good.

So, currently,
the guys are getting up

with their dive equipment,

where they're gonna go down
underneath the hull

and they're gonna
clean our propellers.

They're also going to inspect
the rest of the hull

to make sure we haven't
got any growth

that can cause us drag.

Ooh.

It looks like a band.
Is it a band?

- It's a band.
- Yeah.

Can he see any gone inside?

Basically, what we're seeing
around the starboard propeller,

it looked like a rope.

And what we're also
looking at is

the starboard propeller
is heavily fouled.

So that needs to be cleaned.

It was a good call
to get this done.

The cleanup's not an issue.

But the propellers themselves
create a major problem.

Used in light winds and
to maneuver around harbors,

they permanently protrude
beneath the hull,

compromising Black Pearl's
underwater streamlining

when under sail.

The propellers are
always underneath there.

We can't retract the propellers.

We can only retract
our thrusters and our anchor.

The drag through
the water caused by this pair

of almost-four-foot-wide
propellers could thwart

Black Pearl's racing ambitions.

Could an innovation
from the past offer a solution

to this unfathomable problem?

The surprising answer for
Black Pearl can be found

at a British airfield.

Engineer Dan Dickrell
is discovering

a historic masterpiece

currently being brought back
to its former glory.

Look at this.

This is the c-47,
one of the most iconic,

legendary aircraft
of the second world war,

a plane famous
for dropping paratroopers

over occupied France on d-day.

It's a really
beautiful airplane.

It's easy to imagine
what it would have been like

going across the channel,
over enemy territory,

with flak going off.

In the event that this airplane
would lose an engine,

the only way to get back safely
is to maximize the ability

of the remaining engine
to get you to the ground safely.

But in an emergency,
the disabled engine's propellers

could create a major problem.

Sitting in the airflow,
they caused drag,

which burned precious fuel.

The solution was down
to American engineer

frank Caldwell.

He devised the hydromatic,

a propeller
which utilized hydraulics

to change
the pitch of its blades.

Known as feathering,

it's a process
that could help out Black Pearl.

In the event of losing
an engine, the pilot reaches up,

pulls the feathering button,

which feathers the blades
of the propeller.

The three propeller blades
will rotate,

taking the fat part of the blade
out of the airstream,

giving it the knife edge.

This reduces drag greatly
and effectively helps this plane

get home safely.

Today, Dan is putting
his faith in Caldwell's

brilliant invention
with a daredevil experiment

on board
a modern twin-engine plane.

So, currently,
we're about 3,500 feet,

going about 115 knots,

and we're gonna simulate
an engine failure.

When I give captain Rob
the signal,

he's gonna reach down
and cut the power

to that engine right there

and we're gonna see
what happens.

I can't believe
we're gonna do this.

All right, let's cut it.

And so, there's some
control instability.

There are some alarms
going off right now.

Even though the prop is turning,

that engine is actually
not generating any power.

It's called windmilling.

And the broad side of that prop
is facing the oncoming air.

It's creating a lot of drag.

So to maintain this altitude...

Eventually, this airplane will
stall and fall out of the sky.

This is not a great situation
at all to be in.

Now... yeah.

So, we got a stall warning.

Luckily, this plane is equipped

with a Caldwell-inspired
variable-pitch propeller.

The solution to this problem is
we're gonna feather the engine.

So go ahead and feather, please.

All right.

So, instantly, there was
an effect on the plane,

and while it looks scary...

The prop's not
turning anymore...

We feathered the blades.

Now the knife edge
is into the wind.

The airspeed, it's slowly
increasing.

So the good engine doesn't have
to do as much work.

We're no longer in danger
of literally

falling out of the sky.

Since its launch, the hydromatic

has transformed air safety...

An engineering breakthrough

that has helped shape
the history of flight.

The team at Black Pearl
has been inspired

by this aeronautical
game changer,

but their pitched propellers
cut through the waves.

- Copy that. All lines off.
- All lines off.

Captain Chris Gartner
is using the props

to maneuver the enormous
superyacht into open water

for today's important
sailing trial.

Copy that.
Thank you.

See, we got a little bit
of wind today.

Might be good sailing.

Below deck, chief engineer
Richard Tatlow can monitor

Black Pearl's
cutting-edge propeller system

from its nerve center,
engine control.

As you can see
under the water here,

our propeller
is obviously rotating,

providing propulsion
for the vessel.

Currently, we have a pitch
of around about 70%.

So we have... there's the shaft
line, and there's the blades,

and we have about
that much pitch on it.

And things are looking
pretty good.

As the Black Pearl goes through
her extraordinary metamorphosis

and her spectacular
sailing apparatus emerges,

will the propellers pitch
as necessary,

or will they be a huge drag
as the ship aims to set records?

The Black Pearl is
about to embark

on an important sailing trial.

In order to reach its peak
performance,

the team needs to test
the pitching propellers

inspired by frank Caldwell's
brilliant aerospace

engineering concepts.

We would like to set
sails in 10 minutes.

Is everything away?

Yeah, we're all set, Chris.

No problems.
Just living the dream.

The nearly 4-foot-wide
controlled-pitch propellers

go through a change coordinated
with the opening of the sails

in order to complete this
streamlined sailing machine.

From a 70%-pitched
motoring position,

the blades are
electronically feathered

to what's known as zero pitch.

So, now you can see the props
are no longer turning.

The blades are in
a feathered position,

in their least
resistant position.

So now we're sailing, and we're
dragging them through the water,

and they are not
slowing us down any.

The water flows so
efficiently over the blades,

Black Pearl's sailing speed
is increased by two knots.

However, the propeller's
ingenious engineering

doesn't end there.

On this giant boat,

which consumes the same
electricity as 25 family homes,

the propeller's pitch can be
altered to generate power

when under sail.

We can turn them
into a form of a turbine.

Because we can control
the pitch,

we can allow them to rotate,
and as they rotate,

they couple together
on the main shaft line

into an electric motor.

We can then generate
electricity.

And the Black Pearl needs all
the electricity she can get

because she's loaded
to the gills

with cutting-edge technology.

The main hub
is the ship's bridge,

where captain Chris Gartner

has some of this mind-blowing
equipment at his disposal.

I think
the sailing station is really

what makes this boat special.

Nothing in the world has this.

In order to sail the boat,
it requires one person.

We can control all masts
and turn the rigs all at once,

or just an individual one.

This page here is how we control

which sails we would like to set
at that particular moment.

So you just simply select them,
and we'll be able to deploy

all the sail area
in less than seven minutes.

This automated rig
is one of a kind,

but its mammoth proportions

create a big problem
for its engineers.

The huge masts
and Black Pearl's sheer scale

places the body of
the ship under immense pressure.

As far as
the Black Pearl, with the hull,

with its length overall,

all the forces get exerted
onto the boat itself

by the rigs, the sea.

There is a lot of twisting
and a lot of movement.

The engineers need
a lightweight material

to competitively race,
but for a boat this size,

if it's not
exceptionally strong,

the entire hull could fail.

If it does go wrong,

not only could it be
catastrophic for the boat,

but it could be tragic
for someone's life.

Can the pioneers of
the past help out

with this seemingly
impossible problem?

The solution for the Black Pearl
lies in Philadelphia.

Local historian Max Kaiserman
is discovering

a maritime game changer

borne from necessity in
the aftermath of the civil war.

The civil war had destroyed

most of what was left
of the old sailing Navy,

and they really
hadn't rebuilt yet.

The ships that were still left
in the U.S. Navy

in early 1880s
were wooden ships.

The U.S. Navy really
needed to step up

to a more modern material.

It was secretary of
the Navy William Chandler

who came up with the solution,
a new breed of ship

constructed with
a revolutionary material.

So, what we're standing next to
is the U.S.S. Olympia.

She's the oldest steel warship
left in the world.

The shift from wood to iron
to steel was monumental.

Iron was brittle.

Wood was incredibly costly
and weak compared to steel.

Made by chemically
modifying iron,

steel is incredibly
strong and light.

Much of Olympia's hull
is under an inch thick,

the perfect lightweight solution

for her high-speed
seaborne operations.

The Olympia represents,
actually,

an entirely new type
of Navy and a hull

that was able to withstand
hurricanes, high seas,

and armor-piercing shells
from other ships.

In the depths of the hull,

the malleable quality of steel
comes into its own.

The steel here
is curved into place.

It can be welded.

You can see where the plates
are riveted together.

None of that's possible
with wood.

It's almost impossible
with iron.

Her sleek lines
and super-lightweight steel hull

enabled Olympia to steam
at 10 knots

for almost 15,000 miles
without refueling.

And in the heat of battle,

this new material offered
unprecedented protection.

Where we are now is actually

one of the few places
that's armored.

Around the 5-inch guns
is about five inches thick.

This steel armor could protect
beyond anything wood

or iron could do.

By 1898,
the trailblazing steel ships

had transformed the U.S. Navy
from obscurity

to a global military power.

I think Olympia is a marvel
of engineering.

But the Black Pearl
is bigger and badder.

To apply the brilliant
engineering

behind the U.S.S. Olympia,

the designers behind
this built-for-speed megayacht

will have to supersize.

Thanks to American
visionary William Chandler,

steel has enabled
Black Pearl's engineers

to build the largest
sailing yacht in the world.

With 21st-century technology
at their disposal,

this cutting-edge giant is
longer than the U.S.S. Olympia,

but at 3,300 tons,

it's virtually half
the historic ship's weight.

And it's still
remarkably strong.

As far as the material
used in the Black Pearl,

steel is definitely
the best choice.

You know, there's the safety
favors, the strength factors,

and it certainly resists
so much,

you know, from corrosion.

It's not so affected by
the elements of the saltwater.

The 790-ton hull

carries over
1,400 tons of outfitting weight

and 330 tons of ballast.

Its unique shape took 14 months

to construct in a Rotterdam
shipyard in the Netherlands.

The flexible quality of steel

as thin as eight millimeters
allowed engineers

to form a streamlined hull
built for speed.

A lightweight aluminum
superstructure

saves vital weight,
delivering the impossible,

a 350-foot-long superyacht
designed to break records.

But perhaps the standout
engineering

is Black Pearl's
one-of-a-kind bow.

The special thing about this is,
as you can see,

it doesn't look like
any other bow

you'll see on any other
motorboat or sailing boat.

The shape of the bow
at the lower end

makes her very efficient
through the waves.

Instead of riding through them,
she tends to ride over them,

but it's fine enough
at the same time

that she'll slice through
whatever you get,

but it just means
she's much faster.

I think when everyone sees
how efficient this bow is,

it would be a bit silly
if someone didn't copy it.

Black Pearl's design
is so advanced,

its team is targeting
the 30-knot barrier,

a first for a sailing yacht
of this size.

It excites me a lot to be
a part of this

to try to break these records.

It's just an amazing, amazing,
amazing sailboat.

But a new, ambitious
transatlantic goal

presents more challenges for the
world's largest sailing yacht.

But to make its Mark,
this audacious yacht

must have staying power at sea.

Millions of dollars
have been pumped

into innovative technology

developed to make
Black Pearl self-sufficient.

So, as you can imagine,
on Black Pearl,

water consumption
can be quite high.

So what we do is,
we try and minimize

that as much as possible.

So this is actually raw sewage

that's being compressed
through a membrane system,

then a series of fine filters
through a treatment plant.

That water is just used for
basically washing down the boat,

but apparently... I have been
told by the manufacturers

that you can drink it.

And, no, I haven't been
brave enough to try.

Black Pearl's
sustainable systems

and regenerating propellers
are cutting-edge,

but even these aren't
enough to cope

with the owner's latest
audacious goal,

a fossil fuel-free
transatlantic crossing.

To cross the Atlantic
with zero fossil fuels

means that we need
to manage the power

on the boat very carefully.

We have all the comforts
of home,

and we want to try
and keep them going.

On a megayacht with
the same energy demands

as a small residential street,
completing a 12-day, zero-carbon

crossing seems
an impossible challenge.

But an out-of-this-world
historic innovation

could offer
a sustainable solution

for the world's biggest
sailing yacht.

To make it across the Atlantic
without a carbon footprint,

engineers behind the Black Pearl
sailing yacht

are taking inspiration
from an unlikely source...

Early satellites.

Physicist Suzie Sheehy
is visiting Brittany in France,

discovering how the answer
to the Black Pearl's

power problems
originated in the stars.

At the moment,
there's about 2,000

satellites orbiting the earth,

and they're doing everything
from TV to data communications.

But of course,
they weren't always up there.

This radome is at the
Pleumeur-Bodou telecom center,

and this has
an incredible history

in the development
of satellite telecommunications.

It's absolutely incredible,
and it's enormous!

During the 1950s,

a new era
of space exploration unfolded.

And with it came the potential

to transform
global communications.

Early satellite experiments
successfully relayed signals

to and from space.

It wasn't long before
the global stage was beckoning.

Engineers in the U.S.

Came up with an ambitious
new project.

They wanted to send
live TV images

from the U.S.
to Europe and beyond.

So this is what
they came up with.

This is Telstar, which is a
global communications satellite.

It can take live images
from the U.S.

Up into space and back
down to Europe,

transmitting them
across the earth.

But achieving this meant

overcoming a massive problem.

Like Black Pearl sailing
across the vast oceans,

to be viable, Telstar had to be
totally self-sufficient

in the isolated vacuum of space.

Early satellites were
powered by batteries,

and in orbit,
they'd only last a week

or sometimes days before
the battery would go flat.

So to keep the satellites
up there for longer,

scientists had to come up
with a new solution.

In 1954, bell lab engineers
Calvin Fuller, Gerald Pearson,

and Daryl Chapin were developing
silicon transistors

when they made
an unexpected discovery.

One of their transistors began
producing electricity

when exposed to light.

Silicon had the potential

to produce the first practical
form of solar power.

A section between differentially
charged silicon layers acts

as a junction,
allowing electrons to migrate,

creating an electric field,
a process stimulated by light.

And it's the flow of those
electrons

that provides
an electric current

which allows us to do work,
such as powering a calculator.

And you can see there's actually
a couple of little solar cells

just on the top
of the calculator here.

The infinite power
of the silicon solar cell

was the perfect solution
for space.

But can engineers utilize
the same technology

to keep the Black Pearl
powered up at sea?

In 1962, the Telstar
satellite was launched,

equipped with a game-changing
innovation...

Silicon solar cells.

They actually coated
Telstar with 3,600 solar cells

mounted on platinum and coated
with sapphire to protect them

from the high levels
of radiation in space.

And that allowed it to produce
about 14 watts of power,

enough for it to relay
about 600 telephone calls

and a live TV feed.

To complete a historic live

transatlantic satellite
broadcast,

Telstar received signals
from the United States,

magnified them by 10 billion
before beaming them here

to France's
mammoth telecom center.

This antenna is the first place

that received the signal
from Telstar.

They actually transmitted a TV
broadcast

featuring president Kennedy.

I understand that part of
today's press conference

is being relayed by the Telstar
communication satellite

to viewers across the Atlantic,
and this is another indication

of the extraordinary world
in which we live.

The success of Telstar helped
demonstrate

how good solar technology was,
not just up in space,

but also down here on earth.

From the vacuum
of space to the vast seas,

Black Pearl's engineers
have been inspired

to develop
their own solar technology.

Their ambitious goal...

To sail the world's largest
yacht across the Atlantic

without burning any fossil fuel.

One of the solutions we've been
looking at

for the last few years is
to put solar cells on the sails.

Firstly, we need to consider
the weight,

we need to consider
the flexibility,

and we need to consider
the cable connections.

So that takes us to a technology
which is called cigs,

which is about the thickness
of a piece of paper.

At just half a millimeter thick,

the engineers plan to bond

this super-lightweight
cutting-edge system

to Black Pearl's sails without
compromising their performance.

The solar cells.
It's very, very flexible.

We can easily get the rotation
on the sail.

We'll probably end up,
if we're lucky,

at 50% of that with solar cells.

That's about 15,000
square feet of solar technology

mounted on Black Pearl's
15 sails,

set to deliver around
22% efficiency

through a network of cabling
to the ship's 384 batteries.

We should get enough power
to run the vessel

with all the crew on board
and all systems running,

which means we should get around
about 160 to 170 kilowatt-hours.

It's enough to provide us with
enough power to run the boat

without the requirement
for fossil fuels.

When it happens, it will be
an amazing piece of engineering

and it'll be phenomenal
to see it,

and it's just one more step
that we're taking in the future

to making the boat
a little bit greener.

By pushing
the engineering envelope,

this team is opening up
the world's oceans

to the remarkable Black Pearl.

Nobody, to my knowledge,
has attempted

to do anything like this before.

No.
This is one of a kind.

Black Pearl is, without
a doubt, the most unique

and best sailing vessel
of her type.

Every day, we go out on
sea trials or sailing.

It still, you know,
gets my heart going.

By building on the work

of the inspirational pioneers
of the past,

adapting, and making
discoveries of their own,

the engineers are succeeding in
making the impossible possible.

To be part of a project
that is so groundbreaking,

like the Black Pearl is,
is super exciting,

and I can't wait to continue on

and make this one
of the most famous boats

ever to sail the seas.