72hrs On My Unlimited Range Solar Boat

I bet a dis-masted sailboat with a small cabin and a centerboard keel would be PERFECT for your next boat project. Displacement hull, WAY more freeboard for mounting solar panels, a cabin to sleep in and get away from the sun and waves...I think sailboats are a legit use-case for solar propulsion, so it would probably interest sailing nerds too.

What totally blows my mind is, that we're at a point where you can PRINT large parts of a solar dinky, live on it for days, have it auto-pilot really well, have a video editing station on board, and being able to make fly-by and overhead footage ALL BY YOURSELF, and all this time be reasonably comfy. And it's completely sun-driven to boot. Just crazy.

I’m 19 and going to school for aerospace engineering and you truly are one of my biggest inspirations, thank you for quenching our thirst for these great engineering YouTubers. Hall of fame for sure!

Maybe try a catamaran hull on the next build? You could then have small displacement, make a big roof of solar, and have somewhere to build a cabin. I love this series. Thanks!

32:00 Woah, that's a KC-135! It's an air-to-air refueling tanker (you can see the boom arm and pod right below the tail when it passes over). It's probably part of the 92nd Air Refueling Wing out of Fairchild AFB since they have air-refueling training as part of the 509th.

The solar panel frame seems a little delicate. Maybe you could wrap a pool noodle around it? If it catches a wave, it should have ample buouyancy to glide over the top, preventing 'scooping damage'.

In terms of hull efficiency you may want to consider a small catamaran, say 16-20 foot, and put a rigid roof on it to mount the solar panels and keep you and the gizmos cool. Further propulsion efficiencies might be gained from putting a printed duct/cowl around your props and using a prop form optimized for that.

The flat ribbon of water is due to a subtle current. Currents are strange on dam-bounded lakes where you wouldn't expect. The old river channel is deeper, and that's just one thing that can cause subtle currents to do strange things. So, the wind is blowing just hard enough to kick up small waves, everywhere except where the current is already moving at that speed. OR, opposite, sometimes the wind blows the the other way, lightly, and it only scrapes up waves where the current is against it. I used to fish for bottom feeding catfish and knowing where the old channel was, helped locate them sometimes.

Create a low cover for the front of the boat that would keep your electronics out of the sun without blocking the solar panels yet allow wind to pass underneath. This would greatly help with overheating. Maybe even one for the back as well. Use light aluminum frame with cloth streched to keep rigidity. Leave the middle areas open for seating and such.

36:00 was the coolest shot of the whole video. Please do more astronomical time laps clips in your camping vids. It's just so cool to see the rotation of the earth via the movement of the stars.

The dedication of this man never ceases to amaze me

I really enjoyed this. There are not a lot of 39 minute YouTube videos I'd watch for the whole time but this was just so peaceful.

I feel like a trimaran is the ideal design for a solar boat. You've got large flat space between the outer pontoons and the center hull, and the pontoons keep the solar panels supported properly. The narrow hulls allow the boat to move through the water with little resistance, and they keep the boat super stable.

This film was like a short holiday, love all your engineering projects and the nature around your place. Greetings from Germany 😊

That funny looking structure on the shore looks like an old sawmill.😊

The harmonic, almost symbiotic relationship of your inner love of both tech and nature on full display. I dig it. Thanks for the inspiring video.

You’re an amazing person, Daniel! So glad you did this! 👍🏼 Thanks for taking us along…

I wonder how difficult it would be to automate the speed based on the fullness of the batteries: eg, once the batteries are fully, increase speed to match what the solar panels are providing, and then decrease speed as the sun starts to go down. And theoretically, you could have a servo drop anchor when the batteries drop to a set point so you could go to sleep and let the boat just keep cruising until the batteries go down. Probably not a good idea for safety but it's a neat idea.

"Just gotta make sure you don't hit anything, but other than that you just hang out" lmfao hell yea

I’m not even into electronics or doohickies but this channel always amazes me ….awesome bro