Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The promise of a fossil fuel-free motorboat

Hydrogen chase boats at the America’s Cup

Kiwi hydrogen-powered America’s Cup chase boat, “Case Zero.”
Kiwi hydrogen-powered America’s Cup chase boat, “Case Zero.”

Who knew that power boats would be the news at this year’s America’s Cup? The world’s oldest sporting competition — for sailboats, mind you — starts up again later this month in Barcelona, Spain. No San Diego Yacht Club presence this time, but at least the New York Yacht Club will be there, representing the U.S. with its foiling version of American Magic. The problem? Call it logistics. The latest yachts are so fast, their own chase boats sometimes can’t chase them down. Foilers can skim over the water at 50-plus miles per hour, and even if the chase boats can catch them, they have to use throat-choking amounts of throttle — read: CO2 exhaust pollution — to do it. Hardly a good ad for this “pollution-free” sport.

Then along comes the Chase Zero, the Kiwi chase boat that combines newly unleashed powers (unleashed by splitting hydrogen atoms) with foils — kinda underwater water skis — to lift most of the boat on top of the sea, just like the yachts themselves.

I’ve been following the reigning champs, New Zealand’s Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, as they readied this year’s defender, the 75-foot Tathoro, which is short for “taihoro nukurangi,” “to move swiftly, as the sea between sky and earth.” The Kiwis’ fame as innovators got a rocket boost back in 2013 when they wheeled from their shed a boat that actually lifted out of the water and skipped along on those thin foils, and so sailed way faster than any previous competitor ever had.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Four times, so far, the Kiwis have owned the 1848-crafted silver ewer: in San Diego in 1995, 2000 (off Auckland, New Zealand), 2017 (Bermuda), and 2021 (Auckland again). Okay, that record pales beside the New York Yacht Club’s 24 victories in a row between 1857 and 1983, but it is New Zealanders who are the current owners. And, this year, they have developed the world’s first pollution-free hydrogen-powered chase boat. And yet, Chase Zero still uses engines. That’s right: two Toyota hydrogen-burning fuel cells. Chase Zero can keep up with their yacht and then some, yet, incredibly, it costs Mother Earth absolutely nothing. In these CO2-conscious times, if nothing else, the Kiwis are surely ahead on the PR front.

Yes, the engines send out exhaust: H2O. Water! They aren’t any kind of total pollution solution — hydrogen is too bulky, and too expensive; and one reason industry loves it is because they can throw their fossil fuels through the same pipelines. But it is revolutionary. How revolutionary? A group called Energy Observer sent a similar power boat around the world without using an ounce of fossil fuel.

So what now? We should hold our breaths for hydrogen-powered cargo ships, and maybe also foiling, sailing superliners sliding into ’Diego Bay on that Norwesterly breeze from Hawaii and China. Talk about back to the future.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The Fellini of Clairemont High

When gang showers were standard for gym class
Kiwi hydrogen-powered America’s Cup chase boat, “Case Zero.”
Kiwi hydrogen-powered America’s Cup chase boat, “Case Zero.”

Who knew that power boats would be the news at this year’s America’s Cup? The world’s oldest sporting competition — for sailboats, mind you — starts up again later this month in Barcelona, Spain. No San Diego Yacht Club presence this time, but at least the New York Yacht Club will be there, representing the U.S. with its foiling version of American Magic. The problem? Call it logistics. The latest yachts are so fast, their own chase boats sometimes can’t chase them down. Foilers can skim over the water at 50-plus miles per hour, and even if the chase boats can catch them, they have to use throat-choking amounts of throttle — read: CO2 exhaust pollution — to do it. Hardly a good ad for this “pollution-free” sport.

Then along comes the Chase Zero, the Kiwi chase boat that combines newly unleashed powers (unleashed by splitting hydrogen atoms) with foils — kinda underwater water skis — to lift most of the boat on top of the sea, just like the yachts themselves.

I’ve been following the reigning champs, New Zealand’s Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, as they readied this year’s defender, the 75-foot Tathoro, which is short for “taihoro nukurangi,” “to move swiftly, as the sea between sky and earth.” The Kiwis’ fame as innovators got a rocket boost back in 2013 when they wheeled from their shed a boat that actually lifted out of the water and skipped along on those thin foils, and so sailed way faster than any previous competitor ever had.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Four times, so far, the Kiwis have owned the 1848-crafted silver ewer: in San Diego in 1995, 2000 (off Auckland, New Zealand), 2017 (Bermuda), and 2021 (Auckland again). Okay, that record pales beside the New York Yacht Club’s 24 victories in a row between 1857 and 1983, but it is New Zealanders who are the current owners. And, this year, they have developed the world’s first pollution-free hydrogen-powered chase boat. And yet, Chase Zero still uses engines. That’s right: two Toyota hydrogen-burning fuel cells. Chase Zero can keep up with their yacht and then some, yet, incredibly, it costs Mother Earth absolutely nothing. In these CO2-conscious times, if nothing else, the Kiwis are surely ahead on the PR front.

Yes, the engines send out exhaust: H2O. Water! They aren’t any kind of total pollution solution — hydrogen is too bulky, and too expensive; and one reason industry loves it is because they can throw their fossil fuels through the same pipelines. But it is revolutionary. How revolutionary? A group called Energy Observer sent a similar power boat around the world without using an ounce of fossil fuel.

So what now? We should hold our breaths for hydrogen-powered cargo ships, and maybe also foiling, sailing superliners sliding into ’Diego Bay on that Norwesterly breeze from Hawaii and China. Talk about back to the future.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The Fellini of Clairemont High

When gang showers were standard for gym class
Next Article

Wild Wild Wets, Todo Mundo, Creepy Creeps, Laura Cantrell, Graham Nancarrow

Rock, Latin reggae, and country music in Little Italy, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Harbor Island
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader