This Is Hu'chu 55: A Sailing Catamaran Made from Junk, Designed as a Permanent Home

Hu'chu 55 is the name of a future sailing catamaran with all-electric propulsion and features that render it completely self-sufficient even as a permanent home at sea. It doesn't exist just yet beyond the computer-generated images that you will also find in the gallery, but it will – soon.

Hu'chu 55 is the brainchild of Germany-born filmmaker, actor, and activist Daniel Roesner, conceptualized by the iYacht Design engineering studio. It's a sailing catamaran with all-electric propulsion but, in reality, it's so much more than that: it's a dream for a more sustainable, truly circular watercraft that can serve a variety of purposes, the most important of which being to show the industry how sustainability can be achieved.

On the face of it, that's both a noble and impossibly high goal, but Roesner believes he has all the right ingredients to get to it. The Hu'chu 55 will be made only from recycled and fully recyclable materials, natural fibers and materials, which will ensure its carbon footprint on the environment, during construction phase, operation, and at the end of its lifecycle, is zero.

The catamaran will sail by wind power almost exclusively, but it will also feature two electric motors of unspecified power and make, powered by a 100-kWh battery pack, to be used on days with no wind or in emergency situations. The battery will charge from the solar panels that line the entire upper part of the cat, but also through hydrogeneration and from wind turbines.

Alternative energy will help operate the cat but it will also run everything onboard. Features include a film studio for Roesner, as well as living quarters. He plans to live on the boat full-time, so he will need both. Alternative energy will also be used for the watermaker and the filtration system and to grow food while underway.

Roesner plans to use sunlight to heat water, and seawater to cool off the solar panels during the day.

Since he plans to live onboard and to do so with as minimal carbon footprint as as possible, it shouldn't probably come as a huge surprise that Roesner has added a vertical hydroponics garden on the features list. He will be growing vegetables as he travels the world and has also made provisions for a separate cabinet to grow for edible mushrooms and a Spirulina tank. Appliances in the galley will also run on electricity.

Named after his hometown (Hunsrueck, Germany) and the Malibu spot belonging to the Chumash Indians, where he learned to surf, the Hu'chu 55 will be 55 feet (16.7 meters) long. The multi-hull construction will afford more living space onboard than a single-hull of the same size, while the rig and sail system has been designed for easy handling from either the aft cockpit or the helm.

The introduction doesn't mention how many residents the catamaran can accommodate (and feed), so we assume easy handling of the sails is a clue that Roesner plans to do most traveling on his own.

As noted above, the catamaran will be built out of junk – scrap metal that will require the addition of minimal virgin material, if any at all.

Roesner himself will oversee the collection of some 90% of it and has already made arrangements in this sense: road signs, discarded license plates, leftovers from the automotive and construction sector, and shredded scrap from sorting and recycling plants. According to him, the resulting material will have 1/8th of the carbon footprint of the market average.

The almost utilitarian exterior will be paired with a contrasting, warmer interior, thanks to the use of recycled cork, natural fibers, and reclaimed wood. What isn't recycled, can't be recycled at the end of its lifecycle, or doesn't decompose won't have any place onboard this revolutionary cat, Roesner explains.

This is "the first catamaran designed entirely with the circularity of its elements in mind," he says. "It's a proof of concept that it IS possible to build an onceangoing vessel that is based entirely on already recycled materials, that is fully recyclable and uses only ecological technology to be self-sufficient," and will "showcase holistic, circular thinking."

While living onboard, Roesner will work on editing his films but he also plans to use the cat to meet with and aid researchers, divers, and other filmmakers on projects on environmental protection, research, and adventure. He also hopes to partner with major universities to that same end. These plans remain vaguely outlined for the time being, and for the obvious reason.

Until then, Roesner and the project itself still have a long road ahead. Roesner is now looking for partners and investors to take the project to the next stage, which will hopefully kick off once he finds a yard that specializes in aluminum construction and is willing to take on the construction of Hu'chu 55.