Hummba and the Tûranor's solar voyage

Twenty-nine minutes short of 585 days.

This is the exact amount of time it took for the MS Tûranor PlanetSolar to sail around the world. Using only solar power, the double-hull catamaran officially gained a place in the Guinness Book of World Records when it became the first solar electric vessel to circumnavigate the globe on the 4th of May, 2012.

Designed by Craig Loomes, of New Zealand, the Tûranor’s name is taken from The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, and it means “Power of the sun”. Built at a cost of €12.5 million, the boat looks like something from outer space. It’s topped with 500 square metres of solar-panels, and comes in at 31-metres in length. You can find out more about the dimension of the boat here.

Hummba was fortunate enough to be chosen as one of the official media partners for the boat’s nearly 60,000-kilometre journey. The Tûranor’s crew posted hundreds of picture postcards as they literally took Hummba around the world. Using mobile GPS technology, members of the Hummba travellers’ community could follow the Tûranor’s route and even interact with the crew along the way.

Hummba followed the Tûranor as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Monaco to Miami, and then as it passed through the famous Panama Canal on the way to the mysterious Galapagos Islands. From there the boat made its way across the Pacific Ocean to the Australian east coast, where it stopped in Brisbane before heading up, over the equator, to Hong Kong. Heading back south, the Tûranor stopped over in Singapore before making its way to Sri Lanka and Mumbai. A security detail then joined the crew after a quick stop-over in Abu Dhabi and communications were cut with the outside world as they travelled through the dangerous, pirate-infested waters of East Africa. The Tûranor came back on the radar as they passed through the Suez Canal and into the safer waters of the Mediterranean before finally arriving back in Monaco. You can see a map of the voyage here.

Upon the boat’s arrival back home, Hummba CEO Mark Allewell said, “We never imagined the wealth of information that our partnership with PlanetSolar would produce. Looking at the postcards as the crew uploaded them onto Hummba was a truly humbling experience. We now have an incredible archive of the Tûranor’s voyage, which can be easily accessed by anyone.”

But what’s next for the MS Tûranor PlanetSolar? According to the PlanetSolar website, the voyage was part of a plan to further advance and develop solar energy technologies. On top of that, talks with potential partners are also underway to ensure that the Tûranor itself is put to good use. The vessel has already proved itself as an incredible educational tool that can be used to help introduce people of all ages to the value of renewable energies.

From all of us here at Hummba, we’d like to once again congratulate all those involved in the voyage of the MS Tûranor PlanetSolar. We also look forward to following the boat on its next great solar adventure.

If you’d like to view the Tûranor’s postcards, you can view their Hummba profile here or you can visit hummba.com to upload postcards of your own.

Happy (solar) travels!