Bakri Cono making history with first solar assisted luxury catamaran
A job well done: Bernard Lamprecht
and Philippe Guenat congratulate each other and the hard working staff as the
Heliotrope is rolled out of the shipyard.
James Nicholls
Just 30 years of age, Bernard Lamprecht is the CEO and Financial
Director of the Bakri Cono shipyard. This young South African who now runs the
Bakri Cono yard founded in 2004 by his enterprising father, Corrie, is a man who
brings innovative thinking to every aspect of his work at the yard which he
describes as, “Not the cheapest, but well known in South East Asia, as the
best.”
Bernard realised about six or seven years ago that there was an opportunity in
the market place to build luxury catamaran powerboats. Working with his team and
world famous Ukrainian naval architect, Albert Nazarov of Albatross Marine
Design, which is also based locally, Lamprecht was looking for new and better
ways to build better boats. It was then that fate dropped by to create an
environment in which they were able to build ‘Heliotrope’, their new 65’, 19.27
metre extreme luxury expedition cruiser, and the first luxury solar assisted
catamaran.
Bakri Cono Shipyard Director of
International Sales Philippe Guenat (left) and MD Bernard Lamprect (right)
proudly welcome former astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria (2nd left) and Eco
Adventurer Raphael Domjan (2nd right), two distinguished members of the Bakri
Cono technical advisory board at the launch of the Heliotrope, the 1st solar
assisted luxury catamaran yacht in the world.
Fate came calling when Heliotrope’s owner, a woman of
singular conviction, knew exactly what she wanted built but could not find a
yard anywhere willing to undertake the work to her requirements and encompassing
her environmental desires. Indeed she was ridiculed and laughed at wherever she
discussed the idea of a ‘self-contained’ vessel of this size and style. That was
until, whilst at a cocktail reception on business in Thailand, she happened to
meet with Swiss national, Philippe Guenat, an international yachtsman of some
repute in his youth having done the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race and
well known in this region as the President of the Hoteliers Commission of
Thailand. Philippe, who lives in Pattaya, is now the Chairman of the Technical
Advisory Board of the Bakri Cono yard and a driving force within the
organisation responsible for international development and strategic business
partnerships. The owner wanted a solar-powered boat and Bakri Cono, already
thinking along those lines, needed an order. For once she was not laughed at but
was talking the same language as the team at Bakri Cono. And so some three years
and $2.4 million dollars later, Heliotrope is launched with the traditional Thai
Monk’s blessing.
Philippe Guenat lovingly taps the
Heliotrope to wish her everlasting smooth sailing, safe anchorages and
breath-taking sunsets.
The amount of attention to detail and clever thinking that
has gone into the creation of Heliotrope is immense. It is a forerunner of mixed
energy marine transportation and this pioneering spirit has been engendered by
two more members of the yard’s technical advisory board. Raphael Domjan, another
Swiss national, has perhaps the highest credentials of anyone on the planet of
the understanding and practical use of solar energy. It was Raphael, who is the
president and founder of the Swiss Foundation for Sustainability and the
PlanetSolar project in which the boat ‘Turanor’ completed the first ever
circumnavigation of the planet solely using solar energy when launched at the
beginning of the decade, and which set a Transatlantic speed record of 22 days
in 2013. The knowledge and ideas behind Turanor PlanetSolar, virtually a
floating solar panel of nearly 35 metres in length, which also collects eight
tonnes of marine rubbish and polluting material as it sails across the oceans,
has been brought to bear in the philosophy and technology of Heliotrope. Raphael
is aware, however, that commercially, solar energy cannot go the whole way in
running luxury craft just yet, but he has no doubt that one day it will be the
way that all boats are powered at speed. As he says, “Before we had steam we had
wind and steam. Things take time to develop and so in the same way at present we
can harness diesel power and solar.”
A revered Buddhist monk sprinkles
lustral water on the Heliotrope calling on all that is holy to bless and
safeguard her.
Heliotrope is an enormous step forward in this development
and whilst she is powered by two traditional (though state of the art) marine
diesel engines, all of her ancillary power is derived from solar energy.
Heliotrope is capable of producing seven kilowatts using solar power which
provides all the power necessary to maintain and run the vessel without the need
for a generator or shore power. Electricity can be utilised in the most remote
parts of our world without the need for noisy and polluting generators. Indeed,
using the sophisticated CZone system from New Zealand the boat can be completely
controlled by iPad in absentia, meaning essential services such as ventilation
can be programmed and controlled whilst the boat has no-one aboard, even over
lengthy periods of time. Not only can Heliotrope’s solar panels provide direct
220v power, any additional unused power generated goes to the batteries for
recharge. At the same time the challenges of solar power on water, high
temperatures, humidity, damage to components by movement at sea and the like,
have been eliminated due to the knowledge and the experiences of Raphael Domjan
and the PlanetSolar project.
Bernard Lamprecht listens intently
as Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome graces the launch ceremony.
Heliotrope is one of the most technologically advanced and
sophisticated boats on the water due to Domjan and another advisory board
member, astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who left NASA in 2012 and is now the
President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Lopez-Alegria holds many
records, not the least of which are for the longest spaceflight (215 days), most
number of times of getting out of a craft in space with ten Extra-vehicular
Activities (EVA) and has spent more cumulative EVA time, 67 hours 40 minutes,
than anybody else. Like Domjan, he too is convinced of the possibility and
reliability of complete solar powered craft in the future, and he has been
closer to the sun than most of us!
Not only is Heliotrope pushing the boundaries of technology, it is also pushing
the boundaries of nautical interior design. The boats built by Bakri Cono are
bespoke and Heliotrope not only sports a specially created, uniquely coloured
gold hull to live up to the craft’s name, but its interior, as befits a boat
built in Asia, is finished in traditional Asian style by local craftsmen with
incredible attention to detail and use of local materials, including rare woods
and gold leaf. Although Heliotrope is owned by a European, the boat is designed
with the four elements of earth, fire, wind and water much in prominence, and
provides a generic Asian atmosphere in its incredibly large for size and
luxurious interior.
Bernard Lamprecht proudly introduces
the state of the art Heliotrope to guests before conducting a grand tour of his
baby.
Yard owner, Lamprecht, is justifiably proud of the superb
Heliotrope, which it is hoped will be the flagship for many more bespoke
assisted solar-powered orders of various sizes to come. Indeed, two more 65s are
already on the drawing board, as is a larger Heliotrope 105, the order for which
was taken on the back of simply showing a model at the Cannes Boat Show and
which is budgeted at this stage to cost US$7 million. This means that Bakri Cono
are planning to move to a new 20,000 sq m facility in 2014 to accommodate the
new work whilst the workforce will rise from the 54 full time artisans currently
employed to over 150 in the next 12 months - a high number of employees one
might think, but this is a yard that believes in totally bespoke customisation
and not in ‘production’. As Bernard Lamprecht says, “What we do is whatever the
customer wants as long as it is feasible.” To this end, finding sufficient
skilled workers, everything is done in house, can be a trial in a country where
unemployment is very low. To counter this, Bakri Cono has set up close ties with
the best local universities, particularly the electronics departments, in order
that it can have first pick of newly qualified students.
The future then looks very good for the Bakri Cono shipyard and Heliotrope is
sure to create a buzz wherever she sails and is berthed.
The heliotrope in all her beauty and
grandeur.
The Bakri Cono Team. (l-r) Philippe
Guenat, Director International Sales; Peter Jacops, Production Manager; Dhodee
Macaraeg, Project Manager; Michel Royer, Direcor of Marine Electronic
Development - “DMED”; Bernard Lamprecht, General Manager and Bernard Mondoulet,
Director of European Sales.
The various stages of construction of the Heliotrope
under the watchful eyes of Bernard Lamprecht and Peter Jacops.
A large crowd gathered at the Bakri Cono shipyard to
witness the historic moment when, with the assistance of the CEA Projects, the
Heliotrope was gently moved out of her birthplace and slowly rolled down to the
Ocean Marina beach where she was prepared for launch. That night Philippe Guenat
sent out an emotional message to one and all saying, “Heliotrope was caressed by
the water early morning at 3.47 a.m. on Monday the 16th of December 2014.”
