Zen 24 and Eco-sail demo in Alameda CA
This year at the Islander 36 yacht club year-end event, the Eco friendly sail boat, Zen 24 made by Aoki Yachts of Osaka attended the year end sailing ceremonies at the Oakland Yacht Club in Alameda, Ca. The crew of Zen 24, flying the Eco Flag presented the boat to demo the virtues of non-pollution sailing with the use of an electric motor for those times when power is needed.
The Zen 24 when sailed at 5kts will regenerate a battery from it’s own prop’s rotation. With the use of an optional solar panel this pocket cruiser from Japan can be made to be self sustaining in it’s power needs without the use of fossil fuels, which pollute the air and water.
The boat of the future is here now within Eco-friendly principals of recycle, reuse, rethink.
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The open transom seems to be a safety hazard in heavy sea, I would think you could fall right out the back.
You are correct Ralph, with the following conditions in place.
1. You are standing behind the teller on the transum lip trying to steer.
2. You are intoxicated.
3. You have no safety net/lines in place.
4. You are on close-hual under HEAVY seas and trying to pee off the stern.
5. You are untethered.
Otherwise there have been no reports of people falling off other boats with open transoms. The Zen24 is not the only boat out there with this design. There have been no reports of this happening. However there have been reports of people falling off under much milder conditions with full transoms.
This boat was sailed in the San Francisco Bay with normal winds of 24-26 knots with gust up to 30knt. with no danger.
Any boat under any conditions can be a danger if handled without basic safety sense. Many (men) have drowned on a closed transom boat acorrding to USCG reports under very calm conditions, found with their pants unzipped.
When blue water sailing, one should always be tethered to the boat, any boat and wearing a PFD. Why would someone be sailing under adverse conditions without safety precautions in place?
On the other side of the coin, it is very easy to recover someone from the water with an open transum. That is a positive safety point.
Fair winds, sail safe, sail smart.
Thank you for the comment.
That’s a good question! You can install a transam net for an additional security. We have the transam net as an optional item.
The open transam has a lot of fun, easy outboard motor handling, access to the water, like kids for swimming around with floats and much more.
30 Zen24’s sailing in Japan have had no experience of overboard from the open transam even in a force11 condition. But have lost some beer cans.