"This month, 69-year-old Japanese sailor Ken-ichi Horie will
attempt to captain the world’s most advanced wave-powered boat
4,350 miles from Hawaii to Japan. If all goes as planned, he’ll
set the first Guinness world record for the longest distance
traveled by a wave-powered boat and, along the way, show off the
greenest nautical propulsion system since the sail." Ken-ichi's
boat, the Suntory Mermaid II, uses a recycled-aluminum catamaran
that converts the waves in forward motion. "Two fins mounted
side by side beneath the bow move up and down with the incoming
waves and generate dolphin-like kicks that propel the boat
forward. 'Waves are a negative factor for a ship—they slow it
down,' says Yutaka Terao, an engineering professor at Tokai
University in Japan who designed the boat’s propulsion system.
'But the Suntory can transform wave energy into propulsive power
regardless of where the wave comes from.' "