Hello Bornich members, someone asked me to give more details about my project, so here I am and sorry by advance for my poor English!
First of all it was a school project , the idea was to think about a new way of concepting a pedal boat because it became old, and nothing really new ahs been released since years.
We had 3 months to think about it and my entry was that concept, a pedal boat assisted by solar energy.
4 people can settle on the benches of the circular cockpit.
But only two pedal head-to-head. In case of tiredness, it is sufficient to rotate the tower which supports the umbrella so that 2 other courageous persons can take over.

In case of a general tiredness, ”pedalers” can lift up and seek help from the sun to lighten their efforts. The umbrella has indeed a solar panel connected to batteries that supply an electric motor hidden in the top of the tower. Whether pedal or hybrid mode (pedalling - electric), the bracket is connected to a shaft leading to two propellers at the bow of the boat. The two bars connected to the rudder are located in facing back of the bench. Incidentally, they also serve as armrests.

When I did my internship at Atabeyki Design Development agency (Pininfarina Europe Branch) a society contacted me to develop the concept in order to commercialise it in Dubai. So I worked in collaboration with the Numero Design Agency, a society partner of ADD to develop the concept.
We worked an a reduction of the weight and dimensions, the placement of the batteries , some high-tech elements such as screen panels and surrounded sound , and a way to retract the umbrella for transport.
Of course we had made a restyling so that it looked as real as possible.

Unfortunately due to a lack of investor the society in charge of the concept left the project.

However you can see a video of the work that has been done by Numero Design and me:

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk8Ch9JxamA

Anyway I’m glad that you like it!
Cheers

John