World's largest solar boat

Forget the sails and the petroleum.  The catamaran yacht that Raphael Domjan plans to skipper has 5,382 square feet of solar panels.  The boat -- named PlanetSolar -- was unveiled Thursday at the Knierim Yachtbau shipyard in Kiel, Germany.

It took 13 months to build this sleek and snazzy ship, which has a flat deck totally filled by panels. The boat is nearly 102 feet long and 50 feet wide -- lots of surface area for those panels.

A formal launching which is planned for April. Then Domjan plans to start an around-the-world journey in 2011.  The goal is to navigate at a speed of 8 knots.

The boat was designed by PlanetSolar SA of Switzerland.

More photos and a video are here.