Ama Natura is a 36’ custom petroleum-free gaff motorsailer built by the NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding, and designed and used each year for Inside Passage and SE Alaskan voyaging. Under the guidance of Carl Chamberlain and with owner/architect Capt. Peter Wilcox’s prior green building and boatbuilding expertise, AMA Natura (“She Loves Nature”) was designed to be an extremely low impact NW cruising vessel, basically a floating laboratory.
While this could evolve to even cleaner and lower carbon propulsion in the future, the 10 ton displacement and nearly 10 years old motorsailer has consistently utilized 100% reclaimed source biodiesel for fuel in its 48HP Klassen-Mitsubishi naturally-aspirated, slow turning diesel, and as well for heating and cooking. AMA’s sailing salmon troller-inspired hull was solid modeled for efficiency and with its 3:1 gear reduction and 24” feathering MaxProp, AMA sips less than ¾ GPH at a non-cuprous coated hull speed of 7.6 knots. Her auxiliary is a modest gaff ketch sail rig with just over 500SF of canvas that both steadies her motions and can drive her near hull speed in ideal conditions.
Even the motor oil, transmission fluid and hydraulic fluid used in AMA are low carbon, low toxicity bio-based, the same ones that NOAA has employed in its “Green Ships” fleet for the last ten plus years. Finally, AMA utilizes a composting Air Head and has 175 watts of solar PV capacity to meet her electrical needs at anchor or dock. Later this year or early next, AMA will get an entirely new battery bank, more than doubling her electrical storage, probably Caterpillar Fireflies.