Minimum sized motor boat to round around non stop ?

The maximum range will be eight hours. Charging with solar panels 2 full sunny days.
Food is not the problem. You can find on line surviving food lasting fifteen years. Spam last 2 years, tuna can one year.
Propulsion? mini atomic steam generator for a steam turbine. Range: fifteen years before recharging. No need to be underwater, just a lean efficient hull will be OK.
As for the funding ask GE.

 

I've heard the forces beseiged by the Afrika Korps at Tobruk were eating corned beef tinned in Argentina in 1919 ! So food expiry date would not be a concern, though a source of Vitamin C would have to be carried to avoid a replay of the bad old days of scurvy aboard ship. It is bound to be a slow old trip.

 

Camoflage and hide in plain sight is the solution.
You would need a snorkel mast, since compressed air bottles are too heavy and the compressor a power hungry beast.

So, on top of this snorkel mount a radar reflector, hiding in plain sight.

The camouflage is the interesting part.
The radar reflector could be shaped like a rural mailbox. Paint on both sides,
"Mail Bouy"

Might just get frequent reading material deposit for free!

 

I am not sure what would be the attitude of Coast Guards and Navies around the world when faced with the echo of an unknown submersible moving below them...

Outside their territorial waters they would simply track the boat..

 

I have the solution ! What is needed here, besides a serious psychological evaluation of those behind the idea , is an outrigger stabilized vessel, where the elevation of the outrigger(s)can be adjusted downward as the fuel tanks drain.

 

If you ask for psychological evaluation ....the main problem is no longer find a good idea for the hull form ...but the result of the evaluation

 

http://oceanmarine.com/detail.cfm?9...606&category_current=3&category_current_sub=7

Remove all superstructure, re-engine, convert water tanks to fuel, find a little towable bowser, and go.

Start at equator and run off the bowser down to the Horn and cache the bowser. Run the capes, collect the bowser, and return to the equator. 25000 miles in about 240 days.

It's a bit of a kludge, but it might work at a reasonable cost. Please put the old girl back together again when you're done, she looks like she still has some work to do.

 

GREAT IDEA!

 

LOL, 2.304 tons of fuel a day, hope that's the full 24 hour day.

Anyone know about that Mercury crew in that open boat attempt?