The Rainbow Warrior (sometimes Rainbow Warrior III) is a purpose-built motor-assisted sailing yacht owned and operated by Greenpeace

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

 and intended for use in their activities such as environmental protests and scientific excursions. It was christened on October 14 2011, and will replace the Rainbow Warrior II after further upgrades and maintenance of the older ship has been shown to be impractical.

The vessel is the first Rainbow Warrior that is not converted from another vessel. It has been built in Germany, with the intention to both provide state of the art facilities for the group's use, including advanced telecommunication

Telecommunication

Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...

 equipment, and also produce one of the "greenest

Environmentally friendly

Environmentally friendly are terms used to refer to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies claimed to inflict minimal or no harm on the environment....

" ships afloat. Partly this is achieved by a substantial reliance on sail

Sail

A sail is any type of surface intended to move a vessel, vehicle or rotor by being placed in a wind—in essence a propulsion wing. Sails are used in sailing.-History of sails:...

s for propulsion, with the engine projected to be needed only for 10% or less of the time. Two 50-metre masts will carry 1,200 sqare meters of sail and the engine is described as a "state-of-the-art hybrid

Electric boat

While a significant majority of water vessels are powered by diesel engines, with sail power and gasoline engines also remaining popular, boats powered by electricity have been used for over 120 years. Electric boats were very popular from the 1880s until the 1920s, when the internal combustion...

". All materials, from the paint

Paint

Paint is any liquid, liquefiable, or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film. One may also consider the digital mimicry thereof...

work to the insulation

Thermal insulation

Thermal insulation is the reduction of the effects of the various processes of heat transfer between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence. Heat transfer is the transfer of thermal energy between objects of differing temperature...

, have been chosen with a view to sustainability, and each component has been supplied with transparent ethical sourcing

Ethical consumerism

Ethical consumerism is the intentional purchase of products and services that the customer considers to be made ethically. This may mean with minimal harm to or exploitation of humans, animals and/or the natural environment...

. The boat was afloat in time for 10 July 2011, the 26th anniversary of the bombing of the first Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour by the French secret service.

External links

• Greenpeace orders technologically advanced Rainbow Warrior III (Greenpeace press release, 02 July 2009)
• We're gonna need a bigger boat! (Greenpeace press release with artist's impression, 02 July 2009)