Solar bags are a great way to charge all your gadgets while out and about, but Switzerland-based bag maker Sakku one ups the green aspect by making its bags out of recycled sails. Each Sakku Buddy comes stamped with a "story" listing the name of the lake or sea which the boat that used the sail is located. Each bag has a 2.5W solar panel and is big enough to contain a 17" notebook. Currently only available in Europe, the Buddy costs either US$275 or US$385, depending on whether you get the chargeable battery option. [Sakku US page via Coolest Gadgets]

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Sunday morning, Philippe Kahn of camera phone fame and Richard Clarke successfully finished their double handed record attempt of the Transpac Cup. The sleep deprived two man team survived squall after squall, cuts and bruises, waves the size of small buildings, exploding rigging, and fishing nets wrapped around their keels to arrive from SF to Honolulu in 7 days, 20 hours and 50 minutes. They not only beat the old double handed record by about a full day, but they were the fastest boat to cross the finish line, beating many longer, better crewed boats. [Pegasus, previously]

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Philippe Kahn and his ambitious Pacific Cup sailing trip from San Francisco to Hawai'i got me all inspired this week to go sailing, but there's one problem: I suck at sailing. In fact, the last time I went sailing was in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, where I almost got smashed on the reef that protects the beach there. So you'll excuse my excitement today over the SimSail, a full sized "land yachting" simulator for two. It's not quite the same thing as sailing on the water, and it's certainly not even remotely close to what Kahn's up to these days, but for me, at least, it's a start.

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NASA's getting set to launch the NanoSail-D next week, its first solar-sail powered spacecraft which catches photons like wind on a 10 square-meter sail made of a thin metallic polymer. The craft uses a crazy Rube Goldberg-like method to deploy the sail that involves burning fishing line at critical moments to release the spring-loaded sail, which is getting shown off in the video here.

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Philippe Kahn, founder of Borland, camera phone pioneer and guy who helped make that Fullpower MotionX-Poker iPhone game is making yet another run at the Pacific Cup, double handing from SF to Hawaii. I took these shots of them leaving the bay this Saturday on a Nikon D300 and you can see the progression from balmy Sausalito sun to foggy, rough, 30-knot bay sailing. And then into the open ocean.

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City dwellers who can't shake their love for the Great Outdoors will find excitement in the "Urban Skiff". It's a portable boat that goes from duffle bag to sad, wilted-looking dinghy in just eight impossible easy steps. Now all you need is a space in your cramped apartment to store a boat-sized bag, means to transport it, and water to set sail in. Personally, you'd have a better chance of finding my body at the bottom of the East River before you found me carrying this thing over there. A shot of the setup process, after the jump.

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Ken-ichi Horie, a 69 year old Japanese sailor, is planning a solo 4,350 mile trip from Hawaii to Japan using the most advanced wave powered boat on the planet. If successful, the trip would earn him a Guinness record while simultaneously proving the viability of wave powered propulsion. His boat, the Suntory Mermaid II, turns wave energy into thrust using two fins mounted beneath the bow. These fins move up and down with the waves and use them to generate "kicks" that propel the boat forward.

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The SkySails system, a huge computer-controlled kite that can tow cargo vessels and superyachts, reducing their fuel consumption by up to 30%, has been successfully tested this weekend. The ship HV Beluga Skysails started its maiden voyage from the city of Hamburg and deployed its 1,722-square-foot to save around 10% of fuel. The SkySail is completely automatic, and looking at it in motion makes you wish all ships had one: follow the jump for a vid and more info.

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The higher the altitude, the faster and steadier the wind blows. That's the concept behind this Kite Sailing Katana Yacht, raising a kite high enough to catch winds that might not even exist at the water level. Designed by Stephani Krucke, the yacht is big enough to pamper eight people in the lap o' luxury. Check out the lovely pictures of this sleek vessel.

That kite might get in the way under some conditions, but even if it weren't the sole source of locomotion, on windy days it would still be highly efficient to augment engine power with such a high-flying sail. We think a kite sail like this should be packed on board all vessels, just in case a hapless captain runs out of gas. The Kite Sailing Katana Yacht doesn't exist yet, but aren't these some spectacular renderings? [Yanko Design]

Philippe Khan, of Borland and Camera Phone fame, won the Transpac sailing race in the double-handed class, with and without handicap factored in. Congrats to team Pegasus. [Pegasus via Giz]