Month: November 2010

• A total of 756 nm sailed and motored (probably 75% sail; 25% motor) since the spring
• A total of 2900 Ah consumed from the batteries
• Average discharge was 54.3 Ah
• Only 17 full charge cycles used (at this rate, I could put 89000 nm on the odometer before the batteries are used up (2000 cycles)!!)

For anyone with a sport boat, club racer, or who primarily does daysail/weekending, this is the way to go for sure. It is such a pleasant way to keep sailing more pure, both aesthetically and environmentally.  In BC, the environmental argument is that much stronger, since 70% of our electrical power is already renewably generated, and a full charge of the 8.6 kWh MasterVolt batteries costs about 65 CENTS Canadian!

 Sailing is a highly aesthetic pursuit, and one of the oldest most elegant technical disciplines we humans have. It always seemed horrible to me to have to ignite a smelly and noisy engine at the beginning or end of a great day of sailing, or when the wind was insufficient. Electric propulsion has SO many advantages over internal combustion engines– high efficiency, no flammable fuel on board, no risky refueling, no smell, no pollution, high instantaneous torque, compact size and more flexible placement options, regeneration potential under sail, and more. The ONLY disadvantage, in my mind, is limited range. But even that is now becoming less significant with lithium [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/user/AlerionYachts?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/Rr-_ZQ7yL6Q]battery technology. So for a boat primarily used for daysailing and racing, there is NO reason not to go electric!”

Attached is also a little movie I made today on my iPhone. The sound track is the actual barely audible sound of the motor (and a little wind noise on the mic), hardly disturbing a silent and golden late afternoon on the water.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr-_ZQ7yL6Q]