auxiliary powered yacht

A high-performance auxiliary powered sailing yacht, it has as strong an emphasis on speed under sail as it does speed under power, which means…it goes places. And once it’s where it needs to be, it becomes a luxury indoor/outdoor living platform that allows its user to enjoy the destination as much as the journey.

Jimmy Buffett’s delightfully famous lifestyle, infused with copious amounts of “island escapism,” pairs perfectly with the personality of the Surfari 50. Buffett, is the proud owner of hull number one of the new Surfari 50 designed by naval architect Edward “Ted” Fontaine and built by Pacific Seacraft in North Carolina, anticipates that the new design’s more compact length and personally approved adaptations – including those for short-handed handling – will “simplify” his life on the water as he uses the yacht for a home away from home.

“It’s the perfect extension for living the life he enjoys, whether it’s in Sag Harbor for the summer or the Keys and the Caribbean in the winter,” said Fontaine about Buffett enjoying the Surfari 50’s most intriguing features. “A high performance auxiliary powered sailing yacht, it has as strong an emphasis on speed under sail as it does speed under power, which means…it goes places. And once it’s where it needs to be, it becomes a luxury indoor/outdoor living platform that allows its user to enjoy the destination as much as the journey.”

Fontaine, best known for the romantic classic lines of his Friendship sailboats (in models ranging from 36 -79 feet), is a waterman himself and explained that his love of paddle boarding, surfing and kayaking inspired the Surfari 50’s 39” high and 11 ½ foot wide “tailgate.” (The yacht’s   max beam is 14’ 63”.)  The tailgate lowers while the yacht is at rest and integrates with a single-level floor plan that extends from the swim platform through the entire length of the cockpit and on through the deck salon and steering station. “It creates a unique, clutter-free area for storing and launching all sorts of watersports equipment and water craft,” said Fontaine.

Fontaine added that 360 degree visibility from the interior helm station enhances the open-air environment. It is achieved by a large sliding glass companionway bulkhead, sliding side windows and full-width windshield. Electrically powered sail handling gear provides fingertip control of the fully battened mainsail (with Harken Battcar system), roller furling genoa and furling asymmetrical spinnaker, while all lines are led internally to the helm station. Lightweight “grand prix race boat” composite construction, a carbon fiber mast and boom, and twin 75 HP auxiliary engines are further features that differentiate the Surfari 50 from semi-custom and production yachts in the same size range.

“Buffett epitomizes the demographic that would get the most out of the Surfari 50,” said Fontaine, adding that target markets include experienced performance racing yacht owners who have exhausted their appetites for competition and the extensive demands of their campaigns. “Having honed their sailing skills to near-professional levels, these potential owners associate high performance with high technology. They want to go fast and get there in style, and now that they are approaching their retirement years their need for speed is being seasoned with a newly appreciated desire for comfort and versatility afloat.”

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The Promises and Pitfalls of an All-Electric Yacht

• By Tim Murphy
• Updated: November 8, 2021

This past October, I saw one of the most interesting exhibits in more than 500 new cruising sailboats I’ve reviewed over two decades. It was the Arcona 435Z, built in Sweden and introduced by Graham Balch of Green Yachts in San Francisco. Balch describes his business as “a new brokerage dedicated to the electric revolution on the water,” and it was the “Z” in the boat’s name, which stands for “zero emissions,” that made this boat so interesting. This was the first electric propulsion system—not hybrid but all-electric —I’d ever seen on a cruising sailboat.

Electric propulsion isn’t new. Since 1879, electric motors have propelled boats; a fleet of some four-dozen electric launches transported visitors around the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago. But cruising sailboats are not launches, and the open sea is not a protected canal. When we’re using cruising boats as they’re meant to be used, they seldom end their day plugged into a shore-power outlet. Cruising boats comprise many devices —stove, refrigerator, freezer, windlass, winches, autopilot, radar, lights—whose power typically comes from a tank of fossil fuel. And today’s cruising sailors are accustomed to using diesel auxiliary power to motor through lulls or punch into headwinds and seas.

Starting about 15 years ago, we saw a wave of diesel-electric and hybrid propulsion systems on production and custom cruising boats ( see “Perpetuated Motion,” CW , March 2005 ). Both of those systems ultimately start with an onboard internal-combustion engine. A diesel-electric propulsion system relies on a running genset to directly power the electric motor that turns the propeller. A hybrid system relies on batteries to power the electric motor, plus an internal-combustion genset to recharge the batteries. One of the promises of a hybrid system is the ability to regenerate electrical power. Regeneration means using boatspeed under sail to turn the propeller, whose spinning shaft sends electrons from the electric motor back through an electronic controller to recharge the batteries. In such a system, the boat’s propeller is both an electrical load (when running under power) and a charging source (when sailing in regeneration mode).

The Arcona 435Z was different from both of these systems: It incorporates no onboard fossil-fuel engine at all. Instead, it has a bank of lithium batteries, several solar panels, and a proprietary propulsion leg that looks like a saildrive. “This boat,” Balch said, “has the very first production unit in the world of Oceanvolt’s newest electric propulsion system, called the ServoProp.”

For our sea trial, Balch was joined by Derek Rupe, CEO of Oceanvolt USA. “If you can sail the boat and you have some solar, you can go anywhere in the world, and you can make all your power underway while you go,” Rupe said. When we spoke in October 2020, he touted three high-profile sailors who were using the Oceanvolt electric propulsion system: Alex Thomson, for his Hugo Boss Open 60 Vendée Globe program; Jimmy Cornell, for his Elcano 500 expedition; and Riley Whitelum and Elayna Carausu, who had been teasing their new boat for months on their popular Sailing La Vagabonde YouTube channel.

The efficiency of Oceanvolt’s ServoProp and the regeneration from it is the promised game-changer in each of these boats. The ServoProp is a leg with a ­feathering propeller that can be set for optimal pitch in three modes: forward, reverse and regeneration.

“You don’t need fuel,” Rupe said. “You don’t need to dock; you can go anywhere you want to go and always have the power for living and propulsion.”

That’s the promise. But are there also pitfalls?

Innovation and Risk

Marine electric propulsion is an emerging technology. Compared with the mature and settled technology of diesel engines and lead-acid batteries, electric-propulsion systems—with their electronic controllers and lithium batteries—are in a stage of development best described as adolescent. Every sailor has his or her own tolerance for technical innovation. For the promise of fewer ­seconds per mile, grand-prix-racing sailors willingly trade a high risk of expensive damage to the sails, rig or the boat’s structure itself; cruising sailors, by contrast, tend to favor yearslong reliability in their equipment as they seek miles per day.

Folks who identify as early adopters take special joy in the first-wave discoveries of a new technology; if they’re clear-eyed about supporting an ongoing experiment, they see themselves as partners with the developers, accepting failures as opportunities for learning. Sailors motivated primarily by changing the trajectory of climate change might be especially willing to modify their behavior to limit their own output of greenhouse gases. Investing in any emerging technology asks you to start with a clear assessment of your own risk tolerance. We’ll return to this theme with one or two real-life examples.

The American Boat and Yacht Council, founded in 1954, sets recommended standards for systems installed on recreational boats. For decades, ABYC has published standards related to installations of diesel and gasoline engines, as well as electrical systems based around lead-acid batteries. By contrast, it was only three years ago that ABYC came out with its first electric-propulsion standard (revised July 2021). And only last year it published its first technical-information report on lithium batteries (a technical-information report is an early step toward a future standard). The takeaway is that if you need help servicing your diesel engine or electrical system built around lead-acid batteries, you can pull into any reasonable-size port and find competent technicians to help you. With electric propulsion and lithium batteries, that pool of skilled talent is significantly scarcer.

To say that a technology is mature simply means that we’ve learned to live with it, warts and all, but that it holds few remaining surprises. Certainly, diesel-propulsion and lead-acid-battery technologies each leave plenty of room for improvement. When a charge of fuel ignites in the combustion ­chamber of a diesel engine, some three-quarters of the energy is lost in heat and the mechanical inefficiencies of converting reciprocating motion to rotation. Lead-acid batteries become damaged if we routinely discharge more than half of their capacity. During charging, they’re slow to take the electrons we could deliver.

Lithium batteries are comparatively full of promise. Their power density is far greater than that of lead-acid batteries, meaning they’re much lighter for a given capacity. They’re capable of being deeply discharged, which means you can use far more of the bank’s capacity, not merely the first half. And they accept a charge much more quickly; compare that to several hours a day running an engine to keep the beers iced down.

But the pitfalls? Let’s start with ABYC TE-13, Lithium Ion Batteries. Some of its language is bracing. “Lithium ion batteries are unlike lead-acid batteries in two important respects,” the report says. “1) The electrolyte within most lithium ion batteries is flammable. 2) Under certain fault conditions, lithium ion batteries can enter a condition known as thermal runaway, which results in rapid internal heating. Once initiated, it is a self-perpetuating and exothermic reaction that can be difficult to halt.”

Thermal runaway? Difficult to halt? Self-perpetuating?

“Typically, the best approach is to remove heat as fast as possible, which is most effectively done by flooding the battery with water,” TE-13 continues, “although this may have serious consequences for the boat’s electrical systems, machinery, buoyancy, etc.”

If you were following the news in January 2013, you might remember the ­story of Japan Airlines Flight 008. Shortly after landing at Boston’s Logan Airport, a mechanic opened the aft ­electronic equipment bay of the Boeing 787-8 to find smoke and flames billowing from the auxiliary-power unit. The fire extinguisher he used didn’t put out the flames. Eventually Boston firefighters put out the fire with Halotron, but when removing the still-hissing batteries from the plane, one of the ­firefighters was burned through his ­professional protective gear.

Samsung Galaxy cellphones, MacBook Pro laptops, powered skateboards—in the past decade, these and other devices have been recalled after their lithium batteries burned up. In that period, several high-end custom boats were declared a total loss following failures from lithium batteries. In March 2021, a 78-foot Norwegian hybrid-powered tour boat, built in 2019 with a 790 kW capacity battery bank, experienced thermal runaway that kept firefighters on watch for several days after the crew safely abandoned the ship.

Yes, experts are learning a lot about how to mitigate the risks around lithium batteries. But we’re still on the learning curve.

ABYC’s TE-13 “System Design” section starts, “All lithium-ion battery ­systems should have a battery ­management system (BMS) installed to prevent damage to the battery and provide for battery shutoff if potentially dangerous conditions exist.” It defines a bank’s “safe operating envelope” according to such parameters as high- and low-voltage limits, charging and discharging temperature limits, and charging and ­discharging current limits.

Graham Balch takes these safety recommendations a step further: “To our knowledge, the BMS has to monitor at the cell level. With most batteries, the BMS monitors at the module level.” The difference? “Let’s say you have 24 cells inside the battery module, and three of them stop working. Well, the other 21 have to work harder to compensate for those three. And that’s where thermal events occur.”

Balch followed the story of the Norwegian tour boat this past spring. He believes that the battery installation in that case didn’t meet waterproofing standards: “The hypothesis is that due to water intrusion, there was reverse polarity in one or more of the cells, which is worse than cells simply not working. It means that they’re actively working against the other cells. But if the BMS is monitoring only at the module level, you wouldn’t know it.”

On the Green Yachts website, Graham lists five battery manufacturers whose BMS regimes monitor at the cell level. “If I were sailing on an electric boat, whether it be commercial or recreational, I would feel comfortable with having batteries from these five companies and no other,” he said.

The broader takeaway for today’s sailors is that lithium batteries bring their own sets of problems and solutions, which are different from those of conventional propulsion and power-supply technologies. A reasonably skilled sailor could be expected to change fuel filters or bleed a diesel engine if it shuts down in rough conditions. With lithium-ion batteries aboard, an operator needs to understand the causes and remedies of thermal runaway, and be ready to respond if the BMS shuts down the boat’s power.

Real-World Electric Cruising Boats

When we met Oceanvolt’s Derek Rupe a year ago, he and his wife had taken their all-electric boat to the Bahamas and back the previous season. Before that, he’d been installing electric-propulsion packages for six years on new Alerion 41s and other refit projects. “My real passion is on the technical side of things—installations, really getting that right. That’s half the picture. The technology is there, but it needs to be installed correctly.”

When talking to Rupe, I immediately encountered my first learning curve. I posed questions about the Oceanvolt system in amps and amp-hours; he responded in watts and kilowatt-hours. This was yet another example of the different mindset sailors of electric boats need to hold. Why? Because most cruising boats have just one or two electrical systems: DC and AC. The AC system might operate at 110 or 220 volts; the DC side might operate at 12 or 24 volts. On your own boat, that voltage is a given. From there we tend to think in terms of amps needed to power a load, and amp-hours of capacity in our battery banks. Going back to basics, the power formula tells us that power (watts) equals electrical potential (volts) times current (amps). If your boat’s electrical system is 12 volts and you know that your windlass is rated at 400 watts, it follows that the windlass is rated to draw 33 amps.

But an all-electric boat might comprise several systems at different voltages. A single battery bank might supply cabin lights at 12 volts DC; winches and windlasses at 24 volts DC; the propulsion motor at 48 volts DC; and an induction stove, microwave and television at 110 volts AC. A DC-to-DC power converter steps the voltage up or down, and an inverter changes DC to AC. Instead of translating through all those systems, the Oceanvolt monitor (and Derek Rupe) simply reports in watts coming in or going out of the bank.

“We keep all our thoughts in watts,” Rupe said. “Watts count in the AC induction. They count in the DC-to-DC converter. They count the solar in. They count the hydrogeneration in. And the ­power-management systems tracks it that way for shore-power in.

“On a boat like this, maybe I have 500 watts coming in the solar panels,” he continued. “So then I can think: ‘Well, my fridge is using 90 watts. My boat has an electric stove. When I cook a big meal, I can see that for every hour we cook, we lose about 10 to 12 minutes of our cruising range.’”

During his Bahamas cruising season, Rupe observed that on days that they were sailing, the combination of solar panels and hydroregeneration supplied all the power he and his wife needed. “When we weren’t sailing,” he said, “we found that we were losing 8 percent each day, in the difference from what the sun gave us to what we were using for the fridge, lights, charging our laptops, and all that stuff.”

Rupe’s solution? “Twice in Eleuthera and once outside Major’s, we went out and sailed laps for a couple of hours because the batteries were below 30 percent of capacity. It was good sailing, and the wind was coming over the shore, so we didn’t have any sea state. We did a couple of hot laps on nice beam reaches, and generated about 700 watts an hour.”

Of the three sailors Rupe touted in October 2020—Alex Thomson, Jimmy Cornell and the Sailing La Vagabonde couple—only Cornell can report back on his all-electric experiences with Oceanvolt. Alex Thomson ended his circumnavigation abruptly last November, just 20 days after the Vendée Globe start, when Hugo Boss collided with an object in the South Atlantic. And at press time in early fall 2021, Riley and Elayna had just recently announced the build of their new Rapido trimaran; keep an eye on their YouTube channel for more about their experiences with the Oceanvolt propulsion system.

As for Cornell—circumnavigator, World Cruising Routes author, creator of the transoceanic rally, and veteran of some 200,000 ocean miles—he suspended his planned Elcano 500 round-the-world expedition solely because of the Oceanvolt system in his new Outremer catamaran. His Aventura Zero Logs on the Cornell Sailing website, particularly the Electric Shock article posted on December 2, 2020, are essential reading for any sailor interested in sailing an electric boat. “Sailing around the world on an electric boat with zero emissions along the route of the first circumnavigation was such a tempting opportunity to do something meaningful and in tune with our concern for protecting the environment that my family agreed I should do it,” Cornell wrote. “What this passage has shown was that in spite of all our efforts to save energy, we were unable to regenerate sufficient electricity to cover consumption and top up the batteries.”

Cornell’s experience in that article is raw, and his tone in that moment bitterly disappointed. We recommend it as essential reading—not as a final rejection of the electric-boat concept or of Oceanvolt’s system, or even as an endorsement of Cornell’s own decision that the system didn’t work. I suspect that I may have arrived at the same conclusion. Yet given the same boat in the same conditions, one imagines that a new breed of sailor—a Graham Balch or a Derek Rupe—may have responded differently to the constraints imposed by an all-electric boat, as nearly every cruising sailor today habitually responds to the inconvenient constraints of diesel engines and lead-acid batteries.

“If you bring electric winches, electric heads and an induction stove, and then sail into a high-pressure system, you’ll set yourself up for failure,” Balch said. “You have to balance your power inputs and your power outputs.

“Sailing an electric boat is a return to the tradition of sailing that the crutch of a diesel engine has gotten us away from,” he added. “Magellan’s fleet got all the way around the world, and they didn’t have a diesel engine.”

Tim Murphy is a Cruising World editor-at-large and ­longtime Boat of the Year judge.

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Auxiliary Sailing Vessels

When steam propulsion came into general use many sailing vessels were equipped with auxiliary engines. The modern diesel engine is now often fitted to small sailing craft and has thus helped to prevent the disappearance of sail from the seas

The Almirante Saldanha , a four- masted barquentine used by the Brazilian Navy as a training ship . She was built in 1933 and equipped with a 1,400 horse- power six- cylinder diesel engine by Vickers- Armstrong. The overall length of the Almirante Saldanha is 305 feet and she has a displacement of 3,325 tons. Under diesel power alone she makes 11 knots and her fuel capacity is sufficient for a voyage of 12,000 miles.

FOR many years, when steamships were still in an early stage of development, they carried sails and were really auxiliary steamships. It was a long time before shipmasters and owners began to think solely in terms of steam. This attitude was due not to conservatism, but to the huge consumption of coal in steamships and also to the high standard of efficiency maintained by the sailing vessel. Such large quantities of coal were consumed by the early engines that steam was rejected by the British Admiralty because of the amount of space required for bunkers.

It was not until the triple- expansion engine had been introduced that the steamship’s ascendancy was firmly established. As late as the ’eighties of the last century ships built in Great Britain were rigged for auxiliary sails, and during the war of 1914- 18 some of these vessels emerged from retirement and played a part in carrying food.

No modern steamships are equipped with sails to- day. When a vessel carries sails, her engines, not her sails, provide the auxiliary power. Such vessels are termed auxiliary sailing ships.

The old auxiliary vessels of the British Navy marked the transition from sail to steam. The invention of the screw propeller was taken up by the Admiralty and applied to vessels that relied mainly upon canvas and not upon steam. Some of the ships had screws that could be lifted into a trunk built into the hull. This device enabled the retarding effect of the propeller to be avoided when the ship was under sail only. The sail- minded naval captains of the period took pride in using steam as little as possible, many of them regarding steam as a menace to the traditions of the Navy.

During the Victorian era, when the Navy was not called upon to fight any great battles, sail drill was a supreme test of efficiency, and ships competed against one another for speed in setting and furling sail. Masts and yards slowly gave way to steam, although they were retained for a long while. In the latter part of the last century sloops were built with a full spread of canvas and the engines were steam auxiliaries.

A former U.S. naval vessel, the Nantucket , which was taken over by the Massachusetts Nautical School as a floating academy, is an interesting modern auxiliary. She is berthed at the Navy Yard, Charlestown, during the winter, and in the summer she goes cruising. In 1933 she sailed 3,326 miles, steamed 3,572 miles and covered an additional 2,397 miles under canvas and steam simultaneously. She crossed the Atlantic and visited several European ports, including Southampton .

In light airs a craft that is rigged fore and aft and proceeds under sail and power can point closer to the wind than if she were under sail only, and the sails steady a small craft in a lumpy sea. In crowded waters the skipper has to remember that the vessel must obey the rule of the road as applied to steam and not to sail. The small Dutch auxiliaries that come up London River and trade to many other British ports are noteworthy because when there is any wind they set their canvas, although a British skipper might not think the wind worth while.

THE DECK OF AN AUXILIARY YACHT, the Ma Mie , built by John I. Thornycroft & Co., Ltd ., at Hampton- on- Thames. This vessel, with an overall length of 43 feet, is typical of the modern auxiliary yachts which may be seen in British rivers and coastal waters. The photograph shows the engine controls near the wheel and the mast that can easily be stepped when required.

Sail was a trusted reserve of power for many of the vessels that made history. The Great Britain is an example. She was the first propeller- driven ship to cross the Atlantic, and she had six masts. She was intended to be a paddle ship, but was altered while she was being built, and completed during 1843. After a period in the Atlantic trade she was sold to be fitted out for the Australian trade. She was altered to a four- master with two funnels instead of one and she sailed from Liverpool for Melbourne in August 1852. The first iron steamship of any size, she had a capacity of 3,500 tons.

On her first voyage to Australia she had 630 passengers and a crew of 137. On board her were gold and silver to the value of £1,000,000. When she was fewer than 900 miles from Cape Town (the Suez Canal was not then built), she ran short of coal. A gale was blowing, so all canvas was set and, helped by reduced steam, she sailed back to St. Helena, over a thousand miles away. She reached Melbourne at last, after a passage of eighty- one days.

Later one mast and a funnel were taken from her rig. For many years, except when she served as a transport during the Crimean War (1854- 56) and the Indian Mutiny (1857), she made voyages of between fifty- four and sixty- four days from Liverpool to Melbourne. After more than twenty years on this service, the Great Britain made her last trip in 1875. She was laid up in the Mersey until 1882 and then was converted into a sailing vessel, her hull being sheathed with wood and her engines removed. On a voyage to San Francisco in 1886 she put into Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, in a leaky condition and was condemned. She survived for nearly half a century as a hulk before she was broken up. She had the longest career of all the vessels on the Australian run.

To- day there are hundreds of small vessels which can proceed under either power or sail. Had the internal- combustion engine been invented in the days of the inefficient steam engine, its effect on ships and on coal- producing countries such as Great Britain might have changed the course of history.

The internal- combustion engine has enabled small sailing craft to survive where but for its aid they would long since have been scrapped. It is not difficult to install a low- powered internal- combustion engine that will give a sailing vessel a speed of about 5 knots.

Pacific Trading Schooners

The auxiliary is to be found, therefore, in all parts of the world. She does not carry the huge bulk of the world’s freights in giant loads, but she can justify her existence. She sails into big harbours after the haughty liner and finds a corner for herself. She penetrates narrow rivers and shallow tidal creeks and lies alongside wharves at little ports that have neither the cargo nor the depth of water to offer a big vessel.

WITH ALL SAILS SET, the Japanese four- masted barque Nippon Maru has her staysails set on three masts and her flying jib, outer jib and inner jib from her bowsprit. With her sister ship, the Kaiwa Maru , she was built at Kobe, Japan, in 1930. She has a gross tonnage of 2,250, and her auxiliary engines drive twin screws.

Steam killed the big sailing ship, but the diesel engine has prolonged the life of the small sailing vessel. In industrial countries yachts are the only vessels now built depending solely upon sails. Unless yachts are intended for class- racing, as are the J Class yachts Endeavour , Velsheda , Rainbow and others, nearly all are fitted with an internal- combustion engine. This may be small in size and installed for use in calms, or it may have considerable power if the yacht was designed as an auxiliary.

The trading schooners in the Pacific Ocean are now mostly fitted with auxiliary engines. They use their sails on occasion, but often the deck load is so large that the mainsail or foresail cannot be set, as there is no clearance for the boom. In the coral islands the entrance to a lagoon is narrow and reef- studded. The water rushes in and out with great force, according to the tide, so that a schooner provided only with sail has to be hauled through by natives with warps (towing ropes) from the shore. Equipped with an engine, a schooner can pass through without assistance.

In islands that are not merely atolls, the harbours are often surrounded by cliffs and mountains, leaving a narrow entrance. If the wind is fair a sailing vessel can enter, but she may find that the cliffs and mountains prevent any true wind from helping her.

THE FAMOUS GREAT BRITAIN was the first propeller- driven ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. When she was built in 1843 she had six masts and two funnels, but later her rig was twice altered. Finally she had three masts and one funnel. She was the first iron steamship of any size (3,500 tons) and marks an important stage in the transition from sail to steam.

So dangerous are certain of these harbours that in the days of sail the schooners did not venture into them, but hove- to and sent boats ashore. The sea outside is generally too deep for an anchorage and schooners were sometimes carried miles away. Nowadays the auxiliary schooner enters the harbour and anchors without trouble. The Kanaka, or South Seas Islands, engineer takes a pride in his engine, which is invariably a diesel or a semi- diesel.

Lagoons are often so reef- strewn that navigation under sail would be a nightmare, but the engine enables the vessel to avoid the dangers without any bother. At islands where there is no harbour and no anchorage outside, the schooner can furl her sails and maintain her position against the currents while her boats put off for the beach.

These schooners serve a useful purpose in world commerce, for they act as feeders to the great shipping lines. Their cargoes are discharged at a port on the routes between Australia and America, or between New Zealand and America, and are picked up by oceangoing ships. There is not enough freight at the outlying islands to warrant a large vessel making a special call. The auxiliary engine enables a schooner to go against the trade wind to the Pacific ports of America if the freight justifies the voyage. She need not go far out of her course to pick up the westerlies, and she can sail back before the trade wind.

Large sailing vessels are still being built, with auxiliary engines, for training purposes . Many foreign nations insist that officers in their navies and their merchant services shall be trained in sail. They believe that sail- training develops qualities of alertness and resource in a way that no other form of training can bring out. They also take steps to ensure that the training ships are not floating museums of a vanishing age, but are fitted with modern equipment.

Experience in Sail

A good example of an up- to- date training ship is the Brazilian auxiliary- engined four- masted barquentine Almirante Saldanha , designed for training cadets in the Brazilian Navy. She was built and engined by Vickers- Armstrong, Ltd., of Barrow- in- Furness (Lancs), in 1933. Her overall length is 305 feet, her moulded beam 52 feet, her moulded depth 28 ft. 6 in. and her displacement, in load condition, 3,315 tons. Her speed under diesel engine power is 11 knots and her fuel capacity gives her a radius of 12,000 miles. She has three decks, with a short forecastle, a long poop with fore- and- aft gangways between, a navigating bridge and compass platform.

The Almirante Saldanha has sixteen transverse water- tight bulkheads and a double bottom extends from the forward bulkhead for 170 feet. The compartments thus formed are used for water ballast. The engine- room, which contains also the auxiliary boiler and distilling plant, is amidships, with oil- fuel bunkers and fresh- water tanks fitted at the forward and after ends. There is accommodation for twenty- five officers, one hundred cadets, thirty- four warrant officers and about 300 seamen.

Her auxiliary engine is a four- cycle, single- acting, airless injection trunk- piston reversible diesel engine with six cylinders, developing 1,400 horse power when running at 190 revolutions a minute. This corresponds to a ship speed of about eleven knots.

A clutch fitted on the line shafting enables the propeller to be disengaged from the engine so that it can revolve idly when the vessel is under sail and thus reduce the propeller’s drag. With four masts, four yards on the foremast, booms and gaffs on the main, mizen and jigger masts, a long bowsprit and jib- boom, the vessel has twenty sails which have a total area of 27,000 square feet.

A MODERN FOUR- MASTED BARQUE, the German auxiliary Magdalene Vinnen , 3,476 tons gross, sailed from Port Jackson, Australia, round Cape Horn to Falmouth, Cornwall, with a cargo of 16,000 bales of wool. This is claimed to be a record shipment for sailing vessels. The Magdalene Vinnen , built at Kiel by Krupp in 1921, has a length of 329 feet, a beam of 48 ft. 2 in. and a depth of 26 ft. 8 in.

The electrical equipment consists of generators, motors and control gear. The electrically- driven machinery throughout the ship was made by the Metropolitan- Vickers Electrical Co., Ltd. One of the stipulations was that all equipment should work satisfactorily when inclined fifteen degrees fore and aft or athwartships, to meet conditions when the ship might be sailing for long periods on one tack heeled over by the pressure on her sails. The bearings of the electrical machinery had therefore to be given special attention to meet this requirement.

Denmark is another country that has a modern auxiliary training ship. The Georg Stage was completed in 1935 by the Frederikshavns Vaerft & Flydekok. She is a three- masted, full- rigged ship with a length of 124 feet and a beam of 28 feet. A vessel of 298 tons gross, she has a depth of 12 ft. 5 in. She carries 8,000 square feet of sail. Her engine is a two- cylinder diesel.

Many other foreign countries use auxiliary sailing vessels as training ships. Poland has an auxiliary three- masted schooner, the Iskra , of 560 tons gross. A larger vessel, the Dar Pomorza , 1,620 tons, a steel auxiliary ship, was built in 1909 at Hamburg. She has a length of 239 feet, a beam of 41 feet and a depth of 21 feet.

Of the four Japanese auxiliary training vessels, the largest are the Nippon Maru and the Kaiwa Maru . These four- masted steel barques of 2,250 tons gross were built at Kobe in 1930 and have twin screws. Even larger are the Italian vessels, the Amerigo Vespucci and the Cristoforo Colombo , of 2,787 and 3,543 tons respectively. These were built during 1928- 31, and equipped with diesel- electric drive whereby diesels operate generators which in turn supply the current to an electric motor on the shaft. Vessels thus equipped provide training for engineers as well as for deck officers.

A 42 FEET MOTOR YACHT on the River Thames. The Peter Pan was built and equipped with two 18 horse- power diesel engines by John I. Thornycroft & Co., Ltd. She was designed for open- sea crossings, and under power alone she has a speed of nine miles an hour. Her sail area is 380 square feet. She has a draught of 3 feet and a beam of 11 feet.

The Magdalene Vinnen is a German example of the big trading auxiliary. She is a four- masted barque registered at Bremen, and dates from 1921, when she was built by Krupp at Kiel. Her gross tonnage is 3,476, her length 329 feet, her beam 48 ft. 2 in. and depth 26 ft. 8 in. She has an auxiliary oil engine, electric lighting and a submarine signal system. A five- masted vessel built about the same time is the Carl Vinnen , 1,827 tons gross. She is similarly equipped with auxiliary engines.

Apart from such modern vessels there are many auxiliaries which are “old- timers”. Some of them, more than fifty years old, have been given a protracted lease of life by the diesel engine. These old vessels have seen steam displace sail, and the coal age give way before the oil age. They have seen the struggle for supremacy between the steam and the internal- combustion engine, with electricity allied to both.

Not all the old warriors have changed over to the diesel engine. Some, though propelled by steam, are not auxiliaries, but “conversions”. The full- rigged ship Ainsdale , a proud vessel in the ’nineties, was converted to steam about 1918, and after having changed her flag more than once, survives as the Turkish steamship Kalkavan Zade of Istanbul. The Ainsdale was built at Londonderry in 1890. In 1917 she was so badly damaged by a German submarine that she was abandoned. She was salved, however, and converted to steam.

CONVERTED FROM A SAILING YACHT into an auxiliary motor vessel, the Charmian was equipped in 1935 with two A.E.C. six- cylinder oil engines of the type illustrated below. The vessel was built in 1896 at Southampton by J. G. Fay & Co. and designed as a yacht by J. M. Soper. The Charmian has an overall length of 125 feet and a beam of 23 ft. 6 in. She is a vessel of 175 tons.

The Estonian steamship Nemrac was once the four- masted ship County of Inverness . The County of Inverness was built in 1877 and was owned for more than twenty years by R. and J. Craig, of Glasgow, who sold her to Shaw, Savill & Co., of London. The County of Linlithgow , built for Craig in 1887 as a four- masted ship, is now the Greek auxiliary Katherine . The Spanish steamship Bilbaino was once the British iron barque Delta , built in 1865 by Hill, of Cardiff, for the copper ore trade.

The Dutch auxiliaries are numerous, and the Dutch shipyards evolved a type that at one time severely competed with British coasters, both sail and steam. The auxiliary of this type ranges from about 75 to about 250 tons and a diesel engine gives her a speed of about 9 knots. The owner is generally the Captain, and the crew of the larger vessels consists of a helmsman, three hands and a boy, who is the cook. These motor sailing ships are able to do all the work a Thames barge can do, and have a far better turn of speed on an average and do not have to wait for a wind. They are the motor lorries of the North Sea and some of them are floating homes as well.

A MARINE OIL ENGINE of the type often fitted as auxiliary to sailing vessels. The port view of the A.E.C. six- cylinder engine illustrates the clean design and the convenient grouping of all accessories. This engine develops 100 brake horse- power. Two similar units were fitted to the auxiliary motor schooner Charmian , illustrated above.

One of the oldest British vessels now an auxiliary is the ketch Ceres , which was built at Salcombe, Devon, in 1811 and rebuilt in 1865. Some years ago she was fitted with an auxiliary motor to enable her to keep her place in the coastal trade of southwest England. She has a tonnage of 44.

Fishing Craft

Fishing boats are now either full- powered vessels or auxiliaries, although there are still a number of sailing smacks on the British coast, mainly at Lowestoft (Suffolk) and Brixham (Devon). Just as the big sailing trawlers and smacks of other days have given place to the steam trawlers and drifters, the smaller vessels have had to move with the times by installing motors. In recent years small diesels have been built for the smaller craft and are replacing the petrol- paraffin types that have been popular. Most of the engineering firms which make petrol- paraffin motors for marine use specialize in producing slow- running motors for small fishing craft. These engines start on petrol; when they have warmed up the petrol is turned off and the paraffin is turned on. The use of paraffin reduces fuel costs in Great Britain, although the power output is approximately only ninety per cent of that obtained from petrol. When an engine is used to such an extent as in these fishing boats the cost of fuel is a big item. The cost of fuel for a diesel is less than for a petrol engine, although the engine itself costs more to buy. For the most part the engines are installed in boats which retain their local characteristics. Every fishing port has evolved a boat suitable for its own locality and type of fishing. A Leigh bawley, for example, is different from a Yorkshire coble, although either may be equipped with an engine of the same make and power. The modern inshore fisherman is a sailor- mechanic- fisher- man, equally adept at sailing a boat, mending nets or taking an engine to pieces.

Motors have altered this branch of the fishing industry considerably. They have extended the radius of small craft and lessened the perils of a dangerous calling. In a calm the fisherman can get quickly under power to and from the fishing ground. If he is caught on a lee shore by a gale he has a far better chance of getting off it quickly than if he had only sail. At the same time, the sail is useful to steady the rolling of a small boat and saves fuel when the wind is fair.

Among small craft the marine motor has stimulated yachting and few cruising yachts are now built for sail only; nearly all are auxiliary vessels. The auxiliary may be a sailing yacht with a small engine as an auxiliary to the sails, or a sailing motor- yacht which is a motor- yacht with auxiliary sails.

THE SAIL AREA of the 78- tons auxiliary yacht Halcyon amounts to approximately 2,500 square feet. The Halcyon , 79 feet long, with a beam of 17 feet and a draught of 9 ft. 6 in., is fitted with a 70 horse- power petrol engine which gives her a speed of 7½- knots.

Designing a vessel which will travel as well under sail as under power is a problem that has attracted many naval architects. The most that can be expected, however, is a compromise. A sailing vessel, whether she is a little fishing boat or a full- rigged ship, is built to be propelled by the elements. From truck to keel she is designed to utilize the pressure of the wind and the resistance of the water, with modifications of rig and hull shape to conform to her work. The steam or motor vessel is designed to fight the wind and the water by being thrust forward by the action of her propeller.

It is comparatively easy to place a motor into a sailing vessel and use it as an auxiliary to obtain a moderate speed. It is impossible to obtain the speed that would be developed if the same engine were installed in a vessel designed specially as a steamship or a motor vessel. On the other hand, modern steamships, motor ships and motor yachts are not designed to sail. The area that a big liner exposes to a beam wind, for example, is greater than the sail area of a full- rigged ship and the design of a motor yacht, with her shallow draught and high freeboard, will not permit her to be sailed to windward.

In British coastal waters the most successful small sailing vessel is the Thames barge , which is still able to compete with steam and oil. There are, however, several Thames barges that have become auxiliaries, and have been operated successfully for a number of years as traders. The usual practice is to install the engine aft. A paraffin engine of 40 horse- power propels a barge 83 feet long, and a diesel of 100 or 125 horse- power propels a 95- ft. coasting barge. The auxiliary yacht has done much to make the pastime of cruising popular and to keep alive the art of sailing. Some owners of auxiliaries are always complaining of the engine, whereas the trouble lies with themselves. The tendency with a sailing boat into which a motor has been placed is to place the engine in such a position that everything is against its efficient working. Petrol engines are often installed under the raised floor of an open well, and then neglected and exposed to damp, but they are expected to function as well as the engine of a car that is housed in a garage.

Converted Ship's Boats

To avoid the drag of the propeller when the yacht is under sail, several methods are employed. One is to have a two- bladed propeller that is kept vertical in the orifice in line with the sternpost, the fly- wheel of the engine being marked to denote this position. Another is a patent feathering propeller. Yet another method is to allow the three- bladed propeller to idle and to revolve with the pressure of water; it can be thrown out of gear with the engine by using the clutch. A development of the auxiliary among small boats is the improvement of the outboard engine. Outboard engines are clamped on to the transoms of small craft. They average between two and five horse- power, and are employed for a variety of purposes from propelling a dinghy to acting as the auxiliary of a small sailing yacht. They work on the two- stroke principle, and some models that develop appreciable horse- power at high revolutions give to specially- built boats speeds exceeding that of an Atlantic liner. This can occur only in smooth water, as the craft are not displacement boats but hydroplanes.

A noteworthy development of the auxiliary is the application of the petrol engine to a former ship’s boat. Many years ago men with sea- fever in their blood but no cash in their pockets bought boats that had been used as ship’s lifeboats and tried to sail them. A few succeeded in converting such boats into craft that had a cabin and could sail to windward, but the percentage of failures was enormous. Mechanically- minded men solved the problem of getting to windward by equipping such boats with motor- car engines. These were converted to marine use, and the vessels retained their sailing power.

Some of these craft are former cutters, whalers and pinnaces which in their prime belonged to the Royal Navy. A few were formerly lifeboats of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. These craft exist in every port on the coast and in places on rivers many miles from the sea. Each “conversion” is a true auxiliary in that she is neither a yacht nor a motor yacht; each reflects the individuality of the owner.

A STEEL THREE- MASTED SHIP, the Dar Pomorza , is used as a training ship in the Polish Navy. She has a gross tonnage of 1,620. Ths Dar Pomorza was built at Hamburg in 1909 and is fitted with auxiliary engines. Her length is 239 feet, her beam 41 feet and her depth 21 feet.

You can read more on “Great Voyages in Little Ships” ,   “Speed Under Sail” and

“Training in Sail Today” on this website.

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• Systems & Propulsion

Electric and Hybrid Propulsion for Sailboats

Practical sailor looks at the players in the developing field of electric auxiliary engines.

How soon will electric auxiliary propulsion be available to everyman? That depends on whom you ask. Opinions differ widely not just on what type of drive system might surge to the forefront, but even on whether the concept itself is viable. While a handful of companies forge ahead, notably Glacier Bay and Electric Marine Propulsion on this side of the Atlantic, some expected participants are waiting on the sidelines.

Photos courtesy of Manufacturers

One of the big issues that divides promoters and detractors alike is whether the appropriate way to go in a sailboat is with a pure diesel-electric drive train, with a hybrid electric drive with a diesel generator as back-up, or as a pure electric drive with regeneration capability. We’ll take a look at these and other options later in this article. For now, the short answer is that no single approach suits every sailor all the time.

Simply put, in the diesel-electric system, the electric motor runs only when the diesel-driven generator is running. Such arrangements have long been employed in railway locomotives, submarines, and commercial vessels of many types. In the hybrid system, a large bank of batteries provides the energy for the electric motor and the diesel generator recharges the batteries. On the face of it, the hybrid system offers a certain degree of redundancy in that, assuming the batteries are kept well charged, the boat has a measure of emergency power should the generator fail at an inopportune moment. The hybrid also is capable of recharging its batteries when sailing: Driven by the turning propeller, the motor becomes a generator.

Each of these approaches has its strengths and weaknesses, and while we’ll leave it to their developers to work out the technical issues, we would like to urge anyone contemplating installing an electric drive, or purchasing a boat that has one, to first look very closely at how they expect to use the boat. There’s more entrained in the choice than in picking a flavor at Baskin-Robbins. More on this later.

Among the electric drives currently available in one form or another, or as components, the big variable is operating voltage. Motors are available that run on 24, 36, 48, 72, and 144 volts, and, in the case of Glacier Bay’s diesel-electric system with Ossa Powerlite technology, 240-volt DC. Each supplier will discourse at length on the merits of their voltage choice, but an inconvenient fact haunts the entire field: High-voltage DC is deadly, potentially more so in some circumstances than AC.

While neither form of high-voltage is “safe,” we have a lot more experience with AC aboard recreational vessels than with high-voltage DC. An extensive body of knowledge exists on which to base AC installations so as to make them safe as well as reliable. High-voltage DC is used in a variety of marine and non-marine commercial applications, but these installations are well protected from access by untrained operators.

What voltage constitutes high voltage? That, again, depends on whom you talk to. The American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC), which sets voluntary standards for the marine industry, defines it as 50 volts and above. Prompted by rapid adoption of high-voltage services in small commercial craft and bigger yachts, though not specifically in propulsion systems, the ABYC is in the process of drawing up guidelines for voltages higher than the 48 volts covered by existing standards.

An absence of standards might not deter individuals from installing an electric drive, but it might impede widespread adoption of the technology. If a surveyor can’t state in an insurance survey that a boat is built according to ABYC standards, that could affect its insurability.

Jim Nolan, who manages the underwriting department for BoatUS, said the company has no clear cut guidance regarding insuring boats with electric propulsion. Each boat is dealt with on a case-by-case basis. A new boat with a factory-installed system would be a good deal easier to underwrite than a one-off or do-it-yourself project, especially in the absence of a standard practice. Lagoon Catamarans’ 72-volt-DC hybrid system, for instance, has qualified for the European standard (CE) certification on the strength of following industrial standards that apply to such applications as fork-lift trucks. Anyone contemplating an electric drive would be well advised to discuss it ahead of time with an insurer and even get a surveyor involved from the outset.

Because of the safety issues surrounding the voltages involved in electric propulsion, Fischer Panda has decided to limit its DC product line to boats weighing 10 tons or less. A company representative we spoke to said that while Fischer Panda currently sells DC generators up to 48 volts in the USA for marine use, it “won’t touch” high-voltage DC because it’s lethal.

A proposed collaboration with Catalina Yachts to fit a diesel-electric system in a Catalina-Morgan 440 never came to fruition due to budget constraints, according to Fischer Panda. But in Europe, Fischer Panda teamed up with Whisperprop to equip a Bavaria 49. (Beyond the fact that one of its boats was used, Bavaria Yachts was not involved in the project.) According to Fischer Panda, after evaluating the Bavaria project, the company decided that the diesel-electric AC system is a niche product that wouldn’t interest their prime market: original equipment builders.

“Although the AC system has some advantages in the improved response of the electric motors … and the quietness of the system, the desired fuel efficiency and weight savings were not evident,” Fischer Panda reported.

Fischer Panda considers the DC system to be more suitable for its North American customers. Although it’s limited in output due to its limited battery voltage of 48 volts, it is still able to power multihulls up to 10 tons.

Currently, much of the movement toward electric drives is taking place in the catamaran world. This makes sense when you consider that a single diesel generator can, in theory, provide all the boat’s electrical needs and also take the place of two diesel-propulsion engines. Taking the lead in the field, Lagoon Catamarans introduced in 2006 the Lagoon 420. Originally offered only as a hybrid, it now is also available in two diesel versions. Corsair Marine is building the Corsair 50 catamaran around the Glacier Bay diesel-electric drive, but the boat’s launch date—formerly set for this summer—has been postponed.

Dick Vermeulen, president of Maine Cat, tried the Glacier Bay system in a prototype power cat, but it failed to meet performance expectations, so production models will have conventional diesels. A number of other cat builders have announced hybrid or diesel-electric projects, but feedback on how they perform is scan’t.

So much for the mainstream—but backwater sailors will go their own way, as they always have. As more vendors and components enter the market, the options for do-it-yourselfers or custom-boat customers become broader and more attractive. However, before going ahead with an installation, make sure it’s appropriate to how you plan to use your boat, and even then be prepared to adapt the way you sail to take best advantage of the system’s characteristics. Here’s a rundown of the various types.

Electric Drive Only

Duffy Electric Boats has for years been building electric launches and lake boats that have the simple capability of puttering around in sheltered waters for a period of time determined by battery capacity and speed maintained. A battery charger powered by shore power charges the batteries overnight. Transferring that approach to a sailboat up to about 25 feet used for daysailing and kept near an electrical outlet shouldn’t be too difficult. It won’t offer the assurance of diesel when trying to get home against current or wind, but a proven 36- or 48-volt system will keep you out of uncharted standards territory.

For a bigger boat, more power, a greater range, or a combination of these requirements, it will be necessary to install a large battery bank and almost certainly will entail going to a higher voltage to keep the amps and the cabling needed to carry them manageable. The boat’s range under power will be limited by the weight of batteries, and while lighter lithium-based technology is on the horizon, for now the standard is lead/acid. The fast charging, but expensive pure lead thin plate (PLTP) Odyssey batteries have attracted particular interest among propulsion enthusiasts.

Electric Drive with Regeneration

The next level up in complexity is a “reversible” system. When the boat is sailing, the propeller turns the motor, which then becomes a generator. The electricity it makes is used to recharge the batteries. The capability to regenerate extends the boat’s potential range, but the drag on the propeller slows the boat measurably. One hour of regen will not restore the power consumed by one hour of motoring, but if sailing time sufficiently exceeds motoring time, this arrangement offers considerable range.

A regenerating system does have the potential to overcharge the batteries once they become fully charged and the boat continues to sail fast. The solution is, ironically, to give the motor some “throttle,” which reduces the drag on the propeller and consequently the power output. This phenomenon gives rise to a new technique, that of “electro-sailing” in which sails and an electric motor complement each other. At present, the “throttle” must be adjusted by hand, but developers are working on automatic controls. Field trials of existing regen motors such as the Solomon systems suggest that a small regen motor’s ability to match the output of a much higher-rated diesel have been overstated.

Hybrid Electric Drive

A hybrid system adds to the mix an onboard generator, which is used primarily to maintain charge in the batteries, both those for the propulsion motor and for the house services. This arrangement extends the boat’s capability to lie for long periods at anchor, independent of shore power for electricity and without the need to go sailing for the sole purpose of charging the batteries. A hybrid can motor constantly, as long as there is fuel, but it cannot sustain full speed for long periods. This is because the generator is usually rated at a far lower horsepower than that required to drive the boat at full speed.

Diesel-Electric Drive

In a pure diesel-electric, the electric propulsion motor runs only when the generator is running. Storage batteries are not needed for propulsion purposes, and the generator is the source for all onboard electrical power needs. The rationale behind diesel electric lies in the relationship between a diesel engine’s rate of fuel consumption and the load it’s working under. It burns fuel more efficiently when heavily loaded than when lightly loaded. When the diesel engine is disconnected from the propeller, it can be controlled so that it is working in the upper range of its efficiency regardless of how fast the propeller is turning. Nigel Calder’s series of articles in Professional Boatbuilder magazine (www.boatbuilder.com) beginning with the June/July issue delves deeply into the efficiency discussion surrounding these engines. Systems on large vessels are built around multiple generators that switch on or off according to the power demands of the moment. Translating those efficiencies into a smaller boat scenario has proven to be challenging.

Hype vs. Experience

Maine Cat’s Vermeulen, on the company’s website, describes the sea trials he performed in the Maine Cat 45, a power catamaran. He began with a Glacier Bay diesel-electric system with two 25-kW generators, each weighing about 550 pounds.

“With both generators putting out their full power of 25 kW each … our top speed was a disappointing 8.4 knots, and the assumption that electric horsepower was somehow more powerful than conventionally produced horsepower was in serious doubt.”

He replaced the propellers with a pair with less pitch, which allowed the electric motors to reach their full rating of 1,100 rpm, but that only increased the speed to 9.1 knots.

“These are about the same speeds and fuel burns we get on our Maine Cat 41 sailing cat … powered by twin 29-horsepower 3YM30 Yanmar diesels with saildrives and two-bladed, folding propellers.” At the time he installed them, the 25-kW generators were the highest power available from Glacier Bay.

Vermeulen replaced the diesel-electric system with twin 160-horsepower Volvo diesels. At 9.1 knots, they together burned 2.2 gallons per hour, considerably less than the 3 gallons per hour that the Glacier Bay system burned at the same speed. With the twin Volvos maxed out at 3,900 rpm, the boat made 24.5 knots.

Also among the unconvinced is Chris White, well-known designer of ocean-going catamarans. “To date, I’ve not seen any system that makes sense for a cruising boat,” he says, but he might change his mind, “if someone can show me by building one that delivers an advantage in performance, weight, or cost.”

White sees the current bubble of interest in diesel-electric drives as a fad. In the end, he says, you’re getting the horsepower the diesel creates at the crankshaft, which is basically the same whether it’s delivered to the prop via a conventional reduction gearbox or via a generator and an electric motor. Besides, he says, diesel engines and diesel fuel are understood and available anywhere in the world you might take a sailboat. Complex, electronically controlled electric motors are not.

White’s reservations notwithstanding, it’s in the world of catamarans that we’re seeing most of the applications. At first sight, it does seem logical that replacing three diesel engines—two propulsion and one generator—on a fully equipped cruising cat would result in fuel savings. Still, if the generator is big enough to drive the boat at cruising speed (which in a cat is expected to be in the vicinity of 10 knots) and run the air conditioning at the same time, it will be overkill for the times it’s only needed to operate the boat’s services. For this reason, commercial and military diesel-electric systems employ multiple generators that can be switched on and off according to the power demand of the moment.

Corsair Marine hopes that by installing a diesel-electric system in its 50-foot catamaran, it will be able to descend the weight spiral. Where a conventional installation would involve two 75-horsepower saildrives plus a 6-kW genset, it’s fitting a pair of 28-horsepower electric motors, one 25-kW generator, and a 40-amp, 230-volt battery bank. It expects to save about 700 pounds in equipment weight, some of it through the use of high-voltage, low-current systems, which will in turn reduce the rig requirement, thus the structural weight, and so on toward an estimated overall weight savings in the thousands of pounds.

Corsair’s David Renouf estimates that the boat will cruise at 8 knots and be capable of short bursts at 10. He admits that, until the first boat is launched, his information is “based on extrapolation, not proven numbers.” He says that some clients will add a second 25-kW genset to assure longer periods at 10 knots. Currently, the project is running behind schedule, with a launch scheduled before the end of the year.

Cost and Other Benefits

At the present time, there appears to be no reason to install any proprietary electric drive of any description in the expectation of bettering the economics of a standard diesel drive. The motors and their electronic controllers are sophisticated and expensive. A battery bank sufficient to provide a useful motoring range is a big investment in weight, space, and money. When you add a generator and its peripherals, the cost and weight take another upward leap.

Only the simplest system will begin to pay itself off in terms of fuel not burnt, and then only if the boat sees a great deal of use. A diesel-electric system designed to closely dovetail with the way you use the boat may prove to be more efficient over time than a conventional diesel installation, but until enough systems have been installed and used and data from that use compiled and compared, we can’t know that.

So why even consider going electric? Cleanliness and silence of operation are two qualities that make electric propulsion an attractive proposition for a sailboat, but in order to enjoy them, we have to accept the limitations they impose.

A hybrid or a diesel-electric system enables us to have a single fossil-fuel power source for both propulsion and onboard appliances, but whatever fuel we might save as a consequence of motoring more efficiently for a couple of hours will be inconsequential if we run the generator all night to power the air conditioning.

Conclusions

As we go to press, pickings are slim for sailors looking for an electric solution to the diesel problem. Suppliers of components are few, prices are high, and the feedback on long-term reliability is nonexistent. On top of all this is the elephant in the room: the unexplored safety ramifications that accompany high-voltage DC.

However, none of this should deter the dedicated tinkerer who has funds to match his curiosity and who can live within the parameters imposed by electric propulsion.

Practical Sailor encourages our readers to explore the technology, because ultimately, it is the experimenters who bring us the equipment we eventually come to take for granted.

• Pricing Electric Power for a 30-foot Sailboat
• Special Report
• Electric Engines
• Success in the Real World is a Matter of Perspective

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR

I have gotten excited about repowering my Freedom 30 with an electric motor. A fellow Freedom 30 owner completed his refit about 8 months ago and is very happy with the result, although he wishes he had gone with larger Lipo batteries. He chose a motor from electricyacht.com which sells a 10KW package (quietTorque 10) including motor, performance display, throttle and shaft coupler for $6K. Batteries and charger are extra. The motor does does feature a regen capability. Figure a $10K investment. Big bucks for sure but equivalent to a yard installed diesel repower. I would do the install myself.

I am not a cruiser but have done some lengthy passages from San Francisco to Hawaii. Ideal conditions for regen. I expec between regen and a hundred watts of solar, I could have kept the bank topped up the whole way down despite AP loads, etc. The way back? Not so much. Realistically you would need a small generator and a good stock of gas if you wanted to do much motoring, Having said that, one of the boats that sailed down there with me came home with an outboard as his aux power. I think he had ten gallons of gas.

But I am not planning ocean passages in future, I will be sailing the SF Bay and coastal cruising. When I think about eliminating the engine noise, engine maintenance, fuel tank and tank maintenance, diesel hoses, diesel smell, diesel soot, diesel leaks, r=two boxes of hoses and spares. oil changes, coolant changes, transport and disposal of all the waste to the local recycling facility, lugging fuel jugs down to the boat, storing fuel, filling fuel, buying fuel, worrying about spilling fuel. I mean it just goes on and on.

Frankly, I can’t wait. In terms of range, well, I plan to get a hefty battery bank but I also intend to become a better sailor. I’ll slow down and do more sailing. Gee wiz, what a concept. I’ll be more mindful of time and tide, I’ll take advantage of favorable currents and I’ll be ready to anchor and chill when they are not favorable.

Meanwhile, Elon and his competitors are improving battery technology rapidly. Couple of years from now maybe I double range. But, by then, I won’t be worrying about it because I will be a real sailor.

I look forward to reading an update on the state of electric sailboat propulsion 13 years later…

Most of the time we leave the dock, motor for under half a nautical mile to get out of tiny Wilmette harbor and get the sails up, turn off our much abused Yanmar 3GMF, sail around, turn on the engine, lower the sails, and travel another half a nautical mile back to the dock. Almost all at a very low RPM. But, on occasion we motor or motor sail long distances for hours on end, so a battery only system would not work. But how nice it would be if we had electric propulsion for getting in and out of the harbor.

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The Importance of Ship’s Auxiliary Engines: Keeping Vessels Running Smoothly

• 19 April, 2023
• ENGINE DEPARTMENT

Global trade and transportation rely on ships to carry billions of tons of cargo and millions of passengers each year. The ships’ power and propulsion systems depend on a complex network of technologies, among which the auxiliary engine plays an important role. Although the main engines receive most of the attention, the unsung heroes of the ship’s power and propulsion systems are the auxiliary engines. In this article, we will delve into the world of ship’s auxiliary engines – what they are, why they are essential, and how to maintain peak performance.

What Are Ship's Auxiliary Engines?

Definition and basic functions.

Auxiliary power units (APUs), or ship’s auxiliary engines, are small engines installed on ships to provide electrical power for various functions on board. They do not power the ship’s main propulsion system but instead provide the necessary energy to run other systems, including air conditioning, refrigeration, communication equipment, and lights. Ship’s auxiliary engines have three primary functions:

• Generating electrical power – Auxiliary engines generate electricity to power the ship’s systems and equipment by converting fuel, such as diesel or gas, into mechanical energy, which is then transformed into electrical energy using a generator.
• Driving pumps – Auxiliary engines also drive various pumps on the ship, including those used for fuel transfer, water supply, and fire suppression.
• Providing emergency backup power – In case of a power outage, auxiliary engines can serve as a backup power source to keep essential systems running until the main engines can be restarted or repaired.

Types of Auxiliary Engines

Ships utilize various types of auxiliary engines, each possessing specific functions and capabilities. Below are some of the examples.

• Diesel engines. Diesel engines are highly efficient and reliable, often utilized for generating electrical power and driving equipment such as pumps.
• Gas turbines. Gas turbines are commonly found on larger ships that require high-speed propulsion or as emergency backup power sources due to their fast response time and high power output.
• Steam Turbines. Although they are not as common as they used to be, some older ships still rely on steam turbines, which generate electricity or drive other equipment using steam generated from a boiler.

Differences Between Main Engines and Auxiliary Engines

Main engines propel the ship while auxiliary engines serve a different purpose. Some differences between the two include:

• Main engines are larger and more powerful than auxiliary engines, which are smaller and less powerful since they only produce enough power for the ship’s systems and equipment.
• Main engines consume more fuel than auxiliary engines because of their greater power output.
• Ships typically have multiple auxiliary engines for backup in case of engine failure, while they may have only one or two main engines because they are more reliable and less likely to fail.

Why Are Auxiliary Engines Necessary for Ships?

Power generation and distribution.

Auxiliary engines are necessary for ships because they provide electrical power for the various systems and equipment on board. While the main engines are responsible for propelling the ship forward, they do not generate enough electricity to power all of the ship’s systems. Auxiliary engines provide the additional power needed to keep the ship running smoothly. Some specific systems that rely on auxiliary power include:

• Lights and electrical outlets – Essential for providing lighting throughout the ship, as well as powering various electrical devices, such as computers, phones, and other equipment.
• Air conditioning and refrigeration – Critical for maintaining a comfortable living and working environment on board the ship, as well as keeping food and other perishable items fresh.
• Communication equipment – Ships rely on a variety of communication equipment, such as radios, satellite phones, and radar systems, to stay in contact with other vessels and port authorities.

Essential Backup Systems

Auxiliary engines provide backup power in case of an emergency, ensuring that ships do not become stranded and vulnerable to hazards such as storms, currents, and other vessels, if the main engines fail. Critical systems that rely on auxiliary power include:

• Navigation systems – Auxiliary power enables these systems to guide the ship safely through the water. Navigation equipment such as GPS, radar, and depth sounders can be powered by auxiliary engines.
• Communication systems – Communication is very important during emergencies for calling for help or coordinating with other vessels. Auxiliary engines can power communication equipment such as radios, satellite phones, and distress beacons.
• Emergency lighting – In case the ship loses power, auxiliary engines can power emergency lighting which is essential for guiding crew members to safety.

Fuel Efficiency and Emissions Reduction

Auxiliary engines enable ships to operate more efficiently and reduce their emissions by powering non-propulsion systems with smaller engines. This reduces fuel consumption and emissions since main engines are most efficient at high loads. Furthermore, some auxiliary engines emit fewer pollutants and are more fuel-efficient than older engines. Using auxiliary engines for fuel efficiency and emissions reduction provides the following benefits:

• Reducing fuel consumption – Ships can reduce their overall fuel consumption, save money, and reduce their environmental impact by using smaller, more fuel-efficient engines for non-propulsion systems.
• Reducing emissions – Ships can meet emissions regulations and reduce their environmental impact by using auxiliary engines designed to emit fewer pollutants and be more fuel-efficient.
• Optimizing load – Using smaller engines for non-propulsion systems enables ships to optimize the load on their main engines, improving their overall efficiency and reducing engine wear and tear.

Maintenance and Operation of Auxiliary Engines

Regular maintenance.

Regular maintenance is necessary for auxiliary engines to operate smoothly, just like other machinery. This maintenance comprises of:

• Changing the engine oil regularly to lubricate the engine and prevent wear and tear on its components.
• Regularly changing filters such as air and fuel filters is crucial to prevent contaminants from entering the engine and causing damage.
• Routine cleaning and inspection to detect wear and tear should be performed regularly. Debris or buildup that could interfere with the engine’s operation should be removed.

Proper Operation

Proper operation of auxiliary engines is also important to ensure their longevity and reliability, in addition to regular maintenance. To achieve this, consider the following key factors when operating auxiliary engines:

• Ensure optimal performance and fuel efficiency by operating auxiliary engines at the appropriate load. Overloading or underloading the engine can cause damage and reduce its lifespan.
• Prevent damage and ensure proper operation by starting and stopping auxiliary engines according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.
• Follow proper shutdown procedures to prevent damage to the engine and ensure safe operation. This may involve tasks such as cooling the engine down before shutting it off.

Training and Certification

To ensure the proper operation and maintenance of auxiliary engines, it’s important to train and certify crew members responsible for them. Consider the following training and certification requirements:

• Manufacturer training – The manufacturer of the auxiliary engine should provide training to crew members to ensure their familiarity with the engine’s operation and maintenance.
• Certification requirements – Depending on the ship’s size and type, crew members may need certain certifications to operate and maintain auxiliary engines.
• Continuing education – Crew members should stay up-to-date with the latest developments in auxiliary engine technology and maintenance practices as technology and regulations change. Ongoing training and education can prepare crew members to operate and maintain these critical systems.

Modern ships rely heavily on auxiliary engines as they provide power for various onboard systems and operations. Operating and maintaining auxiliary engines correctly is important to ensure their reliability and longevity. Crew members can learn how to operate and maintain auxiliary engines by undergoing proper training and certification.  Ship owners and operators can help guarantee that their auxiliary engines continue to provide reliable and efficient power for years to come by following manufacturer recommendations, adhering to certification requirements, and staying up-to-date on the latest technologies and practices.

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By SuperyachtNews 10 Aug 2022

Sailing yacht or sail-assisted motor yacht?

The term ‘sailing yacht’ is in danger of becoming a tool for greenwashing, should it be reserved for vessels that actually sail.

Put a group of superyacht industry experts in a room together and ask them, what's the biggest sail yacht in the world? This shouldn’t be a controversial question. You’d think a straightforward question would result in a straightforward answer, but I can guarantee that not everyone would have the same response. Sailing Yacht A is widely regarded as the biggest sailing yacht in the world, however, technically speaking, it is a sail-assisted motor yacht. Therefore, you could argue that the newly launched Y721 is now the largest sailing yacht in the world.

The problem is, who gets to distinguish what a sail-assisted motor yacht is and what a pure sailing yacht is? If it is down to how often the sails get used, then you could argue that there are many sailing yachts that spend almost all of their time cruising with the main engines running. You could counter this and say that anything with sails is a sailing yacht. However, I would argue that there is value in differentiating between yachts that can sail and yachts that do sail. 

From a PR perspective, a sailing yacht is more appealing than a big motor yacht, largely because people assume if it has rigging, then it must be more sustainable. Earlier this year I was interviewed by Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 and I was questioned why superyachts should be allowed to exist given the current climate crisis. I pointed out that while the industry does need to do better, not every yacht is a giant diesel-guzzling machine. The industry is working towards hybrid propulsion and hopefully, the sailing yacht market could be reinvigorated. The presenter scoffed, “Yeah but that's a sailboat, it’s not really a superyacht now is it?” This is the kind of naivety that some current sailing yacht owners and potential clients will be banking on.

Just because a yacht has sails, that doesn’t mean it is sustainable, in fact, it accounts for very little. You can have a very large sail yacht that has a huge hotel load, an operational profile that doesn’t consider the environment, and two massive engines that consume loads of fuel, and yet, you are off the hook because at least it's a sailboat.

On the other hand, you have something like the 106 metre Black Pearl . Black Pearl features a DynaRig, a hybrid propulsion system, and is able to regenerate energy by dragging the controlled-pitch propellers through the water while sailing. The yacht spends a lot of time under sail - the captain estimates that they use the sails 80 per cent of the time when underway. Recently, the yacht sailed 100 per cent of the way from Gibraltar to Amsterdam and they were even able to regenerate energy when the conditions allowed. 

And guess what, the captain of the vessel, Chris Gartner, doesn’t even call it a sailing yacht. In a recent article with SuperyachtNews, he stated that he prefers the term ‘auxiliary-powered sailing ship’ because of the stigma attached to sailing yachts in the superyacht industry. You can’t blame him either, Black Pearl is a special ship, and unfortunately, most people don’t make the effort of giving it the recognition it deserves.

So, instead of tarnishing every sailing yacht with the same green brush, the industry should take the time to reconsider how we label a yacht based on its credentials and unique features. The superyacht industry has outgrown outdated definitions - Def. ‘Sailing yacht’ - a leisure craft that uses sails as its primary means of propulsion. That is a completely different thing to a boat that has sails but doesn’t use them. You don’t call an aeroplane a car just because it has wheels.

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Hong Kong - The Place For Pleasure Boating

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Hong Kong, with its beautiful coastline and numerous outlying islands, provides excellent opportunities for water-related leisure activities such as water skiing, sailing, surfing and boating. The popularity of water sports is backed by a wide range of clubs and resorts offering facilities, activities and training for enthusiasts.

All pleasure craft operators in Hong Kong must hold Local Certificates of Competency as a Pleasure Vessel Operator, a requirement to ensure safety in the high traffic local waters.

The Hong Kong Yachting Association represents the interests of pleasure craft operators on Government committees and is recognized internationally. The Association also keeps the Government informed of the latest developments in boating and watersports.

To ensure that everyone can enjoy the fun of boating, the Marine Department has taken active measures to ensure safety in the sea and protect the marine environment. Pleasure vessel owners and operators can obtain information and guidelines on safe operation from the department's office.

Three Things To Do Before Operating Your Pleasure Vessels

• License your vessel.
• Ensure that your boat will be under the charge of a properly certified pleasure vessel operator. Grades of the certificates held must be appropriate to your boat's length, engine type (diesel, petrol and outboard) and engine power.
• Acquire a third party risk insurance of not less than HK$5,000,000 for your vessel.

Licensing of Pleasure Vessels

It's simple.

Fill in the appropriate application form (MD 515) , follow the Guidance Notes attached to the form, return it to the Marine Department enclosing the required documents and a cheque made out to the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for the prescribed fee .

It's Quick!

After the application form has been checked with all details completed correctly, a licence will be issued to you.

Paint or affix the allocated Certificate of Ownership number on each side of your vessel, as close to amidships as possible.

It's Direct!

Application form (MD 515) can be downloaded here or obtained at any of the eight District Marine Offices .

Class/Types of Pleasure Vessels:

Pleasure Vessels are Class IV vessels under the local licensing System with the following types:

• Auxiliary Powered Yacht
• Open Cruiser

Notes on Cruiser:

• Vessel with continuous main deck; or
• Vessel's cabin could accommodate 60 % of vessel's carrying capacity (total number of persons permitted to carry) with weatherproof cabin door and drainage holes on deck.

Marine Auxiliary Engine: The Complete Guide

Modern day ships are behemoths in both size and the load that they can carry. Take, for example, the Panamax cargo ships that negotiate the Panama Canal every day. These ships are 964ft x 106ft in size, with a total weight capacity of 5,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs). Modern day cruise ships are about the same – 1000ft long.

Table of Contents

Have you ever wondered how a huge floating city like this is powered? Let’s understand more about how the marine auxiliary engine of a ship helps power the ship.

What Is a Marine Auxiliary Engine?

Ships require two kinds of power:

• Power to move the ship (Prime mover)
• Power to run the electrical devices and appliances on board (the lights, the air conditioning, etc.)

The marine auxiliary engine is the engine that supplies the power to run the electrical devices on board the ship. 

Also Read : Components of IC Engine With Functions & Images

What Is the Purpose of an Auxiliary Engine on Ships?

As mentioned above, the auxiliary engine is the one responsible for providing power to everything on the ship except for the actual movement of the ship.

It’s essentially the life support system onboard the ship and the main source of power for everything on it. Without an auxiliary engine, the ship is essentially like a moving hunk of metal in the water, which you might not even be able to navigate properly (because the navigation system onboard runs on electricity!)

Ships can also use auxiliary engines for many purposes. For example, they provide the power to haul in the nets on a shipping boat. If the ship is a hauling ship, the auxiliary engine powers the cranes on the ship as well. 

Essentially any other equipment on the ship that’s not connected to propelling the ship is run by marine auxiliary engines.

What Is the Marine Auxiliary Made From?

A marine auxiliary engine is essentially an AC generator that works on the principle of electromagnetic field (EMF). 

Also Read : Why AC is preferred onboard ship than DC

This process is similar to the way any generator works: you will be surprised to know that even the small generator that lights up an electric scooter’s lights works with similar principles! Of course, the difference in dimensions is mind bogglingly huge. 

An electrical generator has several components, depending on the configuration used. Below are some of the common components:

• Stator: This is a set of electrical conductors wound around an iron core in coils
• Rotor: This is essentially a large, rotating magnet placed inside the stator
• Field: This is nothing but coiled conductors that receive a DC input
• Armature: This is the large coiled wiring which receives the AC output of the engine 
• Prime Mover: This is what generates the direct current to run the auxiliary engine. The prime mover is the primary engine on a ship, which typically runs on diesel.

Apart from this, the transfer of power from the engine to the power distribution center happens in two ways:

Brushed motor

In this configuration, brushes and slip rings are used to transfer direct current to the moving rotor and take away the alternating current from the rotor.

Brushless Motor

This configuration eliminates the need for slip rings and brushes, and the prime mover is replaced by another smaller alternator instead.

Auxiliary Marine Engine Assembly

Marine engines are among the largest machines known to man, and therefore their assembly and manufacturing require special care. 

Typical Auxiliary engines are designed with very tight dimensions specifications, which is why they are increasingly being made with the help of CNC machining . 

Auxiliary Marine Engine Maintenance

Marine engines work in very harsh conditions at sea and incur a lot of wear and tear. Typically, ships carry a lot of spare parts to compensate for this wear and tear. Rapid prototype technology (3D printing) is increasingly being seen as a way to design on-site replacement parts, thereby reducing the ship’s load as well.

Also Read : What maintenance you will carry out on an alternator to keep in good working conditions

How Does a Marine Auxiliary Engine Work?

To generate electricity in a marine auxiliary engine, you can use two methods:

• Either rotate the coiled wiring around a static magnetic field
• Or else rotate a magnet inside stationary coiled wiring.

Ideally, it shouldn’t matter which of the components is moving, the coiled wiring or the magnet. However, it is more difficult to generate alternating current if the coiled wiring is moving, so the preferred route is to move the magnet instead.

The magnet rotates using a mechanical input (usually, the ship’s diesel powers this rotational movement). When the magnet rotates inside the conductors, it produces an alternating electric current in the conductors, which then powers various devices through the power distribution center of the ship.

Marine auxiliary engines are typically large enough to take up close to 15% of the entire fuel consumption of the ship and work in many configurations. An average ship would need two or three of these auxiliary engines working in a parallel configuration.

What Is the Difference Between the Main Engine and Auxiliary Engine on a Ship?

The below table summarizes the key differences between the main engine and auxiliary engine of a ship. The key difference is the use of the two engines, but there are many other differences as well.

Marine auxiliary engines are the lifeblood of a ship; they power everything except for the actual movement of the ship. We hope this guide has helped you understand how these engines generate power for a huge ship.

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Power when you need it - and backup propulsion for when you really need it.

Auxiliary Propulsion Units

WESMAR's unique Auxiliary Propulsion Unit (APU) uses hydraulic power sourced from the ship's generator to drive the propeller shaft providing back-up if the main engine is lost due to fuel contamination or mechanical failure.

The APU is a perfect fit with WESMAR's other hydraulically-driven products and seamlessly integrates with WESMAR's Central Hydraulic Systems. It offers complete control from the helm and can be operated right from the bridge by simply turning the key and using the proportional joystick for forward and aft propulsion. The APU system is immediately engaged with a simple turn of a key at the helm. There is no need to leave the helm or visit the engine room to activate the system.

Hydraulically powered by your vessel's generator or stand-alone engine, the APU allows fuel efficient extended operation, providing the ability to bring your vessel safely to port and avoid costly towing or worse - damage to the boat. Simplicity and practicality are the focus of this auxiliary system.

The compact, rugged design of the WESMAR's APU ensures reliability. Its robust, corrosion-resistant construction means it will be ready and waiting in the event that it is needed. As with all WESMAR products, the APU is built of the most durable materials to ensure a long life.

• Provides reliable propulsion in the event of system failures and avoids costly towing
• Controllable RPM for low speed quiet trolling, maneuvering, and sight-seeing
• Quiet operation for late night and early morning departures resulting in minimal disturbances to guests and neighbors
• Helm-mounted safety key lock to avoid unintentional operation

Power Units (APU s ) Stories

Yachting Monthly

• Digital edition

Electric yacht: What are the options for going electric?

• Will Bruton
• July 17, 2020

The options for having an electric yacht or a hybrid-electric yacht are growing in popularity; we outline the current options for those making the switch

The Arcona 380Z is a standard production yacht that has been adapted for electric propulsion. Note the increased solar panel surface area with soft panels bonded to the sails. Credit: Jukka Pakainen

A modern electric yacht can come in all shapes and sizes, from the latest high-tech speed boats with recently developed high-performance electric engines, to a traditional tender with an electric outboard on the back. Increasingly yachts are going electric too as electric engines become increasingly capable of propelling boats weighing several tonnes, and with the rigging for sails, at a reasonable speed for an acceptable length of time. 

Since the invention of the marinised engine , there has never been the capacity to store enough fuel to cover significant distances in boats that are smaller than a tanker, with fuel capacity always being the limiting factor. As such the best way to cover long distances on a boat fit for a small number of passengers was, and remains, wind power. 

For all the many green attributes that using the power of wind offers, there is no escaping that for most, fossil fuels still represent some part of sailing – whether that be a diesel engine to motor in light winds, onto and off a mooring , or to generate power for onboard electronic systems. Even a small tender used to go from ship-to-shore is often fitted with an outboard motor.

Recent advances in electric power, however, have started to make electric propulsion a reasonable alternative to fossil fuel power. Range will always be an issue but that has long been true of a traditional diesel engine. Improvements in lithuim-ion battery performance is, and likely will continue to, increase range every year. 

Spirit Yachts 44e – the ‘e’ stands for electric

Additionally electric power and batteries offer the bonus of being able to be recharged via solar panels , a wind turbine or hydroelectric power – via a hydrogenerator mounted on the stern of a boat sailing. 

At first glance the electric yacht market could appear in its infancy, but like every revolution, the will of the people is driving forward technology that only a few years ago was seen as the stuff of fantasy.

The market has responded to demand, and battery and motor technology has come on leaps and bounds, driven in part by the rapid development of electric cars.

It may not be commonplace yet, but electric yachting is here, even available ‘off the shelf’, so is it time to get onboard?

The Spirit 111 is a bold hybrid yacht, promising 30 miles motoring under electric power alone. Credit: Ian Roman/Waterline Media

A cutting edge electric yacht

Like Formula One, it’s the cutting edge of electric yachting that trickles down into mainstream production in no time at all.

For Spirit Yachts, a builder defined by a unique blend of traditional and state-of-the-art, electric yachting has been driven by demanding clients that want their yachts to be at the cutting edge.

Spirit Yachts have now produced a number of projects aimed at the all electric luxury yacht market including the Spirit 44e electric yacht and a recent project, the Spirit 111, had all the hallmarks of a superyacht project and the team had to earn their keep delivering to brief.

Managing Director Nigel Stuart explained how it works.

‘The 111 combines several cutting-edge technologies to deliver a something that’s never really been done before. A lithium-ion powered electric drive system can be charged by hydrogenation and also two high-wattage diesel generators.

‘Each generator is 22kw, meaning they can pack a lot of power into the system in a short period of time, they don’t need to run for long to fully recharge.

‘The prop is both a means of drive and power generation, so no separate hydrogenerator is needed. She will be capable of motoring under electric alone for more than 30 miles.

‘When you take on a project that’s electric, it makes you think hard about efficiency so the air conditioning, water heaters and everything in the galley has also been carefully selected to use less power.

‘For her owner there is very little compromise and some major advantages.’

Whilst it’s a long way from the average cruising yacht, the trickle-down effect of projects like the Spirit 111 can’t be underestimated.

Calypso , a Contessa 32, was the yard’s first foray into electric-powered yachts. Credit: Jeremy Rogers

Traditional electric yacht

Jeremy Rogers’ yard in Lymington is the birthplace of the iconic Contessa designs and a veritable temple to long keeled , traditional craft.

Less well known is the yard’s interest in electric auxiliary engines, something they have been involved in for more than 10 years.

Their first project, the refit of a Contessa 32 called Calypso, was an experiment by the Rogers family to see what was possible.

‘ Calypso was a test bed in the technology’s infancy,’ explains Kit Rogers of this early electric boat.

‘Inevitably, we didn’t get it all right, but we learned a lot about the dos and don’ts of electric yachting. The end result was a hybrid. The more we did, the more interesting the project became.

‘It’s not just the obvious, silent peaceful propulsion; it’s also the things you take for granted about a cruising boat. For example, no gas, we didn’t need it because we had electric power.

The yard has also worked on an electric folkboat conversion for a foreign customer.

‘The client, first and foremost, loves to sail. He sees the electric as an auxiliary option, along with the rowing and is excited to own a boat that’s quietly different.

‘He’s looking for a more connected experience and an electric boat helps him achieve it. When you’ve been motoring in and out of marinas under chugging diesel engines for years, the electric motor is something of a revelation.

Arcona has installed solar sails on its latest 380Z electric yacht

Off-the-shelf electric yacht

Perhaps the biggest indication of the future of the electric boat is the willingness of production and semi-production builders to pin their flags to the mast and embrace it.

One of the first was Hanse, who developed a version of their 315 utilising a Torquedo electric pod system.

Providing around the same amount of power as a 10 horsepower diesel, a 4.4kWh lithium ion battery pack powers the system.

Arcona, Dufour, Elan and Delphia also have electric boat models and are each taking their own direction on entering the market.

Arcona’s 380Z (the ‘Z’ stands for ‘zero emission’) fully electric boat has solar panel covered sails, capitalising on the large surface area to top up batteries under sail.

In the multihull market, there is even more scope for solar, wind and hydrogenation due to the horizontal surface area available for solar charging.

What are the options for an electric yacht?

Pure electric.

Purely electric systems can be broadly divided into two categories, high and low voltage.

The latter is the simplest option in terms of how it works and requires less specialist knowledge to install.

Kit Rogers installed a 48v Ocean Volt system in his latest project and remarked on the experience.

‘The advantage of the low voltage system is its inherent lack of complexity. Whilst we’ve coupled it with lithium ion battery technology, it can also be wired up to conventional lead acid batteries. There are pros and cons to both. What surprises everyone is the size, it’s a tiny motor and is surrounded by lots of space where the engine would normally sit.’

High voltage systems are more advanced, and utilising lithium-ion technology, their capacity is improving year on year.

For larger yachts this is generally seen as a better option.

A partnership between BMW and Torqueedo has led to the development of the Deep Blue 315v high voltage battery.

Effectively the same unit as found in the BMWi3 electric cars now often seen on the high street, the system produces a lot of power and is being used on the Spirit 111 project as well as catamarans.

Electric hybrid

One big barrier to entry exists for most potential electric yacht buyers – range.

Even the most advanced set-ups are limited to a maximum of a few hours motoring at cruising speed.

‘The electric motors excel at two things in particular,’ explained Kit Rogers.

‘The first is as auxiliary power for getting in and out of marinas. The second is engaged at low power to very efficiently motor-sail in light airs. If you want to do more than that, at present, you need to add a way of packing in the charge into the battery quickly whilst at sea; which means a generator’ .

As with electric cars and as enthusiasm builds for the technology, a hybrid option, pairing a generator with an electric drive system, is already proving popular and is probably the most practical option for those planning to cruise any distance.

Using a large generator, charge can be quickly put into the system when needed.

Once under sail, the yacht’s propeller becomes a hydro generator, meaning that diesel power is not needed day-to-day.

Solar can also be used to add additional charging capacity.

‘When a fully integrated electric hybrid system is incorporated into a cruising yacht from the outset, its possibilities really become clear,’ explains John Arnold, UK manager at Torqeedo.

‘Sailing for days on end with no engine noise is entirely possible. There are other less obvious benefits too. Electric drives have no long rotating shaft, so can be used as pod drives as well, meaning the boat is far more manoeuvrable than even a yacht equipped with bow and stern thrusters.’

Spirit Yachts 44e

How much does it cost to convert a yacht to electric power?

The technology exists, but anyone seriously considering going electric will want to crunch the numbers.

In the case of taking out a traditional inboard diesel and replacing it with an electric system, it’s relatively easy to work this out.

However, unless you include an auxiliary generator, you will be limited to battery range alone.

For this reason, we’ve done a like for like comparison for a 35ft yacht engine refit, including the cost of a generator to make the system a practical hybrid.

Unsurprisingly, at the moment, there’s a big difference in cost, but at between three to six times the cost, it is gradually coming into the realms of possibility, and prices should continue to drop as technology develops and evolves.

Ocean Volt SD10 Motor system (including batteries, charger and 6kw generator): £30,825.16

Beta Marine Beta 20hp Marine Diesel: £4,100

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Deep Blue Hybrid

Deep blue is a fully integrated propulsion and energy management system, industrially engineered and customizable with modular components. the result is exceptional performance, compliance with international safety standards, and highly intuitive operability.

• Relaxation: no noise from the motor and only a little noise from the generator
• Environmental protection: use renewable forms of energy
• Independence: adequate energy on board, less need to head for a marina
• Convenience: simple joystick docking
• Simplicity: only one type of fuel – and less of it required

System Overview of the Hybrid Drive System

System Components

High-capacity lithium battery technology.

Lithium-based batteries are the technology of choice for electric mobility applications. They store significantly more energy than all other batteries, they maintain a high current, they do not lose their charging capacity, they supply power reliably, and have no memory effect. They also have a much longer useful life than lead-based batteries.

The benefits for customers:

• High energy density

• Lower costs

• Long service life

• Highest quality and safety standards

Dimensions and preliminary specifications

Click here to learn more about battery technology

Economical auxiliary power

Third-party generators can be integrated into the Deep Blue system via the DC generator interface developed by Torqeedo. The converter generators eliminate the fixed ratio between rotational speed, power and voltage output.

Integrated into the information, safety and energy management system of the Deep Blue Hybrid, the generators produce any combination of power and voltage as required, adopted to individual setting.

Third-party generators can be integrated into the Deep Blue system via the DC generator interface developed by Torqeedo, providing long-range motoring and efficient backup power for serial hybrid systems. The converter generators eliminate the fixed ratio between rotational speed, power and voltage output.

Integrated into the information, safety and energy management system of the Deep Blue Hybrid, the generators produce any combination of power and voltage as required, adopted to individual setttings.

Technical Data

Typical application areas

Perfect for ...

• Torqeedo Deep Blue Hybrid drives with shaft power from 25 to 100 kW (equivalent to 40 – 160 HP)

• Sailing yachts, ferries, water taxis, etc., with hull lengths from 40 to 110 feet (12 – 33 m)

Highly flexible thanks to four operating modes

The Deep Blue Advanced Energy Management System offers four ways of conveniently operating the hybrid system automatically:

Electrical drive power, on-board power and charging power of the highest standard

The Advanced Hybrid Control System for the Torqeedo Deep Blue Hybrid system controls the generator to optimum effect (single or twin installations). It provides a reliable supply of electricity for 360V DC boat drive systems as well as all other 110/230V AC and 24V DC power supply systems on board:

Hybrid and charging power for the Torqeedo Deep Blue system

• AC on-board power supply for galley, air conditioning, water maker and other electrical consumers on board (hotel loads)

• Low-voltage DC power for lighting, radio, navigation, winches, etc.

Always in control

Deep Blue Hybrid offers intuitive operation presented on the multifunctional display, providing a complete overview of the entire system and access to all control functions.

The software keeps an eye on everything and prevents errors like deep-discharging batteries. An easy-to-understand graphical user interface is available as either multihull or monohull and delivers complete, up-tothe- minute system visualisation.

Premium throttles

We’ve come to expect an intuitive way to operate our technical devices. We expect detailed information, nicely displayed and clearly arranged. We expect that the objects we use are both beautiful and functional.

This is what spurred us to create the new Torqeedo throttle family and improved user interface for Deep Blue.

Our premium throttles offer the right solution for every application, whether for sailboats or on motorboats – ergonomic, strong and functional. All premium throttles come with Bluetooth built in for simple integration of Torqeedo’s TorqTrac smartphone app.

Hybrid Drive System and Integrated Energy Management

Hybrid drive system.

Powerful and silent electric drive systems allow manoeuvring and sailing at hull speed.

High-performance batteries adapted from the automotive industry enable prolonged motor-cruising for up to 50+ nautical miles without use of a generator. Solar power generated on board and hydro-generated energy – the propeller rotates while boat is under sail – provide additional propulsion. Besides, the integrated generator provides sufficient energy to cover long distances, if required.

The slowly rotating electric drives allow precise maneuvering and in combination with joystick docking makes putting out to sea and berthing as easy as pie.

Integrated energy management

The integrated management system of Deep Blue Hybrid makes it possible to use available power in any way you wish – for the powerful high-voltage drive system, for the 24 V on-board power supply or to operate equipment with 230 V AC current. Deep Blue Hybrid is designed in such a way that energy is always available where it's needed.

The combination of energy generated from renewable sources and by the generator means that there is always sufficient power available. However, the generator does not need to run for as long.

Clean and safe electricity can be used for all equipment and so it is no longer necessary to have propane or petrol on board. A tender can also be run electrically and can be charged from the Deep Blue Hybrid on-board power system.

Professional Safety

Professional safety for your sailing yacht.

Particular attention should be paid to standards compliance and safety during the development of a hybrid drive system. During the years spent on developing the Deep Blue Hybrid system we followed safety concepts that, for example, are standard in the automotive industry – but which previously could not be found in powerful electric drive systems for electric sailing yachts.

In addition, electrical drive systems for electric sailing yachts pose special challenges that are not relevant for other industries. In this respect, it is not enough to just follow the standard of other industries for high-voltage boat drives. As we are used to setting new standards, we have done so with regard to safety. Below you will find a number of examples of the Deep Blue Hybrid's unique safety concept.

Isolation monitor: constantly monitors that the voltage from all 360 V components is completely isolated from the boat – not just for individual system components but for all of them. If damage is detected, e.g. to the cable insulation, the system will issue an alert. In the event of dangerous insulation failure, the system will be shut down.

All components are waterproof: Components that were not specifically developed for boats are not always waterproof. All the components of a high-power system on a boat must be waterproof to guarantee safe operation. That is why all of our components are waterproofed.

Automotive industry-level battery safety: The first lithium batteries for the marine industry with the advanced quality standards of the automotive sector are the result of Torqeedo's collaboration with established battery manufacturers. Integrating a battery into a drive system and the associated safety concept alone requires considerable effort that can only be achieved by working together with the battery manufacturer.

Battery venting: In the unlikely event that the redundant safety mechanisms of the battery fail, the battery cells can reduce their temperature and pressure via a pressure valve. While batteries are installed in electric cars in such a way that they can discharge battery gases directly onto the road, on electric boats the gases must be channelled safely off the vessel. We developed the first safe venting system for boats for the Deep Blue System.

Battery damping: All components on fast and seagoing boats are subject to constant high levels of shock that exceed shock levels on the road – in some cases over 12 g of acceleration force. The same holds true when trailering the boat. Since batteries and battery electronics are not designed for these constant impacts, they need their own damping system on boats (in addition to the damping mechanisms within the battery). Torqeedo is the only company in the world that provides this for maritime use.

Benefits for Boatbuilders

Custom-built solutions are often pursued in order to meet a user's requirements. These individual hybrid projects raise a number of difficulties:

• High-end components do not exist for the custom project. High-tech safe lithium batteries, for example, require an intensive design-in process in close cooperation with the battery manufacturer's research and development department. However, reputable high-voltage battery manufacturers do not supply their batteries for custom solutions that they are not familiar with and that have not been coordinated with them in detail.
• Creating an integrated hybrid system requires a comprehensive research and development project accompanied by many person-years in the field of development running to the tune of several million euros. These efforts are not undertaken for custom projects, leading to lower reliability and a lack of complex but important safety features (such as pilot lines).
• The system integrator has the statutory duty to ensure that the hybrid system complies with all the relevant and mandatory standards such as the Machinery Directive and the EMC Directive. Custom hybrid systems do not generally meet these standards. Since a boatbuilder is responsible for ensuring that the entire boat complies with standards, the installation of custom-built hybrid systems constitutes a serious risk for boatbuilders.

Unlike custom-built hybrid systems, DEEP BLUE HYBRID addresses the requirements of environmentally aware customers, offering a turnkey solution that guarantees compliance with the relevant norms and standards.

• DEEP BLUE HYBRID was created in an extensive research and development project involving a large number of mechanical and electrical engineers over several years. The components were carefully selected and coordinated with an overall system. Essential inspections and certifications were performed at system level.
• High-end components such as hybrid batteries from the automotive industry were integrated into the system.
• Torqeedo assumes responsibility for the functionality and compliance with relevant standards for the whole system.
• DEEP BLUE HYBRID was developed on the basis of modular components. It allows flexibility and scalability without affecting system integration and reliability.
• DEEP BLUE HYBRID for electric ferrys, electric sailing yachts, electric catamarans & electric water taxis.

If we have awakened your interest in our products we would be pleased to send you more detailed information. Simply enter your details in the contact form below and we will get in touch with shortly.

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Using Lithium Battery Systems for Auxiliary Power

• By Jim Hendricks
• March 1, 2023

Amid the sweltering heat and bustling throngs of boat shoppers during the Palm Beach International Boat Show two years ago, I reached a moment of clarity. It was then, while attending the introduction of Scout Boats ’ new 350 LXZ, that I realized for the first time that lithium-­battery-based auxiliary power systems were not only viable for boating anglers, but also represented the wave of the future for saltwater fishing machines. 

Scout—always the innovator—had employed a truly practical and advanced lithium-­battery-based system in place of an old-school internal-­combustion marine generator. While the 350 LXZ was not exactly a hardcore fishing boat, it served as an example of what’s possible today and in the future. The lithium ­battery system on board this model incorporated a host of features, including solar panels, to supply beaucoup electrical power to systems such as the air conditioning that cooled my brain and gave me clarity that day.  

Supplanting the Genny

Fossil-fuel marine generators have long served the electrical needs of boating anglers while away from shore power. A genset or genny, as these are often called, provides great convenience in powering onboard systems such as air conditioning, refrigeration, pumps, microwaves, cooktops, gyrostabilizers and lighting. 

Yet there are downsides to marine generators, as any boating angler who has had one can relate. Marine generator systems tend to create maintenance issues, are prone to cooling problems, and can become finicky at times. They also require separate fuel delivery systems, sometimes need a separate fuel tank, and can prove to be smelly, create intrusive noise, produce a lot of heat and, in some cases, generate dangerous carbon monoxide emissions. 

Fortunately for today’s boating anglers, the days of needing an onboard marine generator and the fuel it burns on a saltwater fishing boat may well be winding down thanks to advancements in marine lithium battery technology and its integration with marine electrical systems. Lithium battery systems are well on the way to rivaling generators as auxiliary power sources.

e-Power Push

One company that’s pushing hard to shift the paradigm in auxiliary marine power is Navico with its new Fathom e-Power system. At its heart, Fathom e-Power uses advanced lithium-iron-­phosphate (LiFePO4) battery technology to provide auxiliary electrical power for boats ranging from less than 20 feet in length to yachts. 

“Lithium batteries for marine applications have gained substantial traction in the last decade,” says Eric Lindquist, VP and general manager for Power Systems at the Navico Group. “They last longer, charge faster, reduce weight and maximize space, as well as save time and money in the long run (versus lead-acid batteries)—all while minimizing negative impacts on the environment.” 

Beyond Batteries

Like Scout’s lithium system, Fathom e-Power extends well beyond the batteries themselves. It is designed to seamlessly integrate a host of onboard components from brands within Navico (a Brunswick company), including BEP, CZone, Ancor and Blue Sea Systems, as well as Mastervolt LiFePO4 marine batteries and chargers. 

This host includes the high-capacity alternators available on the newest outboard engines from Mercury Marine, also a Brunswick company. The standard alternator on the new Merc V-10 Verado outboard will deliver 150 amps of 12-volt DC charging at just 1,500 rpm, more than twice that of the older 2.6-liter inline-six Verado and 30 percent more than the Verado V-8 outboards. The new V-10 is also available with an optional 48-volt alternator for compatible e-Power systems.

“Navico Group’s portfolio of diverse products and brands puts us in a unique position to deliver advanced integrated technologies like the Fathom e-Power system,” says Brett Dibkey, Navico Group president. “The enhanced Fathom system provides reliable power management and control, allowing users to better understand and manage their power needs.” 

Cutting the Cord

Some models within the Brunswick Boat Group are already incorporating Fathom e-Power as original equipment. Most notably for boating anglers, the system is available as an option on the Boston Whaler 360 Outrage. As a side note, Fathom is available only as original factory equipment on new boats and is not available for installation as an aftermarket product. 

That said, Fathom e-Power should allow boaters to extend their time away from the umbilical of a shore-power cord, enjoying electrical power in a remote anchorage or other locale without the drone of a generator spoiling the naturally quiet and tranquil scene. 

Yet how much auxiliary power can you expect? Each situation will vary depending the system, state of battery charge and power consumption. But with the 24 kilowatt-­hour 48-volt Fathom battery bank, boaters could run moderate electrical loads for four hours without draining the batteries or needing to recharge, according to Navico.  

Easy Monitoring

Fathom’s intuitive user interface makes it easy to keep an eye on power consumption and state of charge and control the system via multifunction displays or smart mobile devices. It can provide a report on battery status, including a practical “time to empty” indicator, enabling boaters to make an informed decision regarding onboard energy reserves. Boaters can also set alerts and reminders to recharge batteries based on custom preferences.

The nature of marine auxiliary power is changing quickly and, in my opinion, for the better. It is a future made possible by advancements in lithium battery technology and related marine electrical systems. 

• More: Boats , Electronics , March 2023

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> > Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about their products on Cruisers Forums. 07-10-2021, 14:53   and would like to add an just as secondary in an . She’s a very heavy (12,000) and I am wondering if anyone has done this and what size would ? Letta 07-10-2021, 15:03   Boat: EDELCAT33 , you can even make a Yuloh and just paddle away slow and steady. I had a Charlie 1972 that I fitted an auxiliary 4 HP on a titling bracket. It worked fine given the sea conditions I chose to use it when the Atomic 4 went caput. That was a long time ago in an area and era when services like Boat US towing was not available. You can always sail to your and to wait for favorable tides, , sea state. Once is calm a small HP engine will do the job 07-10-2021, 15:36   ? Letta 07-10-2021, 15:44   Boat: Beneteau 432, C&C Landfall 42, Roberts Offshore 38 if the prop is in the ....you will likely need an "extension" fitted to whatever outboard you chose to get it deep enough, but even then, wave motion, will the prop out of the ..I know, because I've tried it...it can work in smooth water, but that is about it. Likewise, with the engine down, the cowling will be at or near the water, and it won't take but one errant wave to knock it lose. a 15 hp can give you all the you'll need, but it's a heavy engine, not sure if any of the foldable outboard brackets can handle a 15. A smaller engine would likely also do the job, depends on what you'll use it for. Lastly outboards suck a lot of , given that you standard carry on is only about 6 gallons, you will need to plan on how you are going to keep it filled. 07-10-2021, 15:46   Boat: Beneteau 432, C&C Landfall 42, Roberts Offshore 38 07-10-2021, 15:52   Boat: 1980 Gulfstar 47 Sailmaster ? Letta 07-10-2021, 16:10   Boat: Mascot 28 pilothouse motorsailer 28ft coast using his 11ft with 5hp. We maintained near 6kt/hr easily without running the outboard hard. We used a hip tow with the stern & o/board sticking out behind the transom by approx. 2 ft.-for steerability. We learned that we could lock the swivel knob on the dead ahead & steer the boat from tiller in the normal manner. This meant that the man (me) could stay aboard the mother ship most of the time. The trip was nearly as comfy as if the A4 was pushing. Since I usually tow a dinghy on most trips,I personally, would not bother with a separately mounted outboard. YMMV Cheers/Len 07-10-2021, 20:11   Boat: Tartan 3800 and would like to add an outboard engine just as secondary power in an . She’s a very heavy (12,000) boat and I am wondering if anyone has done this and what size outboard would work? Letta 07-10-2021, 20:13   Boat: Tartan 3800 07-10-2021, 20:18   Boat: Tartan 3800 Lastly outboards suck a lot of , given that you standard carry on is only about 6 gallons, you will need to plan on how you are going to keep it filled. 08-10-2021, 08:40   Boat: Camano 41 08-10-2021, 08:56   08-10-2021, 09:08   08-10-2021, 09:16   to give time until you can raise , or drop , or whatever... In practice, it may not be feasible on a 35' or similar. For one thing, the dinghy's outboard is often short shaft (I guess a long shaft could be made to work on the dinghy, but an extra-long shaft is very doubtful to say the least), so the bracket would have to be very long, and the controls may become unreachable once the outboard is lowered... Or it may not work all together for other reasons (not enough power, the outboard would have to be off-center not to interfere with the swim platform, or other considerations)... I have considered something like this, but never spent the time to understand if it is feasible or not on a larger boat, so if somebody has studied this, it would be very interesting to know. 08-10-2021, 09:28   Boat: Pearson 323, Tayana V42CC that is 5,000 pounds. I have a Yamaha 8 hp high-thrust that is WAY more thrust than I need. A Yamaha 9.9 high-thrust is available and would be just right for your situation. Thread Tools Rate This Thread : Posting Rules post new threads post replies post attachments edit your posts is are code is are are are Similar Threads Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post Stormboy Engines and Propulsion Systems 1 11-06-2017 12:21 SimonV Seamanship & Boat Handling 8 03-02-2011 17:14 Boracay Construction, Maintenance & Refit 8 02-10-2010 16:48 SURV69 Engines and Propulsion Systems 6 11-11-2009 14:02 bg9208 Monohull Sailboats 8 10-04-2008 15:03 - - - - - - - Privacy Guaranteed - your email is never shared with anyone, opt out any time. You are using an outdated browser. Upgrade your browser today or install Google Chrome Frame to better experience this site. 914-271-6868 [email protected] Learn to Cruise Coastal cruising course (asa 103). Learn to Skipper an Auxiliary Powered Yacht with Confidence! Once you’ve learned to sail and spent a few afternoons on the water, you may be eager to expand your sailing horizons. Our Coastal Cruising course puts you at the helm for two days of exploring the Hudson River aboard one of our 26′ Pearsons and our 34′ Pearson yacht, Merlin’s Magic. This 12 hour hands-on sailing course on a yacht with auxiliary power. Learn to dock under power, anchor, make sail changes and operate VHF radio. Advanced chart reading and choosing safe anchorage will also be covered. You will learn advanced techniques including: Docking and Maneuvering Under Power: with emphasis placed on accuracy of speed and steering. Selecting sails and making sail changes: proper commands, responses and techniques used to execute heaving to, getting under way again, reefing sails, and reducing heel on all points of sail. Finding and Using Safe Anchorage: including anchoring in water at least 10 feet deep, and securing boat at a dock or mooring for lunch or overnight. Reading navigational charts: depth, type of bottom, underwater hazards, buoys, lights, beacons, etc. Operating VHF Radio/Sailing by Compass: how to do it without varying from the navigator’s ordered heading, and taking bearings with a hand-held compass. Emergency Procedures Including: action to be taken in the event of person overboard, leakage, steering or rigging failure, running aground, etc. Duties of Skipper and Crew: interpretation of weather forecasts, checking the vessel prior to sailing. safety regulations and required gear will also be covered. If you’ve completed Basic Hands-On Sailing and dream of staying out all day cruising the river or becoming a more confident Skipper this is the course for you! Cost: $625 per person . Sailing text included. American Sailing Certification available. 2024 Coastal Cruising Course Dates: June 8 & 9 July 13 & 14 August 10 & 11 September 14 & 15   Register Coastal Cruising Bareboat Cruising (ASA 104) Prepare Yourself for Your Own Overnight Cruising Adventures! The Bareboat Cruising course is taught aboard 40′-50′ yachts in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. The course is a weeklong combination of sailing and vacationing, giving you the skills and experience necessary to explore exotic sailing destinations on your own. Below are topics covered in the course, and more information on Caribbean Cruises is available here . Topics covered include: Planning the Voyage: provisioning, spare parts, first aid materials, and clothing for a voyage. International Borders: documentation and procedures for international sailing. Plotting Courses: read charts and identify corresponding landmarks and aids to navigation, pilot into unfamiliar harbors, and use a radar reflector. Boat Systems and Safety: correct use of head, stove and galley, and electrical systems will be covered, as well as fire prevention techniques. Towing Dinghies: correct methods and potential dangers. Advanced Anchoring Techniques: setting and retrieving an anchor set in a Bahamian mooring, rafting at anchor, making allowance for tides, etc. Courtesies and Customs of yachtsmen, including offering assistance, permission to board and flag etiquette. Cost: $2,500 per person double occupancy . Scheduling: Trip 1: Saturday January 25th – Friday January 31st, 2025 Trip 2: Sunday February 2nd – Saturday February 8th, 2025 Click here for more information about our Caribbean Cruises. 2024 BOAT BUYERS GUIDE Email Newsletters Boat of the Year 2024 Freshwater Boat and Gear Buyers Guide 2024 Boat Buyers Guide 2024 Water Sports Boat Buyers Guide 2024 Pontoon Boat Buyers Guide Cruising Boats Pontoon Boats Fishing Boats Personal Watercraft Water Sports Boat Walkthroughs What To Look For Watersports Favorites Spring 2022 Boating Lab Boating Safety Ultimate Boating Giveaway Choosing an Auxiliary Outboard Motor By Kevin Falvey Updated: September 9, 2016 Whether you want a kicker for trolling or for the redundant safety of a get-home motor, an auxiliary outboard motor paired with a single primary engine makes sense for a lot of boaters. Here are some things you should look for, whether you’re buying an auxiliary outboard or considering how to install one. High Thrust Most engine makers offer specialty engines with lower gear ratios, fitted with larger diameter propellers designed to provide more control at low speeds. These models range to 60 hp, designed as primary power for slow vessels such as classic pontoons. However, most engines in auxiliary service are 9.9 or 15 hp, and even smaller, non-high-thrust models can be used. Transom Mount Some boats, such as Walleye models, will have transoms ready to accept the direct installation of an auxiliary outboard, allowing the kicker to tilt and trim. Smaller auxiliaries may be clamped onto some transoms, but we recommend through-bolting as the most secure mounting method. If you do clamp, be sure to include a safety cable. Auxiliary engines do not float. Bracket Mount Larger boats and most fiberglass saltwater models will require the use of a bracket bolted to the transom to mount the auxiliary engine. Most engine brackets are spring-loaded models; the heavy spring makes it easier to raise and lower the outboard. Be sure to compare the throw of the bracket spring to the transom height at the mounting location and the shaft length of the engine before installing. Direct Control In many applications, especially for auxiliary outboards mounted directly on the transom, the tiller controls of the auxiliary outboard itself can handle engine starting, throttle and steering. This requires the skipper to sit or stand aft in the corner of the boat in which the kicker is installed. Remote Control Many small engines can be fitted with remote controls, just like the big engine. In these installations, the tiller handle is removed from the outboard, making for a cleaner, more compact installation, and the throttle can be placed at the boat’s helm. Steering can be accomplished by using the nonrunning (main) motor as a rudder, having a mate steer, or fitting a mechanical or electric steering system. Shaft Length Just like your primary engine, your auxiliary must be installed so that its anti-ventilation plate is even with the boat’s bottom. Because of your boat’s V shape, an auxiliary mounted to the side of your primary engine will need a shaft length that matches the transom height at the mounting location rather than the maximum transom height. Weight Be cautious of the added weight of an auxiliary outboard. Too heavy a motor can make a small boat unsafe or cause listing and drainage problems aboard larger boats. Place sandbags or buckets of water near the installation location to replicate the weight, and then see how it affects your boat. Quick Tip: Wear the engine kill-switch lanyard when operating an auxiliary outboard. More: Boats , Engines , outboards Boat Test: 2024 EdgeWater 208CC Watchman Boat Test: 2024 Stingray 23 OSX Boat Test: 2024 Grady-White 231 Coastal ­Explorer Boat Test: 2024 Hurricane SunDeck 2600 OB Boat Test: 2024 Brabus Shadow 1200 ­Sun-Top Inflatable Water Mats for Boaters Boat Test: 2024 Monterey Elite 30 Digital Edition Customer Service Privacy Policy Terms of Use Cruising World Sailing World Salt Water Sportsman Sport Fishing Wakeboarding Many products featured on this site were editorially chosen. Boating may receive financial compensation for products purchased through this site. Copyright © 2024 Boating Firecrown . All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The global authority in superyachting NEWSLETTERS Yachts Home The Superyacht Directory Yacht Reports Brokerage News The largest yachts in the world The Register Yacht Advice Yacht Design 12m to 24m yachts Monaco Yacht Show Builder Directory Designer Directory Interior Design Directory Naval Architect Directory Yachts for sale home Motor yachts Sailing yachts Explorer yachts Classic yachts Sale Broker Directory Charter Home Yachts for Charter Charter Destinations Charter Broker Directory Destinations Home Mediterranean South Pacific Rest of the World Boat Life Home Owners' Experiences Conservation and Philanthropy Interiors Suppliers Owners' Club Captains' Club BOAT Showcase Boat Presents Events Home World Superyacht Awards Superyacht Design Festival Design and Innovation Awards Young Designer of the Year Award Artistry and Craft Awards Explorer Yachts Summit Ocean Talks The Ocean Awards BOAT Connect Between the bays Golf Invitational BOATPro Home Superyacht Insight Global Order Book Premium Content Product Features Testimonials Pricing Plan Tenders & Equipment Solar-powered 60m Feadship superyacht B delivered Feadship has delivered the 59.5-metre B from its facilities in De Vries, the Netherlands. The superyacht is now en route to Malta, an archipelago in the central Mediterranean.  B harneses solar energy and HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil), making it another important milestone in Feadship's roadmap to net-zero yacht building by 2030.  The yacht features design by Sinot and Studio De Voogt , with the owner playing a huge role in the yacht's design and eco credentials.  The yacht is part of a series of successful sustainability-focused yachts launched by Feadship in the last 12 months, beginning with HVO-powered Obsidian , fuel-cell fitted Project 821 and hybrid-electric certified Project 1012 . B is the first Feadship to carry solar cells for auxiliary power generation, and these were described by the yard as one of the most efficient and durable on the market. Custom-made in the Netherlands, the solar panels can produce up to 24 MWh annually. Diesel-electric energy allows both the propulsion and the hotel load to be powered by four generators and a 400 kWh battery. The yacht has an enviable YETI (Yacht Environmental Transparency Index) score in the top 35 per cent of the fleet, and like all new Feadships, can run on non-fossil HVO. According to BOATPro , Feadship has 14 yachts currently in build or on order. Sign up to BOAT Briefing email Latest news, brokerage headlines and yacht exclusives, every weekday By signing up for BOAT newsletters, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . More about this yacht Similar yachts for sale, more stories, most popular, from our partners, sponsored listings. Electric boats Electric boat, adventure boat company axopar selects evoy to power its new all-electric boat brand ax/e. Finnish boat company Axopar has just launched a new all-electric sub-brand called AX/E and has enlisted performance inboard and outboard electric motor specialist Evoy to power them. AX/E has debuted two series production boat models that will feature advanced electric motor systems from Evoy. Axopar is admittedly a new boat company on Electrek’s radar. Described on its website as an “adventure company,” the Finnish boat builder has ingrained itself in the marine industry since being founded in 2014 and has become an industry leader in innovation and manufacturing, garnering several design awards along the way. Its model range currently consists of six boat models powered by traditional gas and diesel motors, but the company has recently started exploring more sustainable options as well. Earlier this month, Axopar announced a new sub-brand focused on 100% electric boats called AX/E, developed through an investment in and collaboration alongside Norwegian motor systems developer Evoy. The initial lineup of Axopar’s AX/E electric boats consists of a 22-foot and 25-foot model, each featuring advanced and powerful electric motors from Evoy; check them out. Axopar’s two new electric boats gain big power from Evoy Pretty cool, right? You wouldn’t even be able to tell they’re electric looking at the images, but you most certainly can feel the difference on the water given how smooth and quiet these Axopar electric boats powered by Evoy are. Following the debut of the new AX/E brand at the Cannes Yachting Festival 2024, Evoy has confirmed its partnership with Axopar to set a “new benchmark for sustainable, performance boating.” Evoy CEO, Leif Stavøstrand, elaborated: Our collaboration with Axopar on the AX/E line brings our vision of ‘irresistible boating’ to life—delivering an electric experience so thrilling that heading back out on the water becomes a must. Axopar, the innovators of adventure boating, have set the standard in this segment. Together, we’re showing that electric boating can provide the performance, excitement, and sustainability adventure boaters demand. The initial lineup of Axopar’s new electric boats consists of the AX/E 22 and AX/E 25, each powered by an Evoy Outboard Breeze 120+ hp motor system and Storm 300+ hp motor system, respectively. The former features a 63 kWh battery pack that can power the boat to a top speed of 36 knots (41 mph) with a range of over 50 nautical miles (57.5 miles) on a single charge at slower speeds. Per Evoy, it’s ideal for day trips along the coast. The 25-foot Axopar electric boat has a 126 kWh dual battery configuration that can reach speeds over 50 knots (57.5 mph) and offers an all-electric range of up to 60 nautical miles (69 miles) at slower speeds.  Evoy states that the larger battery configuration provides faster recharging in addition to more time on the water. Jan-Erik Viitala, a founding partner at Axopar Boats, spoke to the new AX/E electric boat brand and its partnership with Evoy: Throughout this journey, Evoy has proven to be an ideal partner for Axopar. Together with Evoy, our mission is to inspire and drive a broader movement towards electric boating, encouraging other manufacturers to embrace electric propulsion and scale it into full serial production. We believe that electrification will evolve progressively, and we are committed to staying at the forefront of this transformation. According to the AX/E website, the suggested retail pricing is as follows: AX/E 22 Spyder: 129,000 euros ($142,500) AX/E 22T-Top: 133,500 euros ($147,500) AX/E 25 Cross Bow: 229,000 euros ($253,000) AX/E 25 Cross Top: 234,000 euros ($258,450) The new AX/E electric boats from Axopar and Evoy are now on display in Cannes, marking the opening of initial orders. Deliveries are expected to begin in early 2025. Electrek’s take I personally love covering stories like this because the marine industry is going electric so much faster than other mobility segments, and that’s saying a lot, given how fast EV adoption is growing, for example. Obviously, we need to eliminate reliance on fossil fuels and their nasty emissions as quickly as possible, and vehicles are the main contributor to that. Still, boats are an ugly source of pollution on our planet’s waters, and our marine ecosystem is vital to its health. So, going electric on the water wherever possible is welcomed news. Kudos to a company like Axopar for developing new, high-performance electric boats. Leave it to the Scandinavians to promote stylish sustainability, right? What’s cool about this beat is how well boat and powertrain developers are doing it so seamlessly and beautifully. These electric boats coming out are just as cool looking as traditional vessels, if not cooler, and if you’ve ever ridden on one, it’s impossible to deny the advantages in terms of the ride. There is virtually no noise pollution, rattling, and, of course, zero emissions. Electric boats still have a way to go to reach performance parity with diesel motors in many ways, but they’re gaining on traditional technology quickly, and it’s exciting to watch. Companies like Evoy are presenting viable alternatives, and I personally applaud them. I hope I can get aboard both of these Axopar electric boats soon and report back on my experience. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. Scooter Doll is a writer, designer and tech enthusiast born in Chicago and based on the West Coast. When he’s not offering the latest tech how tos or insights, he’s probably watching Chicago sports. Please send any tips or suggestions, or dog photos to him at [email protected] Manage push notifications 135 IMAGES HYBRID SAILING YACHT 145’ Soel-Senses-62-solar-electric-yacht-by-Soel-Yachts-4-closed-tri-deck Alva Yachts announces Eco Cruiser 50: it is the first monohull electric Soel-Senses-62-solar-electric-yacht-by-Soel-Yachts Le Silent 55, le yacht catamaran à propulsion solaire VOYAGE 590e VIDEO Building the Largest Outboard-Powered Yacht Ever Luxury Travel: Exploring Menorca on a Solar Yacht Auxiliary Past President Interviews: Dreamboats Bill Gates' € 675M 118.9m/ 390ft hydrogen Project 821 was launched today Diving the Isis Wreck (10m depth) swamp traxx COMMENTS Surfari Sailboat "A high performance auxiliary powered sailing yacht, it has as strong an emphasis on speed under sail as it does speed under power, which means…it goes places. And once it's where it needs to be, it becomes a luxury indoor/outdoor living platform that allows its user to enjoy the destination as much as the journey." The Promises and Pitfalls of an All-Electric Yacht And today's cruising sailors are accustomed to using diesel auxiliary power to motor through lulls or punch into headwinds and seas. ... In March 2021, a 78-foot Norwegian hybrid-powered tour boat, built in 2019 with a 790 kW capacity battery bank, experienced thermal runaway that kept firefighters on watch for several days after the crew ... Auxiliary Sailing Vessels Unless yachts are intended for class-racing, as are the J Class yachts Endeavour, Velsheda, Rainbow and others, nearly all are fitted with an internal-combustion engine. This may be small in size and installed for use in calms, or it may have considerable power if the yacht was designed as an auxiliary. Electric and Hybrid Propulsion for Sailboats 288. Vermeulen replaced the diesel-electric system with twin 160-horsepower Volvo diesels. At 9.1 knots, they together burned 2.2 gallons per hour, considerably less than the 3 gallons per hour that the Glacier Bay system burned at the same speed. With the twin Volvos maxed out at 3,900 rpm, the boat made 24.5 knots. Auxiliary Propulsion Unit WESMAR offers the APU in two sizes. The 200 series has a maximum rating of 25 hp and can take up to a 2.38-inch-diameter prop shaft. Pricing starts at $10,695. The 300 series maxes out at 100 hp, takes a prop shaft of up to 3.38-inch diameter, and lists for $12,400. Prices do not include installation. Sail-Assisted Power: The Ultimate Hybrid Thanks for watching! "Despite appearances, Norse is a hybrid electric motoryacht that uses the wind as a secondary source of power," Stacey says. "Sail-assist is a readily available technology that, in the right conditions, can save on fuel consumption at least 20 percent.". Norse is a 262-foot sail-assisted explorer concept by Oliver ... The Best Power Catamaran Boat Brands The best power catamarans ride smoother than comparable monohulls, enjoy an efficiency edge, and also benefit from enhanced stability. But that's just the best ones — there are also plenty of powercats out there which fall short in one way or another. And while each and every boat on the water differs, the safest way to know you're buying one of the best is to choose one built by a top ... Electric Motors for Sailboats Cheoy Lee Clipper on Lake Superior. Jan 2, 2023. Sailing with an Electric Motor In 2021 we installed the QuietTorque™ 10.0 Electric Motor by Electric Yacht on our 1972 Cheoy Lee Clipper Sailboat, which we use for day charters from May through October on Lake Superior. We have been extremely satisfied with the... The Importance of Ship's Auxiliary Engines: Keeping Vessels Running Driving pumps - Auxiliary engines also drive various pumps on the ship, including those used for fuel transfer, water supply, and fire suppression. Providing emergency backup power - In case of a power outage, auxiliary engines can serve as a backup power source to keep essential systems running until the main engines can be restarted or ... Marine Auxiliary Engines, unbeatable uptim Powerful technology for tough work. Our auxiliary solutions feature robust engine blocks manufactured from high-strength castings, with components optimized to withstand tough marine conditions. As with all Volvo Penta engines, you access the full power output immediately, regardless of load. Feadship Project 713 Has Solar Panels for Auxiliary Power Feadship says that Project 713 is its first new build with FSC-certified teak. Finally, the 35-foot-wide (11-meter-wide) megayacht has already undergone assessment by the Water Revolution Foundation's YETI tool. YETI is the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index, which evaluates a yacht's ecological impact over its operational lifetime. Sailing yacht or sail-assisted motor yacht? The yacht spends a lot of time under sail - the captain estimates that they use the sails 80 per cent of the time when underway. ... In a recent article with SuperyachtNews, he stated that he prefers the term 'auxiliary-powered sailing ship' because of the stigma attached to sailing yachts in the superyacht industry. You can't blame him ... Pleasure Vessels Ensure that your boat will be under the charge of a properly certified pleasure vessel operator. Grades of the certificates held must be appropriate to your boat's length, engine type (diesel, petrol and outboard) and engine power. Acquire a third party risk insurance of not less than HK$5,000,000 for your vessel. Licensing of Pleasure Vessels. Marine Auxiliary Engine: The Complete Guide Ships require two kinds of power: Power to move the ship (Prime mover) Power to run the electrical devices and appliances on board (the lights, the air conditioning, etc.) The marine auxiliary engine is the engine that supplies the power to run the electrical devices on board the ship. Also Read : Components of IC Engine With Functions & Images. Auxiliary Propulsion Unit Hydraulically powered by your vessel's generator or stand-alone engine, the APU allows fuel efficient extended operation, providing the ability to bring your vessel safely to port and avoid costly towing or worse - damage to the boat. Simplicity and practicality are the focus of this auxiliary system. Electric yacht: What are the options for going electric? Additionally electric power and batteries offer the bonus of being able to be recharged via solar panels, a wind turbine or hydroelectric power - via a hydrogenerator mounted on the stern of a boat sailing.. At first glance the electric yacht market could appear in its infancy, but like every revolution, the will of the people is driving forward technology that only a few years ago was seen ... Deep Blue hybrid drives for sailing yachts & catamarans from ... Powerful electric motor: delivers between 25 and 100 kW of continuous power at 360 V. Available as inboard, outboard or saildrive. 2. 360 V high-capacity lithium battery system. 3. 12 V batteries: system power supply for starting up the high-voltage battery system and the diesel generator. The Deep Blue system manages these batteries autonomously. Auxiliary sailboat Other articles where auxiliary sailboat is discussed: motorboat: Types.: An auxiliary sailboat is basically designed as a sailing craft but is powered with an internal-combustion engine for use in adverse weather conditions and for maneuvering in confined spaces. The motor sailer, by contrast, is designed mainly to operate as a motorboat but is equipped with… Using Lithium Battery Systems for Auxiliary Power At its heart, Fathom e-Power uses advanced lithium-iron-­phosphate (LiFePO4) battery technology to provide auxiliary electrical power for boats ranging from less than 20 feet in length to yachts. "Lithium batteries for marine applications have gained substantial traction in the last decade," says Eric Lindquist, VP and general manager for ... Yacht Engines Most modern yachts utilize a reciprocating diesel engine as their prime power source. Due to their operating simplicity, robustness, and fuel economy. Compared to most other prime mover mechanisms. The rotating crankshaft can be directly coupled to the propeller with slow speed engines. Or via a reduction gearbox for medium and high-speed engines. Auxiliary Power with Outboard Images: 2. Auxiliary Power with Outboard. 30 ft is considered a light boat, you can even make a Yuloh and just paddle away slow and steady. I had a Charlie Morgan 1972 that I fitted an auxiliary 4 HP engine on a titling bracket. It worked fine given the sea conditions I chose to use it when the Atomic 4 went caput. Croton Sailing Learn to Skipper an Auxiliary Powered Yacht with Confidence! Once you've learned to sail and spent a few afternoons on the water, you may be eager to expand your sailing horizons. Our Coastal Cruising course puts you at the helm for two days of exploring the Hudson River aboard one of our 26′ Pearsons and our 34′ Pearson yacht, Merlin's ... Choosing an Auxiliary Outboard Motor These models range to 60 hp, designed as primary power for slow vessels such as classic pontoons. However, most engines in auxiliary service are 9.9 or 15 hp, and even smaller, non-high-thrust models can be used. ... Because of your boat's V shape, an auxiliary mounted to the side of your primary engine will need a shaft length that matches ... Solar-powered 60m Feadship superyacht B delivered The yacht features design by Sinot and Studio De Voogt, with the owner playing a huge role in the yacht's design and eco credentials. The yacht is part of a series of successful sustainability-focused yachts launched by Feadship in the last 12 months, beginning with HVO-powered Obsidian , fuel-cell fitted Project 821 and hybrid-electric ... Axopar selects Evoy to power its new all-electric boat brand AX/E The former features a 63 kWh battery pack that can power the boat to a top speed of 36 knots (41 mph) with a range of over 50 nautical miles (57.5 miles) on a single charge at slower speeds. Per ... catamaran gulet motorboat powerboat riverboat sailboat trimaran yacht