Great to see the sailing performance numbers. Impressive. Equally impressive are the electric motors which are a safe (no petrol) low maintenance, relatively low cost solution to boat power. It will be very interesting to see how it works as a motor sailor in light air, although judging by the sailing results, the wind will have to be very light!
Also keen to know how long the batteries last on a charge at various boat speeds and how long they take to charge with the solar panels.
I am sure someone will have examples to prove me wrong, but I suspect this is one of
the largest electric powered sailing boats that does not run a gen set when motoring, ie battery powered.
the smallest electric motor(s) per boat length.
Even if there are bigger/smaller examples, it is still a breakthrough and a credit to Rick and Peter. Great effort.
It is amazing how the sudden increase in group posts tied in with a sudden increase in design work, and school holidays. I have a bit of spare time so will try and add my 2c worth to all the interesting posts that have been made in the last few weeks. Anything I have not replied to I agree with. Or, I missed it. ;-)
rob
On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 11:08 AM, Rick Willoughby <rickwill@bigpond.net.au> wrote:
The 60HP outboard has now been removed from the 18m proa and it will be shifted from Williamstown back to St Kilda soon.Yesterday we went for a mini cruise across the top of the bay to check the swing mooring as it has been relocated due to the reconstruction of the marina.We were going to just motor across but there was a bit of breeze so we pulled the jib on and reached in less than 5kts of wind at 3kts with the motors down but not powered. They were being spun easily at this speed.On the return leg the wind picked up ranging between 5 and 10kts. Lifting the motors got speed up over 5kts when reaching with apparent wind abeam with jib alone. So for lazy sailors it was very little effort to get over 5kts on this boat with the 26sq.m jib.The boat was very well balanced with lw hull to lee with only the jib up although the boom needed to be restrained from the jib end because we could not get the sheet angle from the main end of the boom.Rick Willoughby
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