ELECTRIC PROPULSION: SOME THOUGHTS ON ELECTRO-SAILING. PART ONE

I was awakened from my mid winter doldrums by an email from a fellow who had some questions about electro-sailing if he were to convert to electric propulsion:

"My wife and I are looking at converting our Vancouver 27 to electric. I think electric with approximately 200 amp hour 48v bank would meet all of our needs under normal conditions, but because there may be rare occasions

but because there may be rare occasions, like if we have to transit a canal the like Erie Canal, where we would need to motor for an extended period I am I am trying to determine if a small generator like the 2000i would be suitable to propel the boat at a slow speed for extended periods.

You stated that you could motor at about 3 knots with your 2000i generator. What charger do you use? Have you done this for several hours at a time? I am curious if you have experienced issues with heat build up, or other problems that might be an issue with extended use of the charger to power the electric engine."

These are great questions and ones I wondered about back in 2007 where I began to get serious about converting to electric propulsion. So I thought I'd make a blog post about my experience over the past nine seasons with electric propulsion and electro-sailing.

1) I am trying to determine if a small generator like the 2000i would be suitable to propel the boat at a slow speed for extended periods.

The answer is yes. I have found I don't really need to do it often but I have had to at times  motor up to 40 nautical miles just using a Honda 2000i generator and battery charger to move my 30 foot boat along. An example of such a day is shown in this video:

Again I have not had to do this often since at some point during most sailing days a breeze does kick up at some point. But, even if it does not I find electro-sailing with Electric Propulsion to be much quieter and much less vibration than when I had a diesel which makes for a much more pleasant day on the water.

I'll get into more specifics as to the components used on BIANKA for extended electro-sailing  and the things you need to know to make it possible in the next post.

OH WELL!: Not all ideas work out.

Having Electric Propulsion can be boring. Once installed there is not a lot of maintenance or repair. But, it is easy to modify. So one day I thought about how when using the propulsion system  in hybrid mode on a windless day I am only using 900 watts of power from the Honda 2000i generator. That is because this is the max that the ZIVAN NG-1 charger can provide to the 48 volt battery bank. So I thought if I bought an additional 600 watt power supply and connected it in parallel with the Zivan I might be able to get another 12 amps when electro sailing. So yesterday I installed the wiring to make this happen and did some tests to see if my idea would work. Let's just say it did not. The Zivan performed as usual but, the new 600 watt power supply did not add any amps for charging like I thought. Oh well. I have not totally given up on the concept. I'll try another test and see if I can make it happen but, the first attempt was not encouraging. But, at least nothing smoked either. I'll post about the next attempt in the future.

NOTES OF AN ELECTRIC SAILOR: Late summer cruise 2013

I decided to head out on a late summer/early fall cruise yesterday. Before I did I topped up the 48 volt propulsion bank for the Thoosa 9000 system using the Honda 2000i generator at the mooring. In the morning I used the helm instrumentation panel to read the battery voltages here were the readings:

BATTERY 1   13.3 VOLTS

BATTERY 2   13.1 VOLTS

BATTERY 3   13.1 VOLTS

BATTERY 4   12.8 VOLTS 

PACK VOLTAGE 53.2 VOLTS

I left later than I had planned and so had to buck some current while heading out of the harbor. Once I got out to open water I found the winds were light to nonexistent for most of the day. So I motor sailed for most of the eight hours in the light breeze drawing currents from 5 amps to 25 amps. After a trip of 18 miles I picked up a mooring in a nearby harbor and took the following readings of the batteries on the instrumentation panel:

BATTERY 1   12.6 VOLTS

BATTERY 2   12.5 VOLTS

BATTERY 3   12.4 VOLTS

BATTERY 4   12.4 VOLTS

PACK VOLTAGE 50.7 VOLTS 

The percent charge as read on the Xantrex XBM battery monitor showed a reading of 83%. I fired up the Honda 2000i generator using the 900 watt ZIVAN NG-1 battery charger until it reached the second stage of charging. I then switched to the Dual Pro 4 charger which topped up each battery individually until fully charged. It took three and a half hours to fully recharge the propulsion bank. During which time I also charged the battery for the 12 volt house bank and the Electric Paddle outboard.


BLOG UPDATE:  I was relaxing in the cockpit enjoying a glass of wine when I suddenly realized that I never took the Amp Hour readings off of the XBM battery monitor after I finished the sail. After six years I guess I'm just too comfortable with the electric propulsion system to keep an eye on all the parameters. :)  Perhaps I'll remember next time.

ELECTRO SAILING AROUND NEW YORK: Part Three: HELL GATE

The idea of passing through Hell Gate on New York's East River often causes apprehension for first time cruisers through the area. Having made the transit through   Hell Gate numerous times I can say there is really nothing to be afraid of that a secure hand on the tiller or wheel won't solve.  There are current swirls, some up-welling and short choppy waves making it look more threatening than it is.  Here are some are some tips to make the transit:

1) The biggest danger is getting in the way of a tug and barge or one of the New York City sludge barges that also frequently transit the area. There is plenty of deep water in the Gate to avoid them and give them a wide berth. Remember they do not have the same ability to maneuver as smaller boats do.

2) It is best to motor through Hell's Gate. I've only managed to sail through one time on a northwest wind on my previous boat a Bristol 24.  But, as soon as I was through Hells Gate the streets and buildings of Manhattan and the East River currents caused the boat to do boat spins as it traveled down with the current. So now I always motor from the Brother Islands to at least 23rd Street off of Manhattan when heading toward the Battery and visa versa when heading toward Long Island Sound.

3) It is always better to go with the flow of the current. It makes for a much quicker and  pleasant passage.

4) The metal bridges in the Hell Gate area can reek havoc on the magnetic compass of autopilots so put them in standby and keep a firm hand on the tiller or wheel until you are well clear of them.

The following video shows what it like to transit Hell Gate motor sailing with electric propulsion. I had rounded the Battery about three hours after low tide. BIANKA rode the flood current 14 miles all the way into Long Island Sound. Winds were light so it was mostly motoring under electric propulsion  This trip was in late October 2012 and amazingly  boat traffic both recreational and commercial was non existent for this passage. That may not always be the case . Especially during summer and on weekends:



Ironically, the Honda 2000 generator that had been operating since about 9:45 am had finally ran out of gas right in the middle of Hell Gate. It had been running five and a half hours on one gallon of gas motor sailing BIANKA for about twenty five miles. Nice thing about electro sailing in a hybrid mode using a generator like the Honda 2000 is that the batteries automatically take over and keep propelling the boat as shown in this video:


After refueling it was another ten miles of electro-sailing until  I reached my destination after forty nautical miles of motor sailing under electric propulsion.

A SAILOR LOOKS BACK AT 2012

It's New Years Eve hard to believe how fast this year has gone by.  I did not put as many miles (a little over two hundred) under the keel of BIANKA  this year compared to years past but, I did have a wonderful year of cruising. Though work and some unexpected maintenance issues did get in the way. I also bought 200 feet of long overdue replacement anchor chain. I also installed AIS on board  which I will write about in the new year. I also installed  a new battery instrumentation panel  at the helm. Which made monitoring the battery current and voltages much easier. All in all it was still another great year as I look back on it.

January found me in the Leeward Islands starting off in St. Thomas, St. Johns  and then sailing over to the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra for a nice little warm water  break from the winter.


This was also the month that the Bianka Log Blog reached over one hundred thousand page views. So it was time to celebrate too.

In February I found one of the batteries in the 48 volt propulsion string was no longer taking a charge.

I spent the next several months investigating the issue and finally figured that a parasitic load from one of the battery meters was the cause of the problem. With careful charging and test the battery is once again up to snuff and worked fine all season. I was glad I did not have to purchase a new battery.

March found me in Ocean City Maryland. After seeing a nice little warm weather window my gal and I drove from DC to a beachfront hotel with an 11th floor balcony view of the Atlantic Ocean for a few days.

 We had the beach to ourselves and were able to dine without making reservations. The smell of the sea also gets one thinking about getting the boat back in the water.


April 12th was the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It bought back memories of when I was living on board BIANKA at pier 59 in New York. That was the pier  that the rescue ship Carpathia bought the lifeboats from the ill fated Titanic and was only a few piers north of the peir where the Titanic was supposed to dock.

May found me and my gal in the Bahamas. The Exumas specifically via stopovers in Nassau.  A new area for me and one of some great memories and interesting sights.



I also worked on my first major repair of the electric propulsion system in five years by replacing the shaft coupling. Replacing the original steel one with stainless steel.

June was all about getting BIANKA ready for the season and launching. The battery issue had been solved the mast lights checked. The prop cleaned and polished and finally BIANKA was splashed.

In July work reared it's ugly head  eating up two weeks and my gal's beach vacation ate up another week. But, BIANKA was in the water with 200 feet of new anchor chain ready to go when time permitted. Also I worked on some finishing touches on the solar bimini.

August was another two weeks of work followed by another week on the beach. But, I was finally able to get back on board just in time to see another full moon a real treat.

September is usually the end of summer for many but, I view it as a new beginning. Some become melancholy with the end of the Labor Day weekend while I look at it as the time of less crowded anchorages  So I was looking forward to making my annual cruise to New York.

September 11th was also the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Since BIANKA and I were docked in New York then and actually felt the impact of the planes and witnessed the collapse of the buildings I felt somewhat of an obligation to try and be back in the harbor on the anniversary. But, it was not to be,  A broken pull cord and some frozen screws on the Honda 2000 generator soon put an end to those plans. Still I got to see another full moon on board so it was not all bad.

October had some of the highs and lows of the season. I saw a nice weather window and finally took BIANKA on the cruise to New York. I did something different regarding my electric propulsion system on this cruise. Which was to electro sail using about 10 amps to effectively negate the prop drag and actually propels the boat along a two knots when there is no wind. This technique worked really well and since EP is so quiet it does introduce the noise fatigue running and vibration that running a diesel would introduce.



After a night anchored by Ellis Island  it was a nice sail up the Hudson River:





where BIANKA and I anchored for a few days off of Hook Mountain enjoying the fall colors.



Two days after returning back to BIANKA's mooring Hurricane Sandy hit the area:


The storm surge lifted BIANKA and her mooring and dragged them across the channel. I found her over a thousand feet away across the harbor. Still floating and relatively undamaged. I was very lucky.  Since BIANKA had power available from her solar panels and wind generator I decided I would move back on her until power was restored back on the mainland. Which is where I spend most of the my time anyway during the season.  I had all the comforts of home even more so as I had power available.

The beginning of November still had the area recovering from super storm Sandy. Gas shortages had boat owners coming down to the docks draining there boat's fuel tanks so they could keep their home generators running. I recovered the Honda outboard that went to the bottom of the harbor when the dingy flipped during the storm. It will be a winter project to try and get it running again. There were a lot of  lessons learned from Sandy by me and many others too.

December was another month of a few weeks work that came my way. Just in time to pay some of the boatyard bills. Also it was time for holidays and looking back and also planning for the new year. I'm also way behind in some posts here on the Bianka Log Blog. So I will use the winter to catch up and publish about some of the projects I've been working on. Days are already starting to get longer and soon it will be time to starting thinking  the new year and season.

ELECTRIC SAILBOAT CRUISE TO NEW YORK 2012

Before Hurricane Sandy distracted me and ended the sailing season I was going to chronicle a recent cruise I made with BIANKA.  Originally I had planned to do this cruise to New York back in September. But, a little repair snafu with the Honda Generator in September curtailed that plan. I just about gave up on doing the cruise this year but, a nice weather window opened up in late October and I thought why not head out for a fall cruise. So I did.

I headed early out to take advantage of the flooding current into Long Island Sound winds were light for much of the trip so I electro-sailed BIANKA for forty nautical miles. It was after sundown as I sailed into Port Washington and picked up a free town mooring. Before I did  I had a gam with a fellow sailor already on another mooring. He was a 38 year old fellow who quit his job in September bought a 24 foot boat and was heading south for the winter. He wanted to do it now since he was single and the flexibility to do it.  Certainly sounds like a plan. We had a nice discussion about life, getting through Hell Gate and other things sailors might talk about. I wished him fair winds and then  motored off in the dark to find a mooring. One nice thing about fall cruising the mooring fields are pretty empty so it was pretty easy to pick one up. The next day had some nasty weather coming through. It was windy and wet so it was a lay day for me.  Sometime during the following night the other fellow headed off to travel down the East River through Hell Gate in the middle of the night. He wanted to make it to the Sandy Hook area during the day and meet up with friends. I can only wonder if the fellow made it through Hurricane Sandy which would hit the area a little over a week later.

After the weather cleared I headed toward New York.  Upon crossing under the Throgs Neck Bridge BIANKA left Long Island Sound behind and entered the East River which is actually a tidal strait. I made a video of the trip from Port Washington to the Battery via the East River:

I rounded the Battery a little after sunset and headed over to an anchorage a little north of Ellis Island. I had never anchored there before. It was getting dark and the winds were blowing 10 to 20 knots out of the west. I got as close to western shore and dropped anchor for the night. There was a little roll from the harbor traffic at first but, it calmed down later except for a 4 am roll that woke me up for a bit. But, the holding was good plus I had a real nice view of the lights of lower Manhattan:

Though in a little over a week all these lights would be plunged into darkness after Hurricane Sandy hits the area and knocked out power to all of lower Manhattan. Though  this night it was a very pretty scene from on board.

END OF THE SEASON THOUGHTS OF AN ELECTRIC SAILOR: 2011

It's that time of year when I look back on how my electric propulsion system did during the past season. Once again I was surprised by it. When I decided in 2007 to repower with an ASMO MARINE Thoosa 9000 system. There were no boats that I knew that had done this and I thought long and hard about it before making the leap. But, after four years of operational experience I'm still very glad I did. The fourth season will stand out because of two firsts that occurred. One was an extended day of motoring. About ten hours to be exact. A rare day here around the Isle of Long when hardly even a whisper of a breeze filled the sail. So after starting out early and motoring under battery power for a few hours I carried the Honda away from the cockpit and fired it up. I could never do that with the old diesel. The noisy diesel was always right below the cockpit vibrating away making for a noisy afternoon of motoring. Fatiguing too! My day of extended motoring was much more pleasant experience with electric propulsion.

Another first I discovered quite by accident was that BIANKA can actually regen power back to the battery bank. I discovered this while electro sailing moving along at about 6 knots. I had earlier in the season decided  that the best way to operate  under sail was to slightly turn the prop under power. This will negate any prop drag when sailing and therefore increase boat speed. Sounded like a good plan and it uses minimal power from the battery bank and no need to buy a folding prop. But, as I found out that if the boat speed under sail starts touch around 6 knots it also starts recharging the battery bank.


 This is known as "regen" where the prop starts to turn the motor backward and it starts operating as a generator. It's not a lot at the low end but, you really don't want a lot charging because you don't want to take a chance on overcharging the battery bank.  I'm looking forward to next season and hope to experience more days where I can see the regen in action. So even after four years my boats electric propulsion system still had some pleasant surprises left to show me.