Mahe 36: Owners

[Lostgirl]

Ok well it looks like I have boat number 71 2008 I have it for over a year and only have seen it once due to still having to work but not for much longer.

[esase]

Hello Faulks!

I have been a proud owner of a Mahe called ’Escale’, hull #54 (2007), since 2010 when I acquired it from a french gentleman in La Rochelle, France.

Since that, Escale has been sailing in Baltic Sea each summer. However crossing the Atlantic is a longer time plan, after practicing a few years in Mediterranean sea.

Another plan/interest is to replace the diesels with electric motors - prefererably with ones that also are capable regeneration when sailing.

esa

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Hi Esase,
Congratulations on buying your Mahé.

I have also been toying with the idea to upgrade to electric drives, but I am reconsidering. Or wait 2-3 years.

We had a Mahé from 2008 until 6 years ago, I know them well. Let me give you my ideas about upgrading the Mahé to electric drive.

These first 3 points are the most important:

1. The Mahé is very sensitive to weight. I would only recommend solutions that result in a weight reduction. I suggest you to make a weight calculation.

2. You sail a lot in the Baltic. For the Kieler Kanal, the Elbe and the Limfjord (especially east to west) you need a generator. For getting to Stockholm, and in the Norwegian fjords where the wind is always on the nose, you often need more than 1-2 engine hours capability.
3. Number 1 and 2 conflict. Or you take a 2kW portable Honda and accept a quite slow long-distance speed.



4. I guess 2 pcs of Oceanvolt 10kW servoprops would be adequate, and then maybe 2*5kWh of 48V lithium batteries. This gives you at least 2 hours at 5 knots. 2*5 kWh is 100 kg.
Alternatively you might put 1 battery of max 10kWh in place of the fuel tank, unless you take a generator of course. But this position is hard to access on the non-evolution Mahé.

5. The D1 Volvo Penta engines are pretty light, making weight saving difficult.

6. In my view electric engines are especially attractive for people who sail almost always, and use the engines just to get in and out of port or anchorage. But this means that your engines hours are very low already, and your fuel consumption already very low. We could do 5 knots on one engine at 1 liter per hour with the D1-20's.
7. After going to the Med, you might want to continue around the Atlantic or the world. The Mahé is not so suitable for this, and you might desire a bigger boat at some moment. But a Mahé with electric engines will have a much lower 2nd hand value, as I understand. First you invest a lot, then it will cost you a lot of money in selling price, and then you have another cat..... with diesels......
8. You can gain about 90 kg by not having the Lead Acid batteries, just the 2 propulsion batteries, and a small LiFePO4 12V house battery.

9. Not really related: The Mahé has a very simple charging system with a start battery starboard and a start/service battery portside. This makes it relatively easy to go to LiFePO4. If I still had the Mahé I would install a set of lithium batteries for the port engine. The Mahé, especially with the hydraulic Furuno autopilot, only consumes 3-4 A during the day, and 4-5 at night, including the fridge, electronics and autopilot. 200 Ah is sufficient, this is just 4pcs of 3V Winston cells of 200 Ah for instance.
This will be less than 30 kg, you will save 60-70 kilos. The 3 standard portside house batteries are around 90-100 kilos if I remember correctly.

The alternator needs to be modified or replaced, and your solar controller needs to be adapted or replaced for LiFePO4.
I would put the LiFePO4 batteries below the port bed to avoid the engine room which can be too hot and too cold.

I am an electrical guy, I would assemble the batteries myself from separate cells and install everything myself. This makes LiFePO4 maybe 3-4 times cheaper, but you need know-how.



It would be nice to follow your ideas and execution.
Good luck,
Jef

[esase]

Thanks for the very interesting reply, Jef!


Here's my take regarding to your well thought points:


1) In a way weight as such is not a problem: In my calculations with 30kWh LiFePO4 batteries and OceanVolt SD10 Servoprops, the total system weight reduction compared to D1-20s is roughly 200kg. And even more importantly, vast majority of the reduction is from the motors - thus reducing pitching the most, as roughly 170kg disappears from the far aft of the vessel.

2 and 3) Are the problematic ones: Quite a bit of the speed and range with motors will go along with weight reduction: For Mahe, OceanVolt calculated 50Nm @3,5kts with a seamargin (non flat water), which ain't much, if motoring is important (at all). To me, it is not as important as trying to get by without any liquid fuels - as to me (an electric engineer) a generator onboard pretty much ruins the whole story (of simplicity, "serviceless", no fuels etc).


4) The batteries bring most of the weight, so that needs to be distributed well. So far I have been thinking replacing the fuel tank with them and making a hatch to the side of the starboard cabin side wall. But now as you mentioned it, under the port side bed is not a bad place either to store may be half of them.


6) During last summer - about 7weeks of sailing - we used motors for 77h. Our circle in Baltic was 1080Nm, which is about average of what we have been doing for the past 10 years or so. Not exactly water sailing">blue water sailing as we typically spend the nights in ports. However this year we paid attention to reduce the legs to about 30Nm whenever possible, to minimize motoring.


7) There you are in my pain point! I have plans... well... dreams getting over the Atlantic and may be even further than that. So the biggest question for me is: Do I really need to "upgrade" the boat (that I love as it is so easy to handle with just 2 onboard) to a bigger one just to get more space (length) for added comfort in big seas? For many people this seems to be self evident (anything under 40 is too small), but to me bigger length brings much more space (that we don't need) increased weight (=may be somewhat added comfort) and bigger sail plan with increased weight (difficult to handle). And as I hope that there is life after this around the world or whatever adventure, I would still like to sail in Finnish and Swedish archipelago and there a 40+ feet catamaran is a huge boat to park in a port. But having said that - all is relative. And I totally agree with your thoughts of the cost hit: I probably can afford to convert to an electric motors only once. It would nice to have them in the right boat...



8-9) I replaced the original service batteries last spring with 3 100Ah LiFePO4 smart batteries, which have their own power controller in each battery. The controller let you mix (connect) them with lead acid or AGM battery which I was forced to change a couple of years back to the starboard side. Furthermore they don't need any alterations to the alternator or land line charger and offer a nice app to your phone to monitor voltage/temperature/state of charge etc per battery. The cost of those was eye watering but I bit the bullet.

Along with those I upgraded the 2x80W solar panels to 3x120W panels along with the controller. That made really a difference: According to the battery controller during the whole summer the charge of the batteries was kept full with the panels and those short motoring moments.


I got a little carried away - sorry for that, but thanks again for sharing your thoughts!


All the best,

esa

[JohnMax]

Greetings, all. Happy to be the new owner of Quelle Belle Vie, formerly Sophie, originally Southern Cross. HIN says hull #94 although previous owners listed in this forum as #93. Sailing out of the Rappahannock River and Chesapeake Bay.

John & Sandy

[rgary]

Update on home port for "Bluebird" (Hull 103) owners Linda & Gary
We are both now retired and she is in Thunderbolt GA

[seantcoyote]

Hull #175 | seantcoyote | Sean, Lindsey, and our boys Sage and Summit | Luna | East Coast USA (for now)

Hi all - We're a family of four from the hill country north of San Francisco. We bought our Mahe in Miami early this year, worked on her there for a few months, and are now hopping up the coast toward Maine for the summer...then down to the Caribbean and/or Bahamas this winter.

[Kazamaran]

Well leave enough time to cruise and explore the Chesapeake Bay. Great cruising ground, lots to see and do. Lots of history and great family area. Cheers.

[kds65]

Kirk & Cindy own KAIROS Hull #15 2007 model. We live aboard (mostly), cruising winter months leaving the boat in Brunswick GA during summer.

[Moon Bird]

Hello, finally I am part of the Mahe-clan

Build number: 77
Port/country: Sandefjord/ Norway
Owners: Ole Martin and Hanne
Name of vessel: Moon Bird

Planning to sail from Norway to carib and back, starting our dream in 2023, this year, and in 2022 we are sailing in scandinavia. The boat I bought, have just done the same route, so she is loaded with equipment. Watermaker, watt&sea generator, lifepo4 batterybank, and so on. I have done one small trip with this boat, and man its fast and fun to sail

Rgds Ole Martin

[Cat-Man-Do]

Hi all, I am the new owner of Hull number 35 On Ya Marx, currently based in Cardiff, Wales UK.

[sailingjoy]

Hi Niel,
Welcome in the Mahé group. The Bristol Channel is a nice place to sail. We were there in 2018 in our Mahé Joy. We didn’t go as far as Cardiff but we were in Swansea Marina and anchored in Oxwich Bay for a couple of days. Beautiful walks to the spectacular Three Cliffs Bay and to Port Eynon, and we took the bus to Rhossili Bay. There I also dried out on the beach for the first time, worked fine, to the surprise of the dog walkers ;-)
In 2020 we were there again, on our way back from Scotland. From Milford Haven we crossed to Ilfracombe and anchored in Hale Bay and later in front of Appledore. A nice quiet place and a beautiful walk to Westward Ho!
But those were the good old days before Brexit ;-) We are Dutch and last year we didn’t dare to cross to England. So it was Normandy. Nice, but second choice… Fingers crossed for this year!

Jan Jaap

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by sailingjoy

Hi Niel,

But those were the good old days before Brexit ;-) We are Dutch and last year we didn’t dare to cross to England. So it was Normandy. Nice, but second choice… Fingers crossed for this year!

I had seen this on AIS and was already afraid you had sold Joy....
Good to see she is still in your hands, I hope she is still doing well?

[sailingjoy]

Hi Rainer, she is doing very well, we are still very happy with her and with all the improvements you made. Sell her? No way!!!


PS: Good to know you are still following us ;-)

[Cat-Man-Do]

Hi Jan, thanks for you warm welcome, I'm probably going to head off to Southampton in the spring I am unable to find a marina that can take a catamaran in North Wales where I live they are all full, I guess its a result of the storm that hit Holyhead the other year, still lots of good sailing to be had in the South even venture across the water to the Channel Isles and France.
Regards Niel