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mbianka · 26-03-2024, 06:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vinny Barbarino

Well overdue update:

We had a couple of "false starts" moving SV Foreigner from the hard into the water, hence the delay on the updates.

A couple of months ago, on the day of splashing, I noticed an issue with one of the driver control units. This was replaced under warranty by the dealer (Florida based), with an exceptional level of service and support. Thus, we never splashed at that time.

About a week ago, we splashed, and have since performed a couple of tests. Honestly, I was not paying close attention to exact data, being more concerned about a thousand other things on the shakedown sail (as this is a 50-year-old catamaran that I have personally done a lot of work on!).

Initial thoughts:

The epropulsion motors are fantastic.

Docking is an absolute breeze, I've never experienced a boat that can so quickly move from forward to reverse. The power is very close to instantaneous - and there is a significant amount of power for the ~7 ton displacement.

Full power I believe I was at about 6.5 knots STW. However, there is a chance I wasn't actually at full power at the moment I noticed we were at 6.5 knots. My gut feeling says we could achieve a higher top speed.

With a decent amount of motoring, against a strong Trinidad Boca current, we were easily doing 4.5 knots, for a good half hour or so.

At low speeds, the power usage is surprisingly low. With a typical day sail around here, with strong currents etc, we motored for around an hour at or close to top speed, docked, performed some other maneuvers, and had plenty of battery left upon return (we used ~40% of battery).

One issue - we have third-party batteries, not ePropulsion batteries. On the display, the reading of battery "percentage available" is incredibly incorrect. The voltage available is fairly accurate. There are some settings that I can adjust to try and improve this reading.

With more journeys under our belt, I'll update a little further.

The summary is - so far, I am incredibly impressed.

Congratulations! I pulled out my diesel and converted to electric propulsion in 20008 and never looked back. I still get a kick when docking which is more like docking in space than a controlled crash with a diesel. Much more control over the boats speed as you found out. No more shouting over the engine noise too! I also got use to the smell of clean in the bilge.