420: Lagoon 420 Owners & Fans

[swarren]

I agree with Intentional Drifter. I expect minimizing the length of electrical cabling is critical to performance of the system, so the closer together the components are located the better.

Also, just inside the main cabin is a cabinet with more controls and stuff for the system.

[Intentional Drifter]

Swarren is correct about the cabling length, too.

About that cabinet, yes, it is to starboard just inside the salon. Not only do you have access to the two panels on each side, but the entire top pops off, giving you easy access to everything. No twisting around and contorting yourself between or behind bulkheads, or trying to see up inside an opening in a hull. Everything is laid out very nicely in an open, easily visible space.

ID

[sail2wind]

I just got an email from Capt. Mike Kneafsey in BVI and he said a recently chartered 420 through Horizon used $400 in fuel in a week. That sounds outragous for a "green" boat with electric motors. With twin diesels last year we burned 20 gallons in 10 days, about $70. Can anyone chime in on the fuel consumption? I know the Martha R has the upgraded generator, I hope this helps.

[ess105]

Perhaps the charterer ran the aircon all week - that could do it. On their own, the electric motors don't make a boat "green". It's how the boat is used that makes it "green".

[Intentional Drifter]

Even at $5/gallon, that's 80 gallons. I would agree, unless they were running the A/C all the time. Would be nice to know the details.

ID

[Jeannius]

Originally Posted by ess105

Perhaps the charterer ran the aircon all week - that could do it. On their own, the electric motors don't make a boat "green". It's how the boat is used that makes it "green".

I've never yet got through a tank full during a two week trip on Jeannius running the generator and A/C pretty much 24/7 and with 2 x 40 hp diesels as well.

[sail2wind]

Mike,

I will be down there the same week as saildoggie. Next year I might have to charter the Jeanius.

Evan

[Jeannius]

Originally Posted by sail2wind

Mike,

I will be down there the same week as saildoggie. Next year I might have to charter the Jeanius.

Evan

Evan... Be glad to have you... Good luck with Martha R

[redtwin]

Well its new technology for sailboats, hopefully these issues will get sorted in time. Look at hybrid cars, it took years, some big car manufacturers even gave up on it.
Battery technology has also advanced a lot.
Wondering if above boat has solar and wind power generation, I feel these are must to have, more so with these hybdrids.

I know that drive motors generate power when sailing, but how much sailing will one do when enjoying a nice anchorage with all the comforts like A/C chewing away power.
...just my take on it!

[sailvi767]

I always wondered about the fuel consumption on the Lagoon 420 because of the size of the generator when in charter operations. The Average Catamaran in charter in the BVI probably averages no more then 3 hours a day under sail. Might even be less then 2 hours. The 22 KW genset is going to burn a lot of fuel. I think about 1.3 gallons per hour. A 6 KW genset that will handle about 32,000 BTU's of AC will burn about .5 gallons per hour and as little as .3 under a reduced load. I just had a Voyage 440 out for 7 days. Ran the AC every night and used a total of 40 gallons of fuel. In private operations the 420 should work a lot better from a fuel standpoint. In charter however I think it will burn more fuel then most conventional cats. The smaller genset actually might not be a bad way to go on a charter version of the 420 and would cut the fuel burn quite a bit.
George

[sail2wind]

Supposedly, you can run the generator when you go out to dinner and the A/C will run all night without the generator coming on again. The
Martha R's generator will kick on when the battery bank is at 60%. I fear the electric motors will inevitably cost more then twin diesels. I would guess Lagoon is already working on a solution. If the diesel consumption is going to be several hundred dollars. The twin diesels will be more attractive to the charterer. The electrical regeneration using the props is attractive but slows down the boat by about a knot. Not that your in any hurry while sailing.

[redtwin]

Hybrid car's engine(generator) kicks in when battery bank is at 40%. Must be a reason to let it go down this low. Either way they are very very cheap to run, lookslike demands on boats power source is far greater.

So it may be a while before sailing cats go truely "green"?

[sail2wind]

Maybe, the hybrid electric Toyota concept could have been employed instead of trying to go all electric. Lagoon has a ton of time and money in this project. I can't see any drastic changes in the near future. They probably would like to tweak the current project to keep the owners happy. My concern as a charterer and future cat owner is parts and repairs. I know Cat Co sent own of there mechanics to France to learn about the electric motors. Earlier in this thread the owners were talking about a spare parts "bank", to have on hand some essential parts in BVI, where nothing moves very fast.

[sail2wind]

The Martha R is about 500 miles from her new home. We hope she will be all ready for her first charter. I know we are. We are still concerned about the fuel consumption. Word from Cat Co and Horizon is the fuel consumption will definitely be higher then running twin diesels, considerably higher. We are on vacation, and as my beautiful wife says "it is what it is." Divided by 3 couples the $300-$400 won't bother our great 11 days together.

Evan

[sailvi767]

I would expect the fuel consumption to be higher then a conventional boat only in a situation where you run the AC all night and the genset has to run. There has been several posts that the Martha R or perhaps another 420 has an AC system set up to run off the batteries. If this is the case and the genset run time can be minimized the boat should do quite well. The standard 420 AC system is a 44,000 BTU system that will require the genset to run all the time the AC is on I suspect. The Voyage 440 has 22,000 BTU's of AC and this is Marginal. The 420 is a larger boat in volume so 44,000 may be about right for the tropics. I would be interested to hear how the Martha R is set up and how many BTU's it will actually have. I can't imagine the boat burning more fuel underway then a conventional boat. It was at night with AC on that I feel the burn will be higher.