Conversion project - documented

[SaylorMade]

So it's the day before splash

Installed the propellor hub, and dry-fitted the blades, but they will not be really installed until tomorrow (afraid of theft, the blades are very shiny).

The whole hub/propellor mounting system seems of very high quality like the rest of the parts.
So far so good.

I have pics too

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by SaylorMade

So it's the day before splash

Installed the propellor hub, and dry-fitted the blades, but they will not be really installed until tomorrow (afraid of theft, the blades are very shiny).

The whole hub/propellor mounting system seems of very high quality like the rest of the parts.
So far so good.

I have pics too

Nice. But if you ever anticipate doing any long passages under sail, particularly with enough wind to approach hull speed, where a bit of extra drag won't really make much of an impact on your speed, you might want to also buy a fixed prop, 4 blade. Max practical diameter that still gives good hull clearance, and consult your motor vendor for suggestions on pitch. The idea is to change to the fixed prop for the long passage and put the folder back on for day sailing when you can charge from shore power, to reduce drag. When cruising at a reasonable speed, you will at least get enough regen charging to run your nav lights and make up for self discharge or very small loads that can nevertheless add up. Don't be disappointed when you don't see a lot of watts coming back upstream from your controller. Unless you can wring 10kts out of the boat, regen is not a MAJOR thing, but it can be a thing. Even if you drill and pin your folding prop open, it won't work nearly as well as a 4 blade fixed prop. Plus it is always good to have a spare prop, anyway. For just day sailing, don't bother. Your folding prop will be perfect.

If you use that system, be sure and do a trial run of changing your prop in the water under friendly conditions to make sure you have all the tools and odd bits (spare pins, shaft keys, screws, etc) that you might need. It's not really all that difficult but there are things that can go wrong. Don't ask me how I know.

[s/v Jedi]

When we feather our MaxProp we gain 1.5 knots speed… wouldn’t want to give that up for long passages 36nm/day difference!

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

When we feather our MaxProp we gain 1.5 knots speed… wouldn’t want to give that up for long passages 36nm/day difference!

Maybe so, but you probably have a way of charging your batteries on a passage.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

Maybe so, but you probably have a way of charging your batteries on a passage.

The electric loads you describe only need a small solar panel.

[SaylorMade]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

Nice. But if you ever anticipate doing any long passages under sail, particularly with enough wind to approach hull speed, where a bit of extra drag won't really make much of an impact on your speed, you might want to also buy a fixed prop, 4 blade. Max practical diameter that still gives good hull clearance, and consult your motor vendor for suggestions on pitch. The idea is to change to the fixed prop for the long passage and put the folder back on for day sailing when you can charge from shore power, to reduce drag. When cruising at a reasonable speed, you will at least get enough regen charging to run your nav lights and make up for self discharge or very small loads that can nevertheless add up. Don't be disappointed when you don't see a lot of watts coming back upstream from your controller. Unless you can wring 10kts out of the boat, regen is not a MAJOR thing, but it can be a thing. Even if you drill and pin your folding prop open, it won't work nearly as well as a 4 blade fixed prop. Plus it is always good to have a spare prop, anyway. For just day sailing, don't bother. Your folding prop will be perfect.

If you use that system, be sure and do a trial run of changing your prop in the water under friendly conditions to make sure you have all the tools and odd bits (spare pins, shaft keys, screws, etc) that you might need. It's not really all that difficult but there are things that can go wrong. Don't ask me how I know.

I have no expecatations of regen with the prop, but even though it will do so with the folding prop. It has a setting on the throttle for that.

[SaylorMade]

Splash day - everything went super fine.
I am also super tired, but just a few pics to document the main events.

After boat was splashed, and the battery craned into it's future home, we went for a little trip around the habour. Actually we went to the diesel station, just to smile at it and return back home, since we will no longer need it.

It is so different to be motoring along in silence, you have to get used to it I guess.
I have no firm data yet on consumption, and what I saw today can not possibly be indicative, because that was unreal.
Enroute to the diesel station we had 3,7 kts SOG (no current, no wind), and we did that with the throttle at only 640 watts.

Tomorrow we expect to raise the mast again, and perhaps a longer trip on the fjord with more reliable consumption data for you guys.

[GrowleyMonster]

27' boat, 3.7kts, perfect conditions, from 640w, is pretty decent. Keep your bottom and prop clean! With just a little bit of moss, you can expect to use up to a kw for that speed. With wind and a little wave action, maybe some current on the nose, don't be disappointed to double your power consumption or more. What I am saying is don't get disappointed or frustrated if you never again see that level of efficiency. Happens to all of us. The concept is still sound, and you can always add batteries and run at a higher power level. It's no big sin. A lot of new eboaters see their efficiency tail off and ask what's wrong. Nothing is wrong. Stuff happens.

Just asking, do you have any plans for a solar array, in case you want to spend several days away from the dock? Or a small generator? I used to take a 2kw Ryobi gasoline generator with me, for emergency get-home power. Never actually needed it for real but I did trial runs on it. I didn't go through the charger, though. I ran the AC output through a 2kw varactor for manual voltage adjustment, which of course also partially determines charging current, and a full wave bridge rectifier from an old arc welder. I don't recommend this for those not extremely familiar with electricity and batteries, and probably that would be a bad idea with any sort of Lithium Ion battery, I don't know, but you can always plug your shore power charger to the generator, though if your charger decides it needs to be making over 2kw of charging current, it will expect to be able to suck a little more than that from the generator and will trip the breaker. I went the full manual route specifically to avoid that trap, because my primary charger was a "smart" charger, which actually means it is pretty stupid. A charger with a user adjustable charge current limit would probably work just fine, though.

Again, with solar panels, keep your expectations realistic. Shading from sails, mast, boom, even your backstay, can affect solar charging efficiency, as can sun angle, temperature, and so on. But if you can crowd on about 500w of panels, you have a pretty realistic setup for self sufficiency, at least in summer. Up north where you are, days are long, in summer. A day on the hook can put a lot of juice into the batteries should they happen to get deeply discharged. I know you are mainly concerned with day sailing ability but it is awful nice to be able to take a little voyage somewhere, or just get completely away from the rat race for a few days.

Optimizing your electrical system will help to keep your house and navigation loads low. Plus, LED nav lights mean fewer trips up the mast!

[SaylorMade]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

Just asking, do you have any plans for a solar array, in case you want to spend several days away from the dock?

Not at this point, unless it is a period with several days of no wind, the battery bank should plenty allow for a little motoring over more days.

But time will tell, now that the real figures starts to come in.

I just don't want to add panels to the boat if not really needed.
99 percent of days away, we are plugged into shore power, two minutes after the boat is tied to the dock.
And the occasional night on the hook should still be fine - I think

[SaylorMade]

So the first consumption data are ticking in for you guys.

Today after the mast was raised, we took a short trip outside the harbour.
Wind was 10 kts. from the east, so right on the nose and some chop, since easterlies have quite a fetch here.

I aimed for 5.2 knots which was the sweet spot with the Volvo, and it did that with exactly 3 KW on the pod. (50 % if it's max capacity)
Which mean we could have been doing that for 4 hours.
Quite impressed. It would have been much farther in calm weather.

So with a clean hull and prop, it exceeds my range expections.
4 knots in calm water is at least the 40-50 nm I had hoped for.

Fun "problem" with the torqeedo display though. When we putter along with 2.5 to 3.0 knots the range goes above 100 nm, and the range counter goes to zero, so they did not expect that
I think I'll let them know and see if they can fix it in a firmware update.

So, so far totally pleased.

Oh, and manouvering in the harbor is fantastic, so much power immediately.

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by SaylorMade

So the first consumption data are ticking in for you guys.

Today after the mast was raised, we took a short trip outside the harbour.
Wind was 10 kts. from the east, so right on the nose and some chop, since easterlies have quite a fetch here.

I aimed for 5.2 knots which was the sweet spot with the Volvo, and it did that with exactly 3 KW on the pod. (50 % if it's max capacity)
Which mean we could have been doing that for 4 hours.
Quite impressed. It would have been much farther in calm weather.

So with a clean hull and prop, it exceeds my range expections.
4 knots in calm water is at least the 40-50 nm I had hoped for.

Fun "problem" with the torqeedo display though. When we putter along with 2.5 to 3.0 knots the range goes above 100 nm, and the range counter goes to zero, so they did not expect that
I think I'll let them know and see if they can fix it in a firmware update.

So, so far totally pleased.

Oh, and manouvering in the harbor is fantastic, so much power immediately.

And so little power, when that's what you want. No more bumping in and out of gear! You can ghost into your slip at 50 RPM if you want! You never realize how inconvenient a 650 or so RPM minimum idle speed on a diesel is, until you dock a boat that doesn't have that limitation.

A lot of e-boaters like to motor at about 3 kts to extend their range, so it is important that your instrumentation work decently at that speed. Hardly anybody just goes as fast as they can go.

The instant on is nice, too. No warmup. No fingers crossed, hoping the engine will start.

Some boats are a pain to tack, especially sailing solo, and "electro-tacking" makes it dead easy. It is handy for man overboard (or hat, or other floating object) recovery, or dodging crab floats or coral heads, too.

[SaylorMade]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

And so little power, when that's what you want. No more bumping in and out of gear! You can ghost into your slip at 50 RPM if you want! You never realize how inconvenient a 650 or so RPM minimum idle speed on a diesel is, until you dock a boat that doesn't have that limitation.

A lot of e-boaters like to motor at about 3 kts to extend their range, so it is important that your instrumentation work decently at that speed. Hardly anybody just goes as fast as they can go.

Yes that sure is a nice feature in light conditions, to be able to just let the propeller spin slowly in the marina.

I totally get why it is no problem to extend the range if needed, by slowing down. The whole motoring experience is much much better with no noise, just silently gliding through the water.

But in my case, I can travel to all the destinations I normally visit with 5 knots

[TrentePieds]

Saylormade:

I'm dying of curiosity! Please put me out of my misery :-)! Your profile shows you are in my native land. You made reference to "up the fjord". What fjord is that then?

TrentePieds, FDP

[SaylorMade]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Saylormade:
You made reference to "up the fjord". What fjord is that then?

TrentePieds, FDP

Aabenraa Fjord

Google Maps - Aabenraa fjord

[TrentePieds]

Thanks :-)

Learned the basic on Odense Fjord. Granny lived on Mariager Fjord, so I never got to know Sønderjylland. Granny's husband, whom I never really knew as he left us in 1944, had been a major contractor on the old Hadsund Bro.

But once in a while, when nostalgia strikes, I play "Skamlingsbanken" :-)

Cheers

TP