Just in time cruise before Captain Corona closes the coast and causes continental chaos.
Electric motors on cruising catamarans are by no means anything new, but they were at some point in time.
In 1992, Peter Kerr built a 42 foot aluminium catamaran, branded “Lizard Yachts” in Tin Can Bay, Queensland Australia.
Boasting 4 cabins, 2 heads, a large saloon and downstairs galley, “Sundancer” offers loads of room for up to 8 people. Yet, placing the toilets in the forward cabins can make for an intimate experience at times of spicy Malaysian cooking.
This catamaran had a very familiar look and I believe that Peter Kerr and Tim Mumby initially worked together during the design phase of this yacht before they split and Tim went on to build the now well known, very fast Mumby 48 cruising catamarans.
The interesting part; in 2015, “S.V. Sundancer” ditched the diesels for 2 x 6.4kw Soloman Electric Drives.
In April 2005, Businesswire published in a further announcement that the Groupe Beneteau decided to install the Solomon Electric Drive system in their production version of the Lagoon L 440 Catamaran, with sea trails starting in early May that year. Lagoon apparently opted to install the system, now dubbed a ‘Hybrid’, in it’s Lagoon 420. The first example made a splash in Australia in November 2007 as reported in Sail-World Australia.
Shame on me, I was oblivious to all of that.
My focus was on cool beers and catching up with John after getting on his boat late Friday night at the Rebak Marina, Langkawi.
Quick bio-insert here to complete the story: John (his real name) is originally from Melbourne, Australia. He was part of the Victorian coastguard for 5 years and decided it was time for a change. A big one obviously… he bought a catamaran.
John has now been in and around Langkawi for over a year after completing his RYA offshore yachtmaster and sailing instructor certificates at the Langkawi Sailing School. And that’s where we met.
Waking up the next morning, it was time to drop the lines and explore the surrounding islands. As crew, you try your best to help without being in the skippers way: unzip the sailbag, disconnect the water and shore power, help with the lines…. all the while wondering if and when John would start up the engine. You know, a little warm up at least, to see if it all works.
Nope. All I got was ‘Nils, release the bow lines, then hop on the back’. Okay, still no engines. Confusion. It’s his boat, who am I to argue. Plus I am on holiday. There was no wind or current… I am sure he had a plan.
Then…. wizzzzz, hummm, glide and exit. No noise, no smoke! Now that was cool. Stealth mode. Electric motors.
Out of the marina, hoist the sail and off we went. Oh what a feeling. That feeling of self-sufficiency, green, environmentally sound… heartwarming.
Until the wind dropped to nix a couple of hours later.
I was there to relax so time for a swim, lunch, another swim, another beer … but still no wind!
‘Hey John, what’s the plan mate?’ From what I gathered, it was still a fair track to the proposed anchorage for the night.
There are 99 islands at high tide in the area, so we definitely weren’t short of suitable anchorages. The forecast showed very little wind and swell so we could drop anchor pretty much anywhere.
Clearly the relaxing part hasn’t taken hold yet and I was encouraged to dig a little deeper and find my inner zen. “Follow my lead’ he said…
Eventually it was time to go and there it was again, the now familiar ‘hummm’ of the electric motors. 5 kts, no wind, no tide. Nice ride.
However, the commercial pilot in me always thinks “distance, time, range”. I am not very clued up when it comes to the dark art of electrical anything, let alone propulsion, but I know the basics: the engines were draining the batteries at 33amp/HR.
So there it was: “diesel reality” had to hit at some point in time.
A 13kva / 144 Volt Generator provides the power to 12 X 100amp AGM batteries. A modest solar array (maybe 600w) helps with top ups, but you got to remember , this a system designed and installed in its infancy. Battery and solar technology has come a long way since.
I noticed the batteries started to recharge during our sail at boatspeeds above approx 4kts but it was a very moderate recharge at the speed.
For additional charging, John has a ‘Mars Rock’ 400w wind generator sitting there, ready to be installed.
Cruising on an electric boat ...
This was my first real life experience on an electrified sailing boat and I have to say it felt great when in electric mode. It is not completely silent but a lot quieter and no vibrations compared to diesel power.
The system on ‘Sundancer’ appears adequate for leisurely local to medium length sailing trips. As a matter of fact, I don’t think you can travel much cheaper part from sailing only.
And lets face it, sailors have been cruising the world’s oceans on a lot less propulsion for centuries so many of the perceived constrains appear mental rather than physical in nature.
Finally, technology has evolved so much since the conversion of this catamaran, especially battery technology, that all-electric cruising certainly is a reality which I would love to be a part of when ‘No Shoes’ comes out of charter in 2024.
Langkawi's oceanic playground
All technical details aside, we had a great time. My son Harry visited for 3 days from Australia, courtesy of airline staff travel discounts.
We sailed, ate, enjoyed a few sundowners on the boat and ashore, bonded, watched the dolphins, jetskis and cruise ships pass by and managed to find some more secluded spots away from it all to soak up nature.
Langkawi is a magnificent cruising ground and John, a perfect host, would be only too happy to show you around his new neighborhood. You can email John on: sailing.vessel.sundancer@gmail.com
S.V. Sundancer is also for sale if you are interested. It is listed with Charles Robinson from Multihull Solutions.
Just don’t buy it before I get a chance to be back for another trip, recharging my batteries.
Nils Gruttner
I spoke with Spencer at Knot10, he’s an expert and I recommend talking to him.
Spencer@knot10.com
He retrofits Catamarans with electric drives. I asked him the same question about what happened to hybrid Lagoons with electric drives. Here is his answer:
“Lagoon partnered with Solomon technologies and did about 12 cats. I know 2 owners (havent met the others yet). The reason they only did about 12 is because the cost was about 40% more! The Solomon boats were almost $1M in 2004 and the conventional boats were about $600k.
Lagoon tried to sell it to do it themselves and 1/2 the bank going from 144V to 78V, and also cut the wire gauge size to save a lot of the expenses… what happens when you put more current through smaller wires? Heat!!! And the worst part is they were doing this with charter boats!
So charter guests wanted to go faster and they were trying to automate the generators kicking on and off, so relays were going bad and guests were running the boat at full throttle and depleting power faster than it can be regenerated with the generator. Which resulted in the boats being recalled and giving the hybrids a bad name.
But the Solomon boats that were done right are still around today. The technology has been increasing and owners have been upgrading and they love the systems. I work with a guy names Matt in the FL area that was a part of the Solomon installs and he has done many hybrid conversions.
They make a ton of sense in any fast cruising boat, especially with lithium banks becoming more popular. Hopefully the next break in battery technology comes by the time you’re ready and we will have more options.
Torqueedo the lovely electric outboard company has come out with sail drives. In MoonWave the gunboat I was referring to they built an articulating sail drive system combines with bow thrusters and the boat can go diagonally and sidewise and can literally parallel park on a dock with less than 1’ to bow and stern if it wants to. CRAZY! And when the boat is sailing they run the sail drives backwards and it regenerates power. They make so much power that they can run the AC units and electric cooktop while under way. Pretty awesome.”
On Facebook, you asked if the electric drives were installed in the Lagoon 420 models?
Answer: Correct. The Solomon electric drives from the factory were only installed on the Lagoon 420 for a brief period.
Today, people are swapping out their Diesel engines with electric drives but it’s extremely expensive still.
I wrote up a lengthy article about the pros and cons on the Lagoon forums here back in September. I was lucky enough to go on a cruise on the new Silent 55 at the Cannes, France Yacht show. Silent Wave is a company out of Switzerland that makes an all-solar boat. (No sails) They’ve been making all solar powered blue water Catamarans with no sails that travel around the world. But they cost $1.4 million and up…
Thank Tommy for this great contribution, I will update my article about the Lagoon 421 ‘ Traviata” https://noshoes-resoled.com/lagoon-421-s-v-traviata-a-2015-catamaran-that-seems-built-to-last/
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