Motor Sailing with an Electric Motor and Generator

Electric motors boast many advantages over diesel motors. They are quiet, clean, and virtually maintenance free! They run when you need them to and stand idly by when you don't. When sailing along with speed, the spinning propeller actually generates electricity for you to recharge your battery banks.

The one advantage that a diesel motor has over an electric is range. There is nothing quit as energy dense as fossil fuel on a yacht. A small volume of liquid will power your yacht for hours and miles without a single complaint. If you run low on this magical wonder juice, all you need to do is pull up to a fuel dock and pour some more into your fuel tank! This is a quick process that takes only minutes to complete. 

Electric motors carry their energy source inside of batteries which will gladly give up their power, but seem to resist accepting power in return. When a fuel tank is empty, all you need to do is pour more fuel in! When a battery is empty, you will need to force power back into it with considerable effort, a process that can take many hours to complete. 

If you plan on motoring fast and far for long periods of time, a fossil fuel motor would be your best choice. If you plan on using your motor for short spurts of power, followed by days of sailing, an electric motor might be a better fit for you.  

Electricity stored in batteries is odorless and clean. It doesn't need to be run through filters or polishers to keep it clean, instead it simply sits waiting for you to call on it. 

Now, what if you find that an electric motor would be your dream power source in your yacht, but you do plan on the occasional motoring. You could solve this dilemma with a simple compromise. A generator will grant you the ease of fossil fuels and the convenience of electric propulsion. The generator powers your battery charger which feeds the battery bank and motor. 

Now, your range and speed will be decided based on your charging capabilities. Your generator will only provide as much power as the charger can put out. If you have a 5 amp charger, then you will only be able to motor along at 5 amps with the range of your fuel supply. If you are wondering, 5 amps is hardly moving and you might be better off to just drift with the tide! 

If you have more charging capability, say 25 amps, you would then be able to motor along at 25 amps (which is still slow, but you would be moving at around 3 knots) for as long as your fuel supply lasts. 

As you can see, the more charging you can produce, the more speed you can motor with. While you may feel limited by your charger, this should not be a concern. 

For example, say you have 15 amps of charging capability, which will motor you along at around 2 knots. You want to go 5 knots and are drawing 60 amps, you can simply throttle up to 60 amps and know that you are drawing 15 amps from the charger and 45 amps from the batteries. This will let you motor along for a few hours at this speed before you will need to slow down and run at a speed governed by the generator and charger. 

This might seem like it is limiting, but if you need to motor 20 miles, 5 knots will get you there in 4 hours. Once you are there, you can let the generator continue to run and recharge the battery banks once you have arrived with speed and ease. 

Generators give you a portable charging solution, adding greatly extended range to your electric propulsion setup. When coupled with solar panels as well, you will find that you will be able to motor along well enough to grant you the peace and tranquility you wanted every time you need that short burst of power. 

Kindness of Strangers

We found ourselves stranded in Oriental, NC, with our motor on the fritz for an extended period of time in a harbor that is not "sailable." Thanksgivings was approaching and we wanted to spend the holiday with family that live about 5 hours away. The problem was there were no car rental places in Oriental, and the closest rental center is in the neighboring town, much too far to walk or bike to.  

We found ourselves in this dilemma, one of the locals asked if he would be able to help. He offered to drive us to the rental center so that we could get a car and get to family for the holiday. He even offered to keep our dinghy in his garage while we were away so that it wouldn't get damaged against the pier while we were away.  

Someone that we just met connected the dots so that we could spend the holidays with our family! Before this moment, we had never known each other, and yet, being kind to strangers will make everyone's life grander.  

He has many friends that are cruising and understands the troubles with transportation in a new port, and he was also going to the town that had the car rental to run some errands. 

While cruising, we have found that the smaller the town is, the more friendly and welcoming the people there are. They will help you connect the dots in your plans that way you can have a more pleasant experience in their town. This will leave you with happy memories of their town and a fuller experience while cruising. 

Oriental, NC

Oriental is a small town in North Carolina on the Neuse River, just off of the Pamlico Sound. This small town is a cruiser hotspot, as all the shops and locals seem to cater to the constant passing of yachts and their crews. Their busiest seasons are spring and fall, when the cruisers migrate north in the spring and south in the fall.  

The town was named Oriental because of a ship named Oriental that wrecked on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The wife of the postmaster found the nameplate on the beach and liked the name, then deciding to name the town Oriental because she felt it needed a better name than the one it had.

Years later, the name has stuck and the locals seems to have taken a liking to it. Chinese dragons can be found all over the town, in the forms of paintings, lawn decorations, or even stuck in inconspicuous places! Maddie and I had a grand time wandering around the town looking for dragons in different places.

The best part of Oriental is certainly the people. They are very welcoming and warm towards cruisers that are passing through. They will invite you to local events and treat you like one of the locals, even though you are merely passing through.  

Along the lines of being cruiser friendly, there is a town dinghy dock, where it is free to tie up, along with two free town docks that you can tie your sailboat up to. They have numerous recycling bins at the dock, making trash runs quick and easy! The town also has a marine consignment shop, where you can find what you need or something close to what you need at a very reasonable price.

As you come ashore, you will find a cruiser grocery store that has another consignment shop in the back, along with a smattering of parts that frequently break on a boat, all at very reasonable prices. If that wasn't enough, they also have a WestMarine store a bit up the street! All in all, this town is a great place to stop if you want to relax and unwind, or if you need to carry out some repairs. 

If a wonderful and welcoming town wasn't enough of a reason to stop at Oriental, they also have wonderful weather. The jetty stops any waves from forming in the harbor, and the town provides plenty of protection from the wind. During strong storms, it would be blowing 30 knots in the Pamlico Sound, and only 10 knots in the anchorage, also with no waves formed either. 

Oriental is a wonderful place to stop, even if it is out of the way of your cruise. One taste of the local ice cream parlors inexpensive and delicious ice cream will make you glad you took a little detour! 

Electronics on a Yacht

If you have been reading the blog for some time, you might have noticed that while I try to offer a equal view on various topics, I, like all people, have my biases. I work really hard to keep them from influencing my writing, but I know they are always looming in the background, and you may have noticed that over the years too. 

I do not trust electronics. They are convenient, they are easy, and I feel they will let you down. 

The reason I don't trust electronics is simple, I have trouble fixing electronic items. Since I can't always fix it, I can't always get it up and running again, and that means that it will die on me before something mechanical would. 

When our Monitor Windvane broke, I fixed it with a single new bolt. It was an easy fix that allowed us to keep going without any hiccups in our sailing. When something electronic breaks and I open it up to find the fault that caused the entire problem, I am confronted with a tiny green board that is covered with electrical connections. Each connection is important and is prone to death by corrosion in the harsh marine environment. When I look at the green board and everything looks clean and fine, I get even more frustrated because, unlike the big bolt on the Monitor Windvane, I can't see the problem on the electronic board. 

Worst of all, I expect electronics to fail when I need them the most, and when they fail, I won't have the time or knowledge to fix them and keep them running longer.

This frustration presented itself today when we were getting ready to set sail on a broad reach to a new port. The anchor windlass is manual and easy to repair and maintain. The halyards and sheets operate on mechanical winches. Our charts are paper and I am proficient enough with a sextant to find our position. While this may seem old-school, I do dabble in the realm of electronic conveniences. 

We have a GPS chart plotter in the cockpit, our VHF radio also displays our coordinates. We have Navionics software on our iPad and iPhone, allowing us to view detailed charts in the palm of our hand and sail through unfamiliar waters without fear or concern of unknown shoals. 

These devices make our lives easier, but they can always fail us. The phone and tablet computer can easily fall overboard or get hit by an object, breaking their screen or rendering the device inoperable. The chart plotter could one day not turn on. The radio could stop working. All of these devices can die silently and without warning on a boat, only demonstrating their passing when you need them and go to use them, finding their current situation and reveling in frustration.

This happened to us on our voyage south. We are in the ICW, waters that are known as being unfriendly towards sails. We have previously avoided these waters since we have a rather deep keel and an electric motor. The motor is more of an accessory that we use to help us dock, not our primary mode of powering the yacht, that is what the sails are for! 

In the ICW, we had to put our trust in the electric motor, as it would be the main mode of propulsion as we moved along these narrow and shallow waters. We motored into an anchorage that is small and shallow, but also very well protected. There is a strong current near the rocks, but this is no problem with a motor that can keep you clear of the jetty and in the middle of the channel. 

Then one day, we decided to leave the anchorage because the winds would be in our favor as we headed to our next destination and the motor would not work. 

I do not know when the motor died, because we used it getting into the anchorage. We also used it in the anchorage to get us off a shoal that we swung onto, putting its last use only a day ago; but here it sits inoperable and silent. We were planning to leave, only discovering its deceased state when we needed it and went to use it, luckily before the anchor was raised off the bottom! This changed all our plans, as we had planned to leave today and head to a new port, but instead are now going to stay here longer as we await the arrival of replacement parts by mail. 

Electronics are fun and convenient, but I do caution one to not rely on the solely, as they could fail and leave you stranded if you do not have a manual backup. 

Trouble in Paradise

We left Hatteras, NC and sailed down the Pamlico Sound on a broad reach in 25 knot winds and a light chop. The sail was fast, maintaining a speed of 6-7 knots for a majority of the passage. Then we anchored in the harbor at Oriental, NC which is a very boater friendly town. 

They have marine consignment shops, and co-op stores that stock everything a cruiser will need to provision, repair, or relax as they cruise! They even loan bikes to boaters for free so you can explore the town with ease. The local grocery store also has a shuttle that will pick you up at the pier and take you to the store, and take you back to the pier with all your groceries! 

We greatly enjoyed our stay here in this small town where everyone knows each other and is very friendly towards us and other cruisers. Then the winds shifted and were blowing towards our next destination. 

I was preparing to raise the anchor when I decided to test the motor first: nothing. 

The engine display would not turn on and the motors did not respond when I would put the motors in forward or reverse. It seemed that our reliable and maintenance free motors were not responding and were not going to work today. 

I began trouble shooting everything, tracing wires and checking voltages. We had 51.3 VDC leading into the motors, and all the connections seemed to be corrosion free. I also checked for continuity in the circuits, and everything was operating as it should, yet the motors would not spin. 

Then I thought: "What if the propeller is fouled and wont allow the motors to spin!" So I tried turning the shaft by hand, and sadly, it spun freely without any hesitation. I was stumped, as everything seemed to be in working order, yet it was not responding. 

After talking with the manufacturer of the electric motors directly, they deduced based on the information that I had given him that the main controller has died and there is no way to fix it without a new control unit. 

The company is very kind, and since the unit is only a few months old, it is covered under warranty and they are going to ship it out to us so that I can swap the parts and get running again. 

We are anchored in a beautiful harbor, surrounded by many nice people, yet we wanted to go and were not able to. It looks like we will be here in Oriental, NC for another week as we wait for the parts to come in. Such troubles! 

We did consider raising anchor and sailing away without the motor working, but decided against it. Yes, we usually sail into and out of anchorages, traveling many miles without the use of our engine, but those are in much wider waters with calmer currents. Here, the current flows at around 2 knots down a very narrow channel with lots of shoals and obstructions along the way. We could brave it and venture off under sail alone, but it would be very unwise. The ICW is in the motor boats domain. The water is narrow and shallow, and the winds are blocked by trees and buildings along the way. There are also bridges that open on a schedule and a motor is needed to fight the current and hold one in place as all the boats wait in a line. 

Trying to sail through narrow Adams Creek and into Beaufort, NC is foolish. So instead we decided to stay where we are and wait for the parts to arrive so we can join the ranks of the motor boats that transit these narrow and crowded waters.