The Green Machine - Electric Yacht Petro Free Sailing

Recently my wife and I attended our local boat show, and aside from it being smaller than usual, we did run across a very interesting new product line. It is an electric motor for sailboats. It is being built by a Minnesota company, Electric Yacht. This is a full replacement so that one may end the hassle of owning and maintaining an internal combustion engine. Of course, there is the issue of range, but the company feels that with the attention the auto makers are giving to batteries, this will be addressed soon. In fact, they are confident that in ten years we will all be using electric motors in our sailboats. This is what they have to say about range on their website. “A typical system will have 60 -- 90 minutes of run time at full power. At 6.5 knots, this translates into 6.5 -- 10Nm. Reduce speed to 4 -- 5 knots and the power consumption drops off dramatically. Range will increase to 10 – 15Nm. Range can be extended further at lower speeds. As a rule of thumb, every 1.25 – 1.5 knot increase in speed requires a doubling of power.

As seen at Minneapolis Boat Show - If you look closely you can see an outboard.

I’m sold. For the kinds of sailing we do now and for the next decade, at least, I can see no reason not to have one of these instead of an internal combustion engine. They are competitively priced as well. Prices range form $3695 to $5495 at the time of this writing. If you are likely to have to re-power your vessel I would take a close look at one of their offerings. I also noticed they had an electric outboard on display which is not mentioned in their literature. Their literature does say that their motors are appropriate for vessels up to 40′ long. Our next sailboat is going to be in the 30′ range, so I think one of these would do nicely.

Think about it, no more fueling issues. Maintenance is practically zero, batteries are relatively inexpensive, no engine warm up period. Just turn the key and go. Another thing that really appeals to us is the quiet operation, there is nothing we dislike more than listening to an internal combustion engine when we are sailing. Also, all of their offerings will regenerate electricity, although how much is dependent on boat speed and propeller size. Add some solar panels and perhaps a wind generator and poof, you are off the “grid.” At least for day sailing purposes.

Motor and reduction unit assembly.

Kit components and motor.

It looks to me like the hardest part of replacing your old engine with an electric motor is going to be getting the old engine out of your boat and cleaning up all those years of grime. Otherwise, installing their solution looks to be very straight forward. Placement of the batteries, there are 4 to 8 of them, depending on configuration, will be the most time consuming part of the installation process. The kit consists of the throttle quadrant, a battery monitor, power switch, shaft coupler and a battery fuse. There can also be a weight advantage as the smallest motor and batteries weighs in at around 350 pounds, whereas a conventional engine and all it’s tanks, etc. can weigh in at around the 400-600 pound range.

For us tree huggers, we really appreciate having green choices and if we ever need to re-power a sailboat one of these will certainly be in our future. Even if you are not a tree hugger, this option seems to be the most fiscally responsible option as well. Heck, I may consider buying a sailboat with a blown motor just so I can stick one of these in it. Save some money on the boat purchase and save the planet, how can we go wrong?