Back in November I reported that we had received a query from Eddie about possibly turning his new Marshall Sanderling into an electric drive. See here: http://www.edsboattips.com/construction-a-technical/245-electric-conversion-for-a-marshall-sanderling

Well, I heard from Eddie over the weekend and he's pulled the trigger on this project. We're talking brandy new boat with a Mastervolt electric drive system. Awesome! Eddie's system will be a little bit different from the Alerion Electric I reported on last year in that he is going with a 24 volt vs. 48 volt system and he won't have quite as much reserve capacity. But, his usage will be a bit different also.

So, check in often as we're going to follow this project start to finish. The photos below show the hull and deck set and the first steps of the drive installed.

Marshall Sanderling Hull and Deck in The Early Stages of Construction

Structural grid with shaft and drive in early stages of installation

Stay tuned. We're going to have step by step photos of this project as it evolves.

Its hard to believe it but it has been two years since I first introduced a device known as an ELCI to you in a post linked here: http://www.edsboattips.com/maintenance-a-diy/21-introducing-the-elci 

Well, it's time for an update on this life saving device, especially since in a couple of weeks I'll be in attendance at the ABYC's annual "Standards Week" an the ELCI will most assuredly will be one of the many topics of conversation during the week.

First the bad news. The ABYC technical committee has had to allow yet another year of exemption for these units to be a required part of all new boat builds, most especially those attempting to get certified under the NMMA's program, which I have also discussed here several times.

The problem is that some boat builders have experienced unexplainable nuisance tripping of the ELCI device when keying a VHF radio and under certain inverter related circumstances, specifically switching from shore power to inverter AC power. To date, we cannot duplicate the problem at any kind of a 100% level, so there are many questions unanswered about this phenomena. So, the status is, if you have an inverter installed, you may wish to wait before jumping on board the ELCI band wagon, and as for the VHF, my gut feeling is that as long as the ELCI device is located at least six feet away from any part of your boat's VHF antenna or the coaxial cable that runs from the base of the antenna to your radio, you are not likely to experience nuisance trips.

Now the good news. One of my sponsors, Blue Sea Systems has been working on a kit that I hope will enable you or the electrician at your marina to easily retrofit your older boat to provide ELCI protection. They have also created a really nice brochure that explains in detail the why you need it and how to install it of ELCI's. The new box is shown here:

I'm encouraging everyone to contact Blue Sea using the hot button over in the upper left column here on the Eds Boat Tips website to get your brochure and look over the information provided within it. Upgrading your boat with ELCI protection for your shore power system is going to go a long way toward saving lives if you keep your boat in a marina and plugged into shore power all the time. Check it out. 

As some of you know one of my favorite jobs over recent years is to act as one of the judges for the Cruising World Magazine Boat of The Year contest. Contrary to what some have accused us of over the years, the Cruising World program and the judges get deep into the weeds as they say. We bring in experts in all areas related to sailing, cruising/living aboard, construction and systems all get covered both on land and on the water.

My role is as the systems guy. I actually take things apart on the boats we inspect, much to the chagrin of some of the sales people who are trying to make their boat yours.....Hey, its part of the program guys!

Anyhow, I often get asked about what some of the things I look for actually are and what influences me one way or the other so today I thought I might share one area that has a big influence in my area of interest.

One of the areas that the ABYC talks about in its electrical standards has to do with identification of the wiring used on boats so that someone attempting to service the electrical system has a clue about what a given wire is being used for. This makes a huge amount of sense when you think about it, and especially in light of the fact that the electrical systems on modern boats are not exactly getting simpler..

Now, the ABYC offers pretty broad latitude on how one might go about identifying low voltage DC conductors. Numbers are allowed, color codes are allowed and some colors are recommended, individual conductor labeling is acceptable.

In the case of conductors that use insulation color as the identifier, we are at the point where I feel this may not be enough to really get the job done. Some builders have certainly realized that and have figured out some great ways to get the job done. This is one of the things I always look for on the boats we inspect. Let me show you some examples. Below you see the back side of the DC panel on one of the boats we inspected this year:

What is immediately noticeable as you look at the photo is that most all of the wires shown use red insulation, which based on ABYC E-11 Standard indicates a DC positive conductor. Great, but that does not tell me anything about what circuit on the boat is being supplied by that red DC positive conductor, and that is my gripe with the way things have evolved in some cases. The builder in this case could have built a completely standards compliant boat using the red wire only, but in my view would have been missing the spirit of the standard which is to help and and enhance safety.

So, what the photo does not show well because of the resolution of the photo is that each and every one of those many red wires you see has a number heat shrinked to it at the terminal and the boat has a number decoder in its owner's manual. A similar manual is shown here(I don't think it is the same boat):

So as you can see, the owner's documentation above gives them the wire number, its gauge size and a nice description of its purpose. You can see that on the boat above, we are talking lots of red and yellow wires(the preferred choice now for the DC negative return conductor). Not a problem folks, I really don't care what color the builder uses, with the decoder page above, and as long as those numbers are still on the end of the cable, I have more than enough information to get to servicing the aft running light or the port sail locker light.

So, the boat above gets high marks from me in the wiring area based on all of this. A nice neat installation and more than adequate cable identification. Just don't lose that decoder table!

As promised I'm finally back from my travels to METS in Amsterdam and a trip immediately after that to work with all of my friends up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. One of the items that caught my eye at METS was a new bow thruster design that is truly new, and super innovative. The "Rimdrive" as they are calling it is unique and was nominated for a DAME award at the METS this year. Check it out here:

RimDrive Motor

Vetus explains this revolutionary design this way:

"The Rimdrive is an exciting and innovative development in bow thruster design. In contrast with conventional thrusters, the electric motor does not take up valuable space inside the boat. The propeller forms the rotating part of the electric motor (rotor) and the fixed winding (stator) is mounted in the tunnel. This results in a very compact and self contained thruster."

• Virtually cavitation free and thus very silent
• Proportional control as standard
• Unlimited working time
• Propeller can easily be exchanged

To give you a better feel for how much storage space this baby can create for you under your v-berth, check this drawing out:

So I really can't wait to see one of these units installed in a boat. This was for me the coolest new idea I saw at METS this year.

I received a great query several days ago from one of our readers who has a very cool project in mind. He's asking some questions that should be shared.

Marshall Sanderling

Eddy writes:

Hello Ed,
I am about to pull the trigger with a mastervolt 2.5 kw on my 18' Sanderling catboat. I am also worried about runtime ie range. any updates? Looking to put 4 valence lithium Iron Magnesium phosphate 12v 138ah batteries. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Eddy

The updates Eddy are referring to have to do with an article posted here last year talking about the Alerion Electric project that I got to follow through the build precess and report on. The basic story on that particular boat is that Vincent the owner ended up doubling his battery capacity over the original design (two Mastervolt Lithium ION units) to gain more motoring range for his boat.

So, let's take a quick look at a how we can figure this out. First of all, Eddy is on the right track with the selection of the Mastervolt 2.5 kW drive motor for his boat. Mastervolt recommends 2.0kW for sailing craft less than 6 meters in length. So, Eddy is more than OK on that front.

Now, to the question about the Valence batteries....... Nothing against Valence, but if it were me I'd be inclined to take a systems approach here because Mastervolt offers both LION and really good AGM batteries that can be matched nicely to both the motor drive and a suitable Mastervolt charger. We'd have to work the numbers here on component costs. 

Anyhow, to Eddy's question about the capacity of the batteriies, using Mastervolt's factor of 4.6 X kW motor capacity in kilowatt hours to achieve six to eight hours of run time it works out like this:  4.6X2.5=11.5 kWh.  So, with the Valence batteries he's contemplating each battery equals 12X 80% of 138 amp hours (80% is the approximate maximum discharge point for the LION batteries)...so 12X110=1320 per battery times 4 batteries=5.28 kWh. It looks to me like the run time Eddy can expect is going to be around 3 hours with the set-up he's contemplating now.

Keep in mind this is APPROXIMATE based on variables like the actual weight of the boat and the propeller he chooses.

So it all depend upon what Eddy's motoring needs are. Many sailors just want enough power to motor onto their mooring or in and out of their harbor.

Eddy, I hope I answered your questions here, and hey, take some pictures of your project and send them in if you do go this route. Good one to share!  Ed