Dear all

We're really enjoying Lili, and she came into her own on the Round the Island Race.

My biggest bugbear with her is the noise from the engine when motoring around Chichester harbour. Has anyone converted their 235 to use an electric outboard? Some friends have an e-Propulsion on their Wayfarer and love them.

I appreciate that range might be an issue in the Solent, and also need to consider that we'd be totally reliant on solar charging on our swing mooring (or plugging in at a marina) for the auxiliary equipment, but it would also make her a far nicer place to be when the wind dies!

Any experience/thoughts would be very welcome.

Dan

During lockdown, one of our members gave a very interesting talk on the installation of electric propulsion in his yacht. Alas, I don’t remember the boat type or the name of the owner. I do remember the results of going electric way exceeded my expectations.

If someone can remind us who gave this fascinating talk you could give him a call and get answers to all your questions.

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Thanks Ken

Any info would be great

We trialled an ePropulsion last weekend on a trip from Bembridge back to Chichester Harbour. It's about a 3Hp equivalent but has all the torque from nothing. It was great in our tender but we didn't use it on the way to Bembridge as there was a strong wind on the nose and we were in a hurry for the today gate

On the way back there was a lovely broad reach. Without sails our Tohatsu 6Hp sail drive pushed Lili with a bit of tide and wind to 5knts at full throttle, or about 4.2 knots (GPS speed) at a more comfortable 80%. On the same bearing, we then swapped to the eProp Spirit 1.0 Plus and could get 3.4 knots at full throttle with a range of about 70mins. Easing it from 1000W to about 500W drove us at 2.8knts but the range went up to 160min. Blissfully quiet!

With the spinnaker up and the mainsheet out we were comfortably heading back and used the eProp go up to about 5knts. It was a pleasure to be around (unlike the petrol one!)

In the Chichester harbour we were with mid-tide (biggest spring of the year), but unfortunately turning it head to tide (with minimal wind) we could only do 1knt into tide. That was the biggest today test we could give it, but probably enough of a "fail" that it can't replace the 6Hp.

They do a stronger one (the "Navy") but the cost gets a little ridiculous...