Online Book: How To Buy an Offshore Boat, Chapter 15 of 26

Electric or Diesel-Electric Drives for Voyaging Boats

Published Apr 23, 2013 94 comments Updated April 4, 2016

Solar Panels charging batteries aboard sail boat

Just about the most common suggestion to improve the Adventure 40 that we receive is to fit some kind of electric or hybrid diesel/electric drive.

And, I myself, up to a few years ago, thought that diesel electric would become a viable alternative for voyaging sailboats that would solve the age old problem of matching the output of an engine to the power requirements of a propeller across a wide range of RPM settings.

So let’s examine the viability of electric and diesel/electric drives for voyaging sailboats.


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Meet the Author

John

John was born and brought up in Bermuda and started sailing as a child, racing locally and offshore before turning to cruising. He has sailed over 100,000 miles, most of it on his McCurdy & Rhodes 56, Morgan's Cloud, including eight ocean races to Bermuda, culminating in winning his class twice in the Newport Bermuda Race. He has skippered a series of voyages in the North Atlantic, the majority of which have been to the high latitudes. John has been helping others go voyaging by sharing his experience for twenty years, first in yachting magazines and, for the last 12 years, as co-editor/publisher of AAC.

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Nothing on this website or in direct communications received from us, or in our articles in the media, should be construed to mean or imply that offshore voyaging is anything other than potentially hazardous. Dangers such as, but not limited to, extreme weather, cold, ice, lack of help or assistance, gear failure, grounding, and falling overboard could injure or kill you and wreck your boat.

Decisions such as, but not limited to, heading offshore, where you go, and how you equip your boat, are yours and yours alone. The information on this web site is based on what has worked for the authors in the past, but that does not mean it will work for you, or that it is the best, or even a good way for you to do things.