Sailing, yes pure wind power

Light winds were enlightening on our way from Bronte to Fifty Point. We learned to follow the ripples that indicate wind currents on the water. Heavenly day for sailing.

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Electric motoring out of Bronte

With light winds expected and a long run to Fifty Point we set off early from Bronte Harbour. What a great feeling on a clear quiet morning to flick the switch on the electric motor and quietly make our way out onto the lake. As it turned out our use of the genoa made this one of the most pleasant days sailing we've ever had. Once on the lake we pointed just to the east of Fifty Point using our iPad Navionics chart plotter gps system. We raised the main and then genoa in light winds. Most of the way we were able to find the wind by watching the water for areas with ripples. Sure enough we picked up good speed, 4-5 knots, on a close hauled course near perfect heading for our destination. Sure enough we were there by about 1:30pm with just one tack to head in. Beautiful day of great sailing. Great recovery from our day of motoring.

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Electric motoring from Oakville to Bronte on our C&C 35

Leigh had a bit of a fall on our trip from Toronto to Oakville. So, with winds blowing hard we decided to test the electric motor as a way of making it an easy stress free trip to Bronte. It was a sunny day, not much wave action as the wind was coming in from the north where the land is. We made 3-4 knots at about three quarters throttle doing about 1600 rpm with our old folding racing prop. It took a little over an hour with some extra time as we came in slow as this is our first time in this harbor. Once we docked and settled all the rigging down the battery meter indicated we still had about 100% charge and another 4.5 hours at 3-4 knots that we still could have covered.

Cruising with our electric motor

We have set off on our first cruise with the electric motor from Electric Yacht that we installed last year. We provisioned up for a cruise from our home base at QCYC on Toronto Island to Port Dalhousie. Our first stop is Oakville Club. In preparation for the unknown, this is our first cruise, we charged up the batteries fully (see previous post on the setup and installation of our 10 kW electric motor and four large AGM batteries). We had a terrific sail, starting at 9am we arrived in Oakville by 2pm, to be greeted by wonderful Larry. We used hardly any batter juice despite some big waves coming into Oakville.

Next trick was to sort out the electrical hookup to make sure I could top up the charge on the batteries. Of course the shore power connection in Oakville is different than QCYC. I eventually found an adapter from our three round pronged (name?) plug to standard 3 prong outlet. She charges nicely on the 15 amp circuit provided, using about 10 amps. With that I can still run the fan to keep things cooler in the galley. I charge the house batteries only separately from the motor batteries as it would blow the 15 amp fuse provided by shore power here. Took less than an hour or so to charge up to full storage again. All set for our sail to Bronte or perhaps further out to Fifty Point Park. We'll see.

All is working well. The weather has been hot and humid which is yet another test of the system. So far so good. Met a few sailors from Mimico who'd been to QCYC and had read about our electric boat in the Clipper. I've invited them over for a tour. Off for some Thai food for dinner.