Converting our Newport 30MKll, Electra
The Newport 30 is an 8,500 pound sloop and a good coastal sailor. Our 1979 Newport 30 was owned by a young US Navy sailor who was about to be deployed. The Atomic 4 gas engine was in two parts with the head removed and a reported leak in cylinder #3. An 8hp Nissan was hanging in-elegantly from the transom. There was a lot of work to make her look and sail well along with repowering the auxiliary.
San Diego
We purchased Electra with the idea of converting her to an electric sailboat with an Electric Yacht 180ibl motor. We elected to go with Lifeline 6v AGM 300Ah batteries with a goal of turning Electra into a coastal sailor with range to allow her to power/sail to and from Long Beach to Catalina Island, approximately 40 miles.
First we removed the Atomic 4 and wheeled it up the ramp and into the back of my Jeep. This was the most daunting part of the conversion. The Atomic weighed in at about 350 pounds and fit in the engine compartment with little extra space. Additionally there were systems connecting the old engine that needed to be safely decommissioned. The engine was hoisted out of the engine compartment and onto the dock. We pulled out the 30 gallon gas tank and decommissioned the through hulls. After that, Electra was ready to be sailed up to Dana Point with the help of the 8hp Nissan, where she would be our primary sailboat.
Dana Point
Electra was placed in a temporary slip and the updating begun. Electra first needed to be sanitized and all decommissioned systems removed or secured. This process took a few days. We did not paint the engine compartment as the Newport came with a false bilge under the motor and when we cleaned it looked very good. We ground out the four rusty bolts that held the old gas motor.
Placing the 65 pound electric motor required us to experiment with alignment of the brackets. By sight we aligned the motor to the original prop shaft. With the motor in slow revolution, fine adjustments of the mounting brackets allowed us to easily align the motor and remove almost all vibration. Removing the small two blade Atomic 4 prop, we added a much more efficient three blade prop. This was selected to allow us to take advantage of the more powerful torque characteristics of the electric drive and give us more power regeneration capabilities.
The next part of the installation was the placement of the batteries. Because we wanted Electra to be a coastal sailor and to be able to make safe passages of up to 40 miles under power, we elected to install a somewhat larger battery compliment than most electric sailors. Eight Lifeline 6 volt AGM gave us the 48 volt system with 300 amp hour capabilities. Four went into the now empty former fuel tank under the starboard quarter berth and four were placed in a special built box in the port lazarette. We also installed a 48 volt 25 amp intelligent charger from the Quick Charge Company because of its proven ruggedness. The battery and charger selection is one where knowing what type of sailing you do and the conditions of the area in which you sail are important. There are many ways to feed the power needs of the electric motor from inexpensive traditional batteries to edge of technology chemistries and charging from free sun, wind, to dockside and new efficient on board generators.
The system today uses the clean power provided by the dock side 30 amp system. We are selecting a solar power system to provide away from the dock power along with an AirMaxx wind generator from Cruise R O Water. Solar and wind generation will give us the ability to replace the power used during a cruise while at anchorage. This along with a backup generator will give us the ability to visit the many islands off the California Coast. We will provide another write up of our experiences this summer as we cruise.
The Border Run
One of our first cruises was actually a race. The Border Run is an off shore race starting in Newport California and finishing in San Diego with diverse boats. Included in the race were multi million dollar corporate sponsored racers to traditional sailors like our Newport 30. All sizes and shapes of boats were entered, with a common characteristic of being manned with good sailors. The race raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
The Thursday before the race, we left Dana Point with a strong wind of greater than 15 knots from the Southwest. It was a pleasant sail to Newport as we averaged about 5 knots and were able to make the passage on a single tack and avoided some rain squalls off shore. 2 hours and 45 minutes later we were inside the Newport harbor and under power as we motored to the Orange Coast College Sailing Center as I had volunteered to give a presentation of electric propulsion there. I expanded the presentation to include traditional gas and diesel systems along with electric. We toured the boat and demonstrated the quick and easy start-up procedures for Electra. After the class Electra was moved to an anchorage and we enjoyed the Friday night send off party at the historic Newport Pavilion. We spent the night on Electra and did completed preparations for the race.
Saturday we weighed anchor and went for an early motor cruise to the race course. We were one of the first boats to check in and we spent several hours sailing in and out of the fleet encouraging friends and just enjoying the experience of being in a large fleet of sailboats. 230 boats had signed up for the race but because of the strong North by Northwest winds that arrived late on Thursday and lasted through Friday, about 60 boats did not make the start of the race.
Electra was placed in the cruiser without spinnaker class and we were scheduled to start at 11:55. We were one of the last starting groups of boats making the full race to San Diego. At 11 am, the race started with the highly competitive international sailors beginning the race. There was a lot of excitement as press boats and helicopters recorded the beginning of the race. The Fleet began to stretch out as every 5 minutes the canon fired and another group of boats sped off towards San Diego.
At about 11:40 we turned off the motor and began to make our way to the starting line. We had a strategy to make out way to San Diego with a course outside the rhumbline and hope to catch some stronger winds forecasted to be off shore. We timed our speed to place us at the starting line at exactly 11:55 and were able to make the start at 11:56. We were close enough to the starter boat the we were able to have a conversation with them as we avoided a Schock Harbour 25 by inches with Tom Schock himself at the helm. I am not so sure how important the start of a race is in which such long distances are involved, but it sure was competitive and got us in the spirit of the event.
As we raced within out fleet, we were happy to take a course that followed the rhumbline. There were a number of larger and faster boats in our fleet. We were mostly aware of a Columbian 40 and a Ranger 33 that were likely the fastest boats in the fleet and judged our progress against them. The air on the course was very impacted by the large number of boats in front of us. As the fleet spread out with a number of the boats taking a line on the outside, the wind picked up and by the time we were on an inside course we were making over 5 knots.
This is a longer race with both a 92 and 70 mile course. The cruiser boats generally take the shorter course as the racer start earlier and take the longer. We were using our well tested 150 genoa with the plan to raise one of two light weight drifters in the expected light night/early morning air. I had washed and prepped the sails the week before and Dan had completed the rig tuning the Friday before the race.
Off Dana Point, about 25% through the race, we started to hear a noise from the motor. We were doing about 4.5 knots according to the Garman. We were slightly concerned until we quickly realized that we had reached regeneration speed. The computer was now reading “charging .6v”. The amount of power going into the batteries was unknown as we have since learned that our computer needs to be updated with more accurate data. This we will do later. As we discussed the situation, Dan asked a question: “How will the rating people at US Sailing handle the issue of us recharging up our batteries in the middle of a race?”
There were a number of boats inside of us that were having problems during the race as the wind did not support their efforts. We adjusted our strategy as we stayed closer in as the winds gave us good passage and we were making 6 knots for most of the afternoon. In the late afternoon we noticed that a number of the outside boats were setting their spinnakers. Once they did that, we seemed to distance ourselves and with that out strategy again changed and we stayed with out well tried 150. As the sun set, the winds died down but were still strong enough to allow us to stay with the 150. This meant that the kite fliers were also impacted but they were supposed to be faster than us with out traditional sails.
I opted to take my short sleep around 10pm and when I awoke at 1am saw that the crew was setting the 150 again. During the night the winds died and the ultra light drifters were raised. Little progress was made with the drifters and when the breezes were found again, the 150 gave us the best headway. This was the last sail change and we continued to night fight and make progress around the last hurdle, Point Loma.
Point Loma is a peninsula head wall that defines San Diego Bay and, because of its length and height, it is the last and biggest problem for the boats headed south. We fought making a number of tacks and, after three hours, we made enough progress to put us in the shipping lane and able to make a tack that brought us much closer to the finish line. We were close enough that we now monitored the finish line and listened to the faster boats check in. To our surprise a number of boats were also calling it quits and powering up after fighting the light night winds.
On course for the finish line, we had to also make sure we were not in the way of a number of large cruise ships that were moving up the shipping lane. We also did not want to have our air impacted by these much larger vessels. As we set our course for the flashing strobe at the finish line, we had our sights on a sailboat off our starboard stern that was a bit larger, remember we were in a fleet that included boats up to 40 feet and much faster than a Newport 30.
We called in our closing position to the finish line boat. There were three of us now closing in on the finish. We now saw that the boat in front of us was one of the faster cruisers from the long course and the one behind was also in our fleet, an Ericson 35. We were now in position to make our final tack for the finish line and we are hailed by the finish line boat and asked to take a penalty 180 degree turn before we cross the line. This we did not know why we had a penalty, but we completed a full 360 in view of the boat and crossed the line at 6:05 am.
After we crossed the line, we circled back and asked about the penalty. “Sorry about that, chaps”, was the answer in a crisp British accent. “Wrong boat.” The penalty was supposed to have been taken by the faster long course racer that finished in front of us. They got us confused with boat in front o us!
We set our course for the Southwest Yacht Club and some breakfast. Both were accomplished by breakfast at the “Red Sails” were we ate more than we should have and at the yacht club we were able to side-tie and enjoy the festivities.
Back to Dana Point
After the award presentation, we moved Electra to Mission bay with the idea of motor sailing back to Dana Point or Oceanside on Monday. Monday began with little early wind and finally by 7am there was enough to make the journey worth while. The course was set to work with the head wind taking a wide tack outside and a final tack straight to Dana Point. The direct rhumb line was about 60 miles and with the wide tack became closer to 70. Electra motor sailed the entire way with the small Honda generator running about half of the time – 2.5 gallons of fuel. Electra arrived late evening on Monday and as the boat was put away, read 55% charge. This was just about what we were expecting as we had sized the battery bank to give us about 40 miles of motoring.
We cleaned Electra on Tuesday and got ready for Strictly Sailing in Oakland on Thursday. Next year we will do the Newport to Ensenada Race!!