The HopYacht 30 is built in Cape Town, South Africa, with naval architecture by Du Toit Yacht Design. The boat is imported to the United States through HopYacht USA in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is being marketed as an entry-level vessel.

This catamaran is primarily designed for couples or families with young children—who may or may not yet be active members of the crew—and is ideal for sailing itineraries that include bay, coastal or short island hops. Ease of handling is part of the design brief.

For cruisers who want to head farther afield, the HopYacht 30 has demountable hulls and will fit into two standard 40-foot containers for shipping.

To make life on board easier, the HopYacht 30 has just one sail to manage. The genoa sheets are led to one winch at the helm station, so single-handed sailing is an option. An asymmetrical spinnaker can be added as an option.

Power is all electric, with electric sail drives as well as electric water heating and induction cooking. Cruising is whisper-quiet, and recharging is accomplished by way of four solar panels. According to HopYacht, the boat can cruise at a full-throttle speed of 6.9 knots for 2.4 hours, or at a cruising speed of 4.2 knots for more than eight hours.

Creature comforts are easily accessible because the cockpit, saloon and forward cabin areas are all on one level with standing headroom.

For relaxation time on the hook, there is wraparound upholstered cockpit seating that converts into a daybed for two people. In the cabin, there’s a walkaround, queen-size island berth. At the bow, where guests can relax on the trampoline, a cooler is built into the anchor locker with drink holders.

The galley is in the under-cover cockpit area, allowing the cook to socialize and enjoy the view—and giving heat a place to escape so it doesn’t stay trapped inside the saloon.

They don’t call it a head: The main deck has what HopYacht calls a proper bathroom, with a shower that has a bifold glass door, a Thetford Tecma Nano electric flush toilet with a macerator; and a Lewmar opening port in the window for ventilation.

Where to learn more: click over to www.hopyacht-usa.com

The post Meet the HopYacht 30 appeared first on Cruising World.

FLIR, popular manufacturer of high-performance marine thermal imaging systems, just announced that Garmin has added support for the FLIR Maritime Thermal Monitoring System (MTMS) in their recent April 2024 (v35) software release. Supported features include:

• Live display of the video feed from the FLIR MTMS camera system
• Audible alarms and visual alerts from the FLIR MTMS on the Garmin chartplotter
• Full support for thermal, visible and MSX thermal/visible blending
• Thermal color palette selection
• Custom camera naming

The FLIR MTMS is a trending tool for monitoring and protecting vital machinery and equipment from catastrophic breakdown. The system has been proven in hundreds of marine and industrial installations to effectively identify temperature anomalies in equipment like gas and diesel engines, generators, bearings, electrical panels and much more. Early identification of impending trouble encourages operators to take action to protect equipment and minimize damage.

The FLIR MTMS can monitor multiple spot-targets and isotherm boxes in its field-of-view and can be programmed to provide alerts based on high-, low- or delta-temperature factors. Alarm configuration is completed using the MTMS’ built-in web server through any network-connected device with a web browser. The FLIR MTMS is equipped with both a FLIR Lepton thermal imager as well as a visible camera with LED lighting making it suitable for use in lit or unlit spaces.

“The FLIR MTMS is a robust system that can help users on a variety of vessels better anticipate the health of equipment in hard to monitor spots like engine rooms,” said Grégoire Outters, general manager at Teledyne FLIR Maritime. “Garmin’s integration with this system allows users to deploy this solution seamlessly, without needing a separate display taking up valuable helm station real estate. The ease of installation and use, combined with the customizability of the system allows users to tailor it to their specific needs or mission.”

The post FLIR Announces Garmin Integration of Maritime Thermal Monitoring appeared first on Cruising World.

In the 1550s, a three-masted ship-rigged vessel was the pinnacle of sailing technology. In the almost 475 years since, aerodynamic advances have sped things up a bit, allowing sailing vessels to go farther faster and with less dependence on fair winds.

Enter California-based startup Outsail, which, at the recent Düsseldorf International Boat Show, debuted an innovative approach to harnessing the wind: a carbon-fiber airfoil wing. The wing will stand 98 feet tall aboard an Outsail 60 catamaran, which will be the first cruising yacht to employ the technology. The wing is concealed within a box through tape-spring technology—a metallic strip similar to what is used in satellites for low mass, low cost, and overall simplicity.  

According to Outsail founder and CEO Arpan Rau, the Outsail 60 is a CE-class yacht that can cruise using only the energy of the sun and wind. Unlike a conventional sailing yacht, it will be able to travel at any angle relative to the wind, and compute its own optimal route. However, like a conventional catamaran, it will also have many conveniences of powerboating—minus the noise and fuel burn that come with diesel engines.

Rau, a robotics engineer who has designed flight hardware for NASA and SpaceX, is a self-described addict when it comes to the force of wind. His casual interests range from paragliding to sailing. He says that there are three pillars of wingsail technology: to provide useful thrust while sailing nearly directly into the wind; to provide useful propulsion at vessel speeds that turn other sails into parachutes; and to work hand-in-hand with an engine, enabling new forms of hybrid propulsion.

Though, according to Rau, the most important pillar of the wingsail’s performance is planning software.

“We found that by using clever software, our wind-powered vessels can plan routes that keep them powered for their entire journey,” Rau says. “They could decide, for example, when it made sense to power through a high-pressure zone using their electric motors, and when to skirt around and save energy for later.”

Outsail recently closed a seed round of funding from Silicon Valley investors, including Y Combinator, which has helped to launch more than 4,000 companies since it was founded in 2005. Those companies include Airbnb, Doordash, Instacart, Dropbox and Reddit. 

Additional investors in the recent seed round of funding for Outsail include Climate Capital, which focuses its investments on emissions reduction and climate adaptation; Venture Hacks Fund, which was an investor in Twitter; and Collab Fund, whose previous investments include Beyond Meat, Daily Harvest, Kickstarter, Lyft, The Farmer’s Dog and TaskRabbit.  

According to Rau, Outsail’s ultimate goal is to apply technology in the maritime industry—not just in cruising yachts, but also with container shipping and defense—to reduce the amount of diesel fuel being burned. Outsail is currently working with shipyards such as Conrad and Alva on custom-build projects.

The post Invention on the Breeze appeared first on Cruising World.

More than 1 million cruising boaters are now using PredictWind, a weather-­forecasting service created in 2010 by competitive sailor Jon Bilger. He founded the company after serving as weather manager for teams who won the America’s Cup in 2003 and 2007, when he realized that the higher-end technology could be a boon to the cruising public.

“It’s been quite a journey,” Bilger told Cruising World in early March, adding that as the community of cruisers continues to evolve with different styles of boats, PredictWind has been evolving right along with it. Sailors are still the company’s biggest client base, and those who make the shift to powerboats can now also use PredictWind to help with routing that optimizes fuel efficiency. 

That kind of advancement in forecasting ­capabilities is in great part due to ­technology. What’s possible in terms of forecasting today is far different—and much more detailed—than when Bilger founded PredictWind 14 years ago. 

It’s a timespan that might as well be an eon when it comes to technological advancements. When PredictWind was created, the Blackberry still dominated the handheld marketplace. The iPad was brand-new. So was Instagram. Forget about today’s 4K screens; manufacturers were still trying to get people to understand the difference that a 3D screen could make when watching hot new movies like Avatar. Uber was just one year old. Lyft didn’t even exist.  

It was also in 2010 that Google started to personalize users’ search results. Machine learning began to analyze and predict all kinds of things, as wide-ranging as voter behavior and power-grid spikes. As CNN reported: “In 2010, artificial intelligence was more likely to pop up in dystopian science-fiction movies than in everyday life. And it certainly wasn’t something people worried might take over their jobs in the near future.”

Oh, how times have changed—in some ways, for the better. PredictWind is embracing AI to create products that help with weather forecasting in ways that seemed unimaginable until recently. 

Just one example is the company’s newest service, PredictCurrent, which Bilger says is a world first. 

“This is very, very simple,” he explains. “You put your location in. You say, ‘This is the current I want to know about.’ And then, boom, you get a graph. We give you windspeed and wind direction as well, and you get current speed and direction, and we give you a map, so you can actually see, hour by hour, how the current is changing over the whole area. It’s amazing to see that sort of detail on your iPad or your laptop.”

PredictCurrent covers tidal currents for 90 percent of the world’s coastlines, he says. The level of detail and accuracy is best within 90 kilometers (about 55 miles) of the coast, but there is also information about currents as far as 600 kilometers (nearly 375 miles) offshore. 

“It’s amazing. You can see how the eddies and currents are changing,” Bilger says. “Compute power for the whole world is enormous. The storage capacity is there. It’s a pretty cool thing.”

Another new product from PredictWind is called Over the Horizon AIS. Typically, Bilger says, a cruising boater can receive an AIS signal within just a few miles of an oncoming hazard such as a container ship. Over the Horizon AIS compiles data from the Automatic Identification System worldwide—“We pay a lot of money to get that information,” he says—and customizes it for use by individual cruising boats through the PredictWind DataHub smart device.

“This is very, very simple. You put your location in. You say, ‘This is the current I want to know about.’ And then, boom, you get a graph.”

“It can download the data every minute with a Starlink connection, and it shows vessels out to about 300 nautical miles,” Bilger says. “If you have a container ship barreling at you, maybe you have about eight minutes to take evasive action. We can give you something more like eight hours.”

The capabilities that Starlink offers are hugely important for some of these newer features, Bilger says, but he tempers his enthusiasm for the satellite service with a caution for offshore cruisers.

“We genuinely are huge fans of Starlink. It means that people can get weather forecasting offshore, and get it a lot easier,” he says—adding a big but. “If you go offshore, you need to have a satellite phone, an Iridium Go. If the power on your boat goes down, Starlink requires AC power. If you have a problem with your inverter, you have no communications. You really should have something with a battery backup on it.”

With that said, Bilger is gung-ho about all the information cruisers can now access on a regular basis thanks to Starlink, instead of having only occasional access to downloads. The amount of data coursing through PredictWind’s DataHub, coupled with artificial-­intelligence analysis, can create things such as polars for a specific boat. 

These “AI polars,” as Bilger calls them, represent the performance of a boat in different wind and wave conditions—information that can be critical for weather routing.  

“Normally, you select from a predefined list of polars for all the boat types, and then there’s a velocity-prediction program that shows the ideal speed of your boat in perfect conditions,” he says. “But that’s not reality. That’s not how you sail a boat. With the DataHub, it’s reporting your windspeed, your direction, and it averages that data. It sends it back to our service and compares it. Over time, it will learn how you sail the boat, and you’ll even have a different set of polars for daytime and nighttime.”

Today’s level of artificial intelligence is required to make these types of services possible, he adds. 

“Our service is doing billions of calculations for six of the top-level models, and boom, you get the comparison,” he says. “It’s way easier and very powerful to have. You really have no excuse to get caught out in bad weather.” 

Similar use of technology allowed PredictWind to launch a product last year that helps cruisers better understand the wave state that they are likely to encounter. 

“Generally, all weather services give you the primary wave state,” Bilger says. “We have modeled monohulls, catamarans, trimarans, sailboats and powerboats, and every possible wave state. We know exactly how the boat’s going to perform based on length, beam, displacement.”

This level of detail makes it easier for boaters to make better-informed choices, he says. 

“The real kicker is that we can display how much the boat’s going to roll, and whether it’s going to be dangerous to be on deck,” he says. “The other one is vertical acceleration. If you’re going over a big sea state, you’re going to be going up and down a lot, which affects seasickness. And we can talk about slamming. That’s a big one as well. When you do your weather route, you can see all of that during a trip. If you use a departure-planning tool, you can know which day to leave in terms of the degree of roll you’re going to experience. No one else is doing that, as far as we know.”

All of it adds up to more boaters feeling safer and more comfortable out on the water, Bilger says. 

“We get emails from ­families who say, ‘Thank you for keeping us safe all around the world,’” he says. “It’s ­really cool. It’s why we’re here.”

The post The Data Difference: Advances in Marine Weather Forecasting appeared first on Cruising World.

Looking for an explainer on using Starlink while sailing your boat around the world? How to combine it with offshore communications tools for safety at sea?

Here are all the details of our experience with our own Starlink installation, modifications, service plan options and other essential offshore comms, as well as a look at how Starlink is used in the wider cruising community today.

The first thing to know is that terms can be loaded. SpaceX has changed terminology for Starlink hardware and plans a number of times in the past few years. I’m using terms that are current in 2024.

Second, I’m not an expert at Starlink. I’m a cruiser on a Stevens 47, Totem, who is, like so many of us, astonished at the way our lives are changing around this new technology access. The work that my husband, Jamie, and I do relies upon this connectivity, and our safety tools are increasingly leveraging it as well. I welcome constructive feedback and comments from legit technology experts.

As I write this, Totem is swinging at anchor in turquoise water off Isla San Francisco in Mexico. We’re only able to linger in this Sea of Cortez idyll because of Starlink. We are miles from cell service.

The first time we came here, in 2009-10, we only needed connectivity for weather updates. We got them through our single-sideband radio and via Iridium GO! But today, streaming video calls for our coaching service demands high bandwidth. The Starlink on our stern arch allows us to linger instead of hustling to La Paz. It will be weather (unlikely) or provisions (eventually) or crew flying in (hard dates on those) that will bring us back instead.

Antenna selection

We purchased Starlink in November 2022. We chose a residential Gen 2 dish ($599 at the time; we paid about half in Mexico). This was the rectangle that succeeded the round Dishy McFlatface in 2021. The antenna was used at our apartment in Mexico for a year while completing Totem’s refit, and it is now on a sturdy stern arch mount next to the solar panels. It draws 2 to 3 amps per hour.

This same Gen 2 dish seems to be the most widely distributed among cruisers. In February 2024, it was replaced by a similar Gen 3 dish. The newer dish uses conventional connections on the cable from the antenna, has LAN ports directly on the dish, doesn’t have internal motors, and is supposed to have up to twice the data throughput (300-plus megabits per second). However, it can use 50 percent more power. Gen 3 also has a slightly larger footprint and a different base.

The other option is the Flat High Performance dish ($2,500), a larger rectangle and the only antenna officially approved for in-motion use. Yes, cruisers are using the Gen 2 and Gen 3 dishes in motion, technically out of terms of service, but apparently slow sailboats aren’t ringing the alarm bells at SpaceX. High-performance dishes have a wider view of the sky for better satellite acquisition (so, presumably, more stable connectivity) and use considerably more power, at least double that of our Gen 2 dish.

SpaceX has said that a Starlink Mini dish will be released in late 2024. This antenna is supposed to be much smaller, about the size of a tablet; be set up for DC electricity; and consume significantly less power. Make it half the price and it’ll be a cruiser winner.

Don’t have Starlink yet? Use our link to order, and we’ll each get a free month of service.

Installation on board

Choosing a location wasn’t too hard. There are two factors: Where is the clearest view of the sky? And, where is the dish most out of the way?

The obvious location on Totem was off the arch on our transom. While we were in Puerto Peñasco, the Cabrales Boatyard welder worked with my husband, Jamie, to create a mount on the port side of the arch.

A key customization we made was a stainless tube to frame the perimeter of Totem’s dish. The idea is that if a reefing line or the main sheet flails that way, it will not catch on the antenna and damage it, or send it flying.

The Gen 3 announcement came in time for us to shape the frame’s dimensions to accommodate it, in case we decide to upgrade.

Service plans and costs

Three plans are overwhelmingly used in the cruising community. Mobile-Regional, US accounts $150, for service when changing locations within a single continent; Mobile–Global, US accounts: $200, for consistent service when traveling between continents; and Mobile Priority, which is an add-on to keep service active when you’re away from official coverage areas (see Starlink’s coverage map). US accounts: $2/GB.

We ordered the dish in Mexico and shipped it to our apartment near the Cabrales Boatyard, which set us up with a Mexican service address for our account. Once we sailed south, we switched from the residential plan to a Mobile–Regional plan. When transiting the Sea of Cortez, we toggle on Mobile Priority data. We’ll do the same on the way to Hawaii.

Costs for each of these plans scale and vary by country. Pricing is based on the service address where our dish was originally sent; we pay about half the US rate for our Mobile-Regional plan. It’s not all cheaper, though: Mobile Priority data costs more on our Mexican account, and a Mobile-Global plan would run approximately $70 more than US customers pay monthly.

There are websites dedicated to tracking the range in service plan costs by country. Our data consumption when offshore, so far, has averaged around 6 GB per day on Totem. At nearly $3 per GB on our Mexican plan, it adds up, but it’s a bargain compared to the alternatives for high-bandwidth internet offshore.

Crossing an ocean with Starlink

There are the official terms, and then there are the real-life practices.

Officially, when moving between continent-based regions, Starlink expects an account to be on a Mobile–Global service plan. Offshore and outside of service areas, Mobile Priority data must be toggled on. For example, a cruiser starting in Sicily (European region) who sails to the Caribbean (North America), then stops in Colombia (South America) on the way to the Panama Canal, and transits from there to French Polynesia (Oceania) in the spring would be in at least four (or five, if they were in Africa) regions.

In practice, cruisers have used Mobile-Regional plans without service interruption while transiting regions, such as sailing from Gibraltar to St Lucia, or from Panama to the Marquesas. Mobile Priority does need to be switched on.

Officially, if you’re using Mobile-Regional in a new country for more than two months, you’re supposed to change your service address to the new country, or return to the country where your service address is located.

In practice, there is no enforcement of this country requirement unless regions are changed as well. Many cruisers find ways to optimize their service plans based on location without repercussions. For example, cruisers sailing from the Americas to French Polynesia generally choose among three options after arriving: They continue with Mobile-Regional with Mobile Priority data on, or they switch to Mobile-Global, or they sell the hardware to themselves and associate it with a new account in the region. This hack requires reassigning the hardware to the new account, and then closing the old account.

No matter how they set up Starlink, some cruisers limit the power draw and data cost by turning it on once or twice a day offshore.

Modifications to consider

Three modifications help our Starlink work better on board Totem.

First, we converted the AC powered dish to 12-volt DC. Why? To reduce power consumed overall.

Here, we needed two aftermarket components: a 150W GigE Passive PoE Injector ($65) and 12-to48-volt DC Step Up Converter ($39). Connect the cable from the dish to the PoE, which is connected to the step-up converter. Gen 3 dishes have a standard RJ45 connection at the end of the cable; Gen 2 users will need to convert it. That’s the next step. Remember to add a fuse block.

Second, we replaced the Starlink router. Why? To add power efficiency and access more features.

The ethernet cord coming out of the Gen 2 dish has a proprietary connection. That’s annoying when you want to use a different router. We converted ours through this rectangular Dishy cable adapter to RJ45 ($30), then used Totem’s existing MikroTik router ($75). We’re running PredictWind Data Hub ($299) in this mix. Make those connections (network cable on one side of the PoE box, power on the other), and then it works once the 12-volt power is on.

Third, we disabled internal motors. Why? Motors increase electricity use and reduce connection stability on a moving boat, including when swinging at anchor.

SpaceX cottoned onto this, I guess, since Gen 3 dishes don’t have motors. We’d encourage Gen 2 owners to disable theirs: it might feel scary to drill a hole in your antenna, but the performance is more stable, and you’ll save power.

The trickiest bit took a couple of tries to make the dish go flat. Jamie marked the spot, then drilled a hole with a 5/8-inch bit. After sucking out plastic debris, he used a pair of longish, stiff tweezers to pull out the wire connections to disable the motors.

How-to steps for this process are easy to find online. We initially covered the hole with some electrical tape, and later used silicone sealant on it for a longer-term solution.

Integrating to Iridium Exec

Like a growing number of cruisers, Jamie and I rely on connectivity for income. We also aspire to spend time in remote locations again soon. But counting on Starlink working 100 percent of the time is too risky.

Iridium Exec is the obvious piece of gear for reliable remote connectivity. The Exec and Starlink are integrated through our PredictWind Data Hub, with Starlink as our primary internet source and with Iridium on standby.

Embarking on offshore passages without reliable backup communication feels dubious at best. For folks who have lower data needs: If texts are enough, an InReach is another option for that backup. It can’t download weather GRIBs, so isn’t a great option if you go farther for longer and end up relying upon it.

Change is the constant

It seems that as soon as cruisers get used to one set of norms with Starlink, things change. Terms of service continue to be inconsistently enforced, which means anyone using Starlink outside of those terms are carrying some risk.

This week, Starlink emailed a reminder to some users that Mobile plans are intended for temporary travel and transit, not permanent use in a country different from the service address on the account. This email reminded users that terms of service are contingent upon regulatory approvals by the country in which the dish is used, and stated that connections could be cut off on April 30.

This notice appears to be aimed at a single country in Africa that does not have regulatory approval, with the helpful directions, “Should you wish to advocate for Starlink to be approved…” Recipients included plenty of South Pacific cruisers (French Polynesia is not yet “available” on the Starlink map) who were shaking in their sea boots. We get it. We depend on Starlink now, too.

More on Starlink aboard

For more resources on using Starlink on board, check our post about Starlink for Cruisers from November 2022. The resources we detailed are still the go-to references.

Coming up from the Sailing Totem crew

We’re giving two American Sailing Association seminars in the next few weeks. On April 25, we’re presenting proactive steps for safety on board. May 7, on the cusp of our intended passage to Hawaii, we’ll discuss passage preparation. For $10 off (more than 25%) use TOTEM10 in the checkout. Register here for safety at sea. The registration for passage planning is here.

On April 28, Totem Talks will answer the important question: Do cruisers poop in the ocean? A no-holds-barred conversation about heads, holding tanks and dealing with our, um, output. Get the poop here.If you’re in our coaching community, you could also join this weekend’s OpenCPN workshop. Want to know more? You can learn about working with us, or get in touch.

The post Welcome Aboard, Starlink appeared first on Cruising World.

Thanks to modern advances in boatbuilding, onboard systems and technology, the sport of cruising is poised for some exciting times ahead.
Read More: Changing the Game | Generators Not Included

Cruising World’s 2023 Import Boat of the Year, the Hallberg-Rassy 400, is a perfect example of what I think will be a trend for powerboats and sailboats as we look ahead: fully equipped cruising boats without an onboard AC generator to run traditionally high-current-demand electrical equipment. 

The forces driving this trend are both economic and technical. On the economic side, one of the biggest problems that boatbuilders have been facing since the start of the pandemic in 2020 is supply-chain backups. Truth be told, acquiring generators became nearly impossible. Learning how to build boats without them became as much a necessity as a desire. 

On the technical side, meanwhile, several developments gave these boatbuilders options that quite simply haven’t existed in the past. There not only was a problem, but there also were potential solutions—and builders began to embrace them in ways that we’re now seeing coming to market with smart benefits for sailors.

Most important, from a technical standpoint, is that lithium-battery technology is now coming of age. With leading companies such as Brunswick Corp. (parent of Bayliner, Boston Whaler, Sea Ray and other boatbuilders) and its newly formed Navico Group introducing Fathom e-Power late last year, targeting a no-generator approach for powerboats, we can expect this trend to take off on new sailboats. We also now have an American Boat and Yacht Council standard in place (ABYC E-13) to address the details of proper lithium-ion battery installation, so I’m quite comfortable with this technology being on board, as long as the standard is followed. 

The Hallberg-Rassy 400 followed the standard and utilized a pair of Mastervolt lithium-ion batteries as the heart of its system. The ability to deeply discharge these batteries without harm, and their ability to be recharged very quickly, are several of the keys to this no-generator concept.

Also key from a technical standpoint is the evolution of onboard electrical systems. We now have LED lighting and modern refrigeration systems that use a fraction of the electrical power that older equipment consumed. The Hallberg-Rassy 400 had a refrigerator and freezer that ran on battery power when offshore. At the dock, the Mastervolt inverter charger took over to recharge the batteries that supply the power. 

This particular Hallberg-Rassy 400 is based in the Chesapeake Bay area, so it also needed air conditioning to handle sweltering summer getaways. It had not one but two units. One was rated at 6,000 Btu, and the other at 12,000 Btu. These ran on 120-volt AC power. With two units available, the owner could use the smaller one to cool the sleeping quarters at night, and the larger one for the saloon during the day. This approach saves energy, so the Mastervolt inverter at 3,000 watts could handle the power needs, again with the two 400-amp-hour lithium batteries.

Additional equipment besides the usual selection of navigation and communication devices are a bow and stern thruster, as well as electric winches. This gear is powered by an AGM battery series that’s connected to provide 24-volt service. Most lithium batteries cannot deliver the instant high amperage needed to drive electric motors; the batteries are engineered to deliver steady current over time, as opposed to a sudden high demand required by engine cranking motors, electric winches, and thruster motors. On this boat, the bow and stern thrusters were 24-volt DC, and the engine-cranking motor was 12-volt. All were AGM-type batteries. To deal with this combined voltage system, the boat was equipped with an increasingly popular device known simply as a power converter, which is essentially a step-up (or a step-down, in some cases) transformer. I’m seeing this approach more and more on new boats as 24-volt equipment—and, in some cases, 48-volt equipment—becomes more available.

The Hallberg-Rassy also had a small solar-panel array to add regenerative power back to the lithium batteries. These solar panels were led through a maximum power point tracking voltage regulation system, which offers about a 30 percent better charge utilization compared with a pulse width modulation option, which is beginning to fall into the obsolete category among solar charging systems.

Finally, this boat was equipped with a 60 hp Volvo Penta saildrive that had two 130-amp-rated alternators. With 260 amps of recharge power available here, the owner of the Hallberg says, it takes approximately 90 minutes to two hours of engine run time at 1,500 rpm to get from a 25 percent state of charge to an 80 percent state of charge. 

So, while the Hallberg-Rassy 400 did not totally eliminate fossil-fuel consumption, it did eliminate at least one diesel-fuel consumer, and reduced routine engine maintenance down to one engine instead of two. Additionally, the lack of a generator allowed for improved service access to other systems. Generators, after all, take up a lot of space on a fully equipped monohull sailboat.

We’re at an interesting point in history when it comes to the ways that cruising sailboats get equipped. Innovation is driving changes that are only going to get better and more prevalent.

The post Generators Not Included appeared first on Cruising World.

Thanks to modern advances in boatbuilding, onboard systems and technology, the sport of cruising is poised for some exciting times ahead.
Read More: Changing the Game | Generators Not Included

“Where are you?” my friend asks, peering at me through the video call. In the picture-in-picture, I can see myself and the view out the window behind me. Our Fountaine Pajot 44, Starry Horizons, is rolling, with the swells of the Atlantic Ocean picking the catamaran up and sliding it down. Intermittent bursts of sunlight constantly cause my camera to adjust the exposure. 

I glance at the chart plotter, wondering how to describe my location and the technology I’m using in a way that portrays just how amazing it is.

While in Rhode Island for the summer, we picked up the latest accessory riding the crowd of sailboats down to the Caribbean this year. Its name is Dishy McFlatface, and it’s the hottest topic in offshore communications since, well, ever.

Most cruisers are familiar with the two predominant satellite companies: KVH and Iridium. KVH claims a data rate of 6 Mbps, which is close to 3G cellular speed, but the company also has costs that are prohibitive for the average cruiser—tens of thousands of dollars for the equipment, and thousands more every month for high-speed internet. Iridium’s Go service allows unlimited data for a lower price, but download speed is at best 2.4 Kbps, and the selection of apps and features is small. Neither option is viable for cruisers like me who want to work remotely, share photos or stream entertainment.

Enter Starlink. Dishy McFlatface is the 19-by-12-inch dish for its residential satellite internet service. With a network of more than 3,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit, Starlink is bringing high-speed internet all over the world.

Cruisers have two options: residential service with portability, and the RV plan. Upfront costs for each are $599, with a monthly fee of $135. When I performed a speed test in the Atlantic Ocean, the results were astounding: 149 Mbps.

This kind of service simply wasn’t an option for us eight years ago, when my husband and I took a sabbatical to sail around the world. There were months of spotty, expensive cellular service in beautiful, exotic destinations. When we finished our circumnavigation, our priorities changed. We turned our boat into a home office where my husband and I both work and cruise full time. This past season in the Bahamas, I was balancing being disconnected in the out islands with bouncing my novel between editors. It was a disappointment to have to coordinate a half-day’s sail to have enough juice to send a small text document and then wait to get it back.

This year, we plan to spend even more time away from busy areas. We want to visit less-crowded islands, have few neighbors, and lose all cellphone service. Starlink seems to be a good choice for us to blend our desire for remote locations with a need to stay connected.

The service is mostly working. In congested areas, video calls freeze. At sea, we sometimes have outages and need to restart the router. We won’t be ditching our Iridium Go or backup offshore communication systems yet; we want to be able to place a video call to show our rigger the problem we are having, and in an emergency, we don’t yet trust Starlink to save the day.

There’s also the matter of installation. The Starlink dish self-aligns with an electric motor, so it must be free to move. Dishy also comes with a 75-foot cable and a four-legged base that allows the dish to be set on a flat surface. It’s a starting point, but there are better options for boats, which often have obstructions, curved decks, and limited access to power.

In anchorages now, I can look to either side and spot a few of Dishy’s clones hanging out on various locations on their host boats. Online forums are filled with pictures of how to mount the dish. We have opted to keep it mobile for now, to try to get the best view of the satellites when we swing around at anchor. We found a robust, marine-grade stainless rail mount that we can easily move from one location to another, and we kept the standard base in case we want to put the dish on a flat surface.

We’ve heard from fellow cruisers all over the world who love their Dishy. But Starlink is still in the early stages, and new hardware and features are constantly coming out or rumored in forums. There are multiple plans such as a maritime service (similar to KVH in pricing but at a much higher speed) and RV service (with an option for in-motion hardware), in addition to the standard residential. There are rumors of add-ons for transcontinental service and ocean data. 

There are also concerns about Starlink enforcing its policies. The RV plan states that using the service for more than two months outside your home country will require you to move your account to that country or get a new dish. The residential with portability plan threatens “performance degradation” when used in a secondary location for an extended period of time. 

There are cruisers buying dishes on one continent and moving to another with no effect on service, even though the contract says that service is restricted to one continent. The terms and conditions also state that use of a Starlink kit (that’s the antenna, router and so forth) is not approved for in-motion service on an in-motion vehicle, and might result in your account being terminated.

Reports are minimal of Starlink enforcing these terms, but it might be only a matter of time, with a future flood of secondhand dishes hitting the market.

Still, to me, it feels incredible to have high-speed internet 500 miles from shore. Most people don’t know the struggle of spending hours trying to troubleshoot a tricky antenna or the agony of someone sending you a “big mail,” but we cruisers do. For us, Starlink feels like a game-changer.

The post The Days of Dishy McFlatface Have Arrived appeared first on Cruising World.

One of the perks of being a kid whose father worked in the marine-electronics business was early access to technology. For my generation, long before the modern age of hybrid propulsion systems, solar arrays (that actually work) and Starlink, the term “state of the art” referred to things such as night-vision binoculars, mainstream autopilot and handheld GPS.   

I often reflect on a particular weekend cruise from my family’s home port of Niantic, Connecticut, to Watch Hill, Rhode Island. We were anchored off Fishers Island for the first night’s stopover, and my dad had brought along a manufacturer’s demo pair of night-vision binoculars for us to play with. The brand was ITT Industries Night Vision, they were mustard-yellow, and they smelled like something out of a hospital surgical unit. Even still, to be able to spy on boats, birds and buoys bobbing around in the pitch-black darkness from the cockpit of our Hunter 31 made me feel like I’d just been gifted a superpower—or, at the very least, like I was a Navy SEAL in training.

The next morning, we awoke to dense fog blanketing much of Fishers Island Sound, making navigation potentially dangerous over our 9-nautical-mile hop to Watch Hill. We motored, with my mom keeping a forward watch from the bow pulpit for lobster-trap buoys and other traffic. My dad and I seized that opportunity to put Ragtime’s other nifty new gadget, a GPS system, to task. 

In those days, GPS had only just started to become ­mainstream on pleasure craft. On that day, the navigation unit was a godsend, guiding us through the pea soup and pinning us within 50 feet of the first channel marker into Watch Hill. 

Much has changed in the marine sector since those pioneering early days of night vision and GPS for all. When we talk about innovation today, we use words such as autonomy, sustainability, foiling, electrification and energy management. 

Fast-forward to an unexpected opportunity I had in February while sailing in the Caribbean Multihull Challenge, which is a four-day rally for multihull enthusiasts that involves island-­hopping around St. Maarten/Saint-Martin and St. Barts. At a time of year when the trade winds typically blow a consistent 25 knots, we experienced a rare pocket of dead air with a high-­pressure system that had settled over the Leeward Islands. Our boat was the new 59-foot Fountaine Pajot TWe6 Smart Electric Yacht Aurora, a trendsetting spinoff of the traditional FP Samana 59, which had been ordered by the ocean-conservancy-minded TradeWinds Experience charter company. 

Aurora, whose power generation comes from hydro, solar and wind, is the world’s first production cruising catamaran with 100 percent electric propulsion that uses hydrogen as an energy source. In the absence of wind, the eco-friendly design would effectively allow us to run in silence on electric propulsion all the way to St. Barts with zero emissions. Totally cool.  

Innovation is the lifeblood of progress, and nowhere is this more evident than in our boating industry. With the growing emphasis on sustainability and responsible stewardship of our oceans, innovation has taken on a new urgency and importance. For sailors and cruisers, innovation is not just a means to an end, but it’s also an integral part of the experience itself, whether it’s harnessing the power of the wind more efficiently or designing more-comfortable and luxurious onboard amenities. 

It is in this spirit of exploration and discovery that we recently introduced Next Marine, a groundbreaking initiative of the Firecrown Marine Group dedicated to following the cutting-edge trends in our industry, specializing in innovation, sustainability and the future of boating.

In our inaugural Next Marine column, we embark on this new journey to explore the latest innovations shaping the future of sailing and cruising, starting with TradeWinds’ eco-conscious initiative and the Fountaine Pajot 59 Smart Electric. But innovation in the boating industry is not just about technological breakthroughs; it is also about fostering a culture of creativity and collaboration. Through Next Marine, we also will shine a spotlight on the visionaries and trailblazers who are driving innovation forward. 

As we set sail on this exciting new department, we invite you to join us in celebrating the spirit of innovation. It’s not just about building better boats or cooler toys; it’s about building a better future for our oceans and the generations to come.

Follow me on Instagram @andrewtparkinson 

The post Charting a New Course appeared first on Cruising World.

When I was asked by Cruising World to report on this year’s International Multihull Show, held at La Grande Motte, France, I was struck by the irony of our parallel paths once again crossing, and I jumped at the opportunity. Having a reason to return to the town where my last boat, Aventura Zero, a bespoke version of the Outremer 45, was built.

More than 70 multihulls were on display in the attractive, Mediterranean port, from a Tricat 30 to a GP70 catamaran. All the major players were there, providing a modern glimpse at how multihulls have evolved over the years. We know that their popularity among cruising sailors has been steadily increasing, as shown by recent figures I gathered from Cape Town, a key transit point on the world cruising circuit. Among the 169 sailing boats that passed through in 2023, 56 (or 33 percent) were catamarans. A similar increase was reported in the ARC transatlantic rally in 2023 where, among the fleet of 252 boats, 71 (28 percent) were catamarans.

My first boat should have been a catamaran, which I believed would have been best suited for the voyage I was planning with Gwenda and our two young children, Doina and Ivan. In the early ’70s, Britain was the world leader in catamaran construction, and the Prout Snowgoose 35 would have been my choice. The problem was that we only had enough money to buy the bare hulls, as I was planning to handle the rest myself. When I approached the builders, they firmly refused, so I ended up with a 36-foot Trintella GRP hull designed by the Dutch naval architect Van de Stadt and built by Tyler Boat Co. near London. Working every free minute away from my job as a BBC radio reporter, I managed to finish fitting out the ketch-rigged hull in just over one year. The first Aventura was launched in July 1974.

Remembering those days of chasing that elusive Snowgoose, I was pleased to see that, among the boats on display at the show, there were four catamarans of a similar size: the Aventura 37, the Excess 11, the Comar-Cat 37 and the Bali Catsmart. These represented the smallest cruising catamarans at the show. I marvelled at how, even in a relatively small LOA, the designers of each of these cats managed to fit both a spacious living area and a functional cockpit, as well as three or four separate cabins. After visiting their larger peers, I was just as surprised by their prices ($360,000 for the Aventura 37, $380,000 for the Bali Catsmart, $400,000 for the Comar-Cat 37, and $480,000 for the Excess 11). In the context of a new-boat show where the majority of boats cost north of $1 million, price is relative—but is it affordable?

In recent years, the price of boats has been steadily increasing, well above the rate of inflation. The cost of materials and labor obviously play a part in this, but I suspect that high demand is also a determining factor. For comparison, I looked back at the cost of a similar boat 50 years ago, when a boat of that size would have cost $30,000 and the average annual salary in the US was $12,000 (whereas it is currently $64,000). In 1974, a similar boat would have cost the equivalent of 2.5 years of earnings, whereas now it is more than five years.

Earlier this year, I concluded a survey on the global movement of cruising boats. With cruising restrictions having been lifted post-pandemic, figures obtained from various transit points around the world showed a return to the prior numbers. At the show, builders reported unprecedented high demand, with a growing number of sailors planning voyages in the near future. Regretfully, I am no longer in that situation, but, based on my own experience, I spent my remaining time at the show determining which boats I might consider today if I was in fact planning another world voyage.

As my requirements have not changed since I prepared Aventura Zero for a world voyage, I would still be keen to do it on a boat with zero emissions, or at least one that could be made as eco-friendly as possible. Several builders were offering the option of electric propulsion, but only Outremer’s 4.zero model could be described as a fully electric boat. All others were employing a variation with a hybrid setup. Four of the boats were catamarans: the ORC 57, the Fountaine-Pajot Aura 51, the Windelo 54 and the HH 44. Two were trimarans: the Neel 34 and the Neel 37. Their builders explained that a fully electric solution was not yet sustainable, so they were addressing this aspect at least halfway for now. The consensus is that it is better to have a hybrid system, reducing carbon emissions by 50 percent or more, than to not address it at all.

For some companies, electrification is not yet on the table, and understandably so. One builder, for instance, noting that its primary customers are either charter operators or individuals investing in charter boats, acknowledged that its hesitation in exploring electric is related to quality control. The fact is, maintaining boats in perfect working order throughout a charter season via a local workforce is much simpler on a standard diesel engine as opposed to a more complex electric setup. Not to mention having to pay an additional nearly 10 to 20 percent for an electrical hybrid system. (Outremer encountered a similar financial reaction from clients interested in the electric propulsion option pioneered by Aventura Zero, instead opting for a hybrid solution. These practical considerations were similarly expressed by representatives of several other leading manufacturers.

Among the various hybrid systems, the all-carbon-fiber HH44 catamaran featured the most ingenious solution, based on its EcoDrive parallel hybrid system. Besides the standard diesel-engine mode, the system operates in three electric modes. In generator mode, with the propeller shaft clutch disengaged, the turning shaft converts the two diesel engines into two 5 kW generators. In silent mode, the disengaged electric motors provide 10 kW of propulsion power per shaft. While sailing in hydro-generation mode, the free-spinning propellers turn the shafts, allowing the electric motors to generate electricity. In addition, the extended coachroof featured an impressive array of solar panels with a total capacity of 4.2 kW.

The ORC 57 (Ocean Racing Catamaran) was exhibited by Marsaudon Composites, which has a long history of high-performance racing catamarans and trimarans. Its system consists of two Bellmarine 20 kW electric motors, supplied by a battery bank of 1120 Ah, a genset and 5.8 kW solar panels. The ORC concept is based on three basic principles: performance, simplicity and lightness. All three were evident on this pure racing machine with a displacement of just under 12 tons. I was particularly impressed with a sensor at the base of the synthetic cap shroud, which activates an alarm when the tension exceeds critical mass, warning the crew to reduce sail.

A similar hybrid arrangement is at the heart of the new Windelo 54, another performance-cruising catamaran. According to the builder, its goal is to reduce the carbon footprint within the production process by 50 percent. By using natural basalt fiber and foam from recycled plastic bottles in its construction, that goal was achieved.

Environmental consciousness was also underscored by Thomas Gailly, director of Lagoon catamarans, who said: “With over 7,000 catamarans built in the last 40 years, our main focus is on the ecological aspect. We have replaced synthetic fibers in the hulls by using hemp and other natural materials. All of our boats are now built to ISO 14001 standard that sets out the requirements for an environmental management system. As a result, the carbon footprint is not only drastically reduced in the construction process, but also when the time comes to recycle the hulls at the end of their lives.”

The two Neel trimarans were equipped (not standard) with 25 kW electric motors on a saildrive fitted with a Gori folding propeller. Additional electricity was provided by a 28 kW genset. An enhanced system based on a Bellmarine electric motor is under development and will be an option in 2025, according to the builder.

While all the above examples involve some sort of hybrid system, Balance Catamarans has taken an entirely different approach, equipping its boats with high-output Integrel alternators. The two Yanmar 30 hp engines on the Balance 442 in the show were equipped as such.

“Thanks to the high-efficiency Integrel alternators, we no longer offer generators on our 442, 482 and 526 models,” said Balance President Phil Berman. “For those who don’t want a hybrid, the Integrel alternators are the greenest and most efficient method of charging 48-volt lithium banks. The next step is the Integrel E-Drive hybrid system, of which the first will be installed later this year.”

Fountaine-Pajot, who has been at the forefront of the movement to renewable sources of energy, has worked with the French company Alternative Energies in the development of hydrogeneration pods and energy storage systems. Its Aura 51 was the first to use the Smart Electric system consisting of a large array of solar panels delivering 2 kW to two battery banks of 32 kWh each. This is supplemented by up to 1.5 kW of electricity generated by the propellers’ reverse rotation when under sail. This efficient yet simple hybrid system is considered to be reliable enough to be offered in the charter option.

According to a Fountaine-Pajot representative, the brand aims to have 50 percent of its catamarans fully electric by 2025. By 2030, it envisions that 100 percent of their fleet will be entirely self-sufficient, with diesel engines completely phased out. If such ambitious objective is eventually echoed by more leading builders, the outlook for multihull boatbuilding indeed feels electric, and in more ways than one.

Visit cornellsailing.com for information on Jimmy Cornell and about his books.

The post Modern Multihulls: The Future’s Electric appeared first on Cruising World.

With its unmistakable aqua-and-­orange color scheme emanating from twin hulls, the Fountaine Pajot Samana 59 Aurora was easy to spot in the pack of competing rallyists at the 2024 Caribbean Multihull Challenge out of St. Maarten in February. Yet while the first-time participant managed to steer clear of any winners’ circles (sorry, Team Aurora), it certainly found itself a standout in perhaps the most important category of all: eco-conscious cruising. 

TradeWinds, whose experiences blend the best of the cruising life with protecting and preserving the environment, used this year’s CMC Rally as a shakedown cruise for the much-anticipated 59-foot TWe6 Smart Electric Yacht from Fountaine Pajot. The boat’s power generation comes from hydro, solar and wind. Designed and built in partnership with EODev, a specialist in industrial solutions using hydrogen, the Fountaine Pajot 59 Aurora is the world’s first production cruising catamaran with 100 percent electric ­propulsion that uses hydrogen as an energy source. This prototype, a Samana 59 Smart Electric X REXH2, is named after the electro-hydrogen generator that it carries.

The system is based on three operating modes. The first mode is fully electric. A battery of 60 kWh, powered by solar panels and hydraulic energy similar to that on board the Aura 51 Smart Electric, allows the boat to be autonomous at anchor and during several hours when sailing. 

The second mode integrates green hydrogen as a source of energy storage, allowing for hybrid electro-hydrogen operation. Hydrogen, under pressure, feeds a 70 kW fuel cell that supplies electricity to the electric motors. EODev says that this fuel-cell technology, in addition to addressing decarbonization, allows for an increased life span of the system equivalent to three times that of traditional diesel equipment. In use, the operation is similar to a hydrogen hybrid car, with recharging possibility at port via hydrogen terminals. This mode, coupled with solar panels and hydrogen generation, provides autonomy at anchor for several weeks, and five hours of motor navigation at a speed of 7 knots. 

The third mode is diesel ­hybrid. A small backup generator will take over during situations that require prolonged use of the engines, with no possibility of recharging with hydrogen. 

In standard use, with a ­laden displacement slightly more than the standard FP59 catamaran’s, Aurora is expected to be self-sufficient, with zero emissions for up to a week. There’s one caveat: access to hydrogen recharging. For the time being, no infrastructure exists in ports. 

However, TradeWinds and Dream Yacht Worldwide have ordered 10 Fountaine Pajot electric catamarans—so the future will in some way need to include marina recharging stations. Watch this space for more information.

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