FORWARD ENERGY

Hi Michael,

Sunny Ray and her crew are doing great.  We have almost 6000 miles on our GPS odometer and still perfect performance of the Electric Yacht motors!  Top speed under power is 7.5 knots in our 38ft Manta Catamaran with two blade Flex O Fold 15×10 props on shaft drives.  The previous fixed 3 blade props were great for regenerating power but we prefer the folding props which give much better sailing

performance.  When the sky is clear and the sun is hitting our solar array we can power at 2 knots without using the battery bank!  When the wind is light, true wind at 7 knots we can motor sail with 6 knots of boat speed only using 10 amps on each motor.  Our generator has only used 100 gallons of diesel fuel cruising for two years!  …

Right now we have a bunch of guests visiting us at St. John in the USVI.  Guests love the almost silent propulsion, no noticeable heat under the beds where the motors are, no diesel smell, etc.  We don’t run the generator to get underway and start sailing, and by the time we need the motors back on to pick up a mooring ball, the batteries are charged up by the solar array.

People say Sunny Ray is a magic boat.

Thank you for providing us with magic propulsion!

Cap’n Dano

S/V Sunny Ray

8000 miles later Mike,

I love the idea.  Many cruisers have saildrive failures and wonder why they put up with that high maintenance crap.  Your drawings look great.  If it can be installed by a “do-it yourself” type person… this could be huge.  How does it make a watertight seal in the saildrive well?  Looking at your drawings it appears that you intend on eliminating the saildrive doughnut seal and gasketing your new drive directly to the fiberglass rectangular hole.  There are some big benefits to this strategy.  No longer will there be a large well under the doughnut seal filled with sea water and oysters.  This removes considerable weight and other trouble… When pricing, consider what a cruiser would have to pay for a new saildrive from Volvo.  If a new Electric Yacht motor/drive combo is comparable in price to a new Volvo saildrive you will find buyers.

… After many years of correspondence and real offshore experience, Scott knows that I am a disciple.  Even skeptical diesel lovers are impressed with the system on Sunny Ray, and are jealous that I get to play, while they work on their engines.  I want you and the rest of the team at Electric Yacht to succeed.

Sunny Ray does not need any modification to her propulsion system at this time.  Her saildrives are gone, replaced with custom shaft drives I designed and installed, driven by unbelievably reliable Electric Yacht motors.  If Electric Yacht had the new saildrive systems available when I was replacing my Volvo saildrives, I would have used them.  I really like the idea.

Cheers and good luck,

Dan Bond

S/V Sunny Ray

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