The Lie We Believed About Sailing With An Electric Motor | ep 249 

We are also an electric boat, presently anchored in Spanish Wells, preparing for an Atlantic crossing, actually using mostly sails except for the last mile, entering the harbor. It is a mind-set that has served us well, wishing you all the best.

30 knot is s gail unpleasant but still only a gail. It don't become a storm before 41 knot. And that is heck more unpleasant😃. Keep up the good work 👍

I agree, sometimes, but the smell, noise, exhaust, soot of diesel ruins it for me, can also cause migraines. May have discovered since, but. 4:30, I use grey water, from shower (also used to wash boat, etc). Pump blasts through garden reticulation as chain retracts, feeds into a bath with bicarb soda & dishwashing liquid. Bicarb & vinegar if heavy clean required, use a spray bottle on what doesn't go in bath, rotate chain ~every 12 months. 7:00 WD40 to polish chrome post behind. Cleaning the bum is much easier with a suction handle like window installers use.

I agree with you that weather dictates our schedule. It is more so in the Bahamas from December to March. Have a backup plan and be flexible to minimize inconveniences .

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏Its been fun watching you grow with your boat!

Lie is. A little bit strong. You guys are new at this. I agree, an electric motor adds more complication to planning but if you stick with it you will agree with Uma in a year or so. Keep it up. Thank you for the video.

Guys, yall are doing great and looks like your all doing wonderful and having a great time. Safe passage and looking forward to many more videos from you. Happy Memorial Day!

Hi Tammy! I just found you a few months ago and have been catching up trying to watch in semi-chronological order so I get a good feel for your story, as it unfolded. My hubby and I are retired, and Im recovering from a fall where i shattered my left arm (2 surgeries to fix it) broke my rt shoulder and 4 fibs on the rt. Its bern almost a year, but I just dont bounce back like I used to. I hope you continue to make videos, and showcase family life where you are working toward a common goal in a healthy manner!!! I also love that your daughter who has a heart issue is treated like normal! One of my sons had a brain tumor removed at age nine. We were give terrible advise (ignored it) on his care, and he is now grown, working, married, and raising a family. If we had put him in a nursing home during his lengthy recovery (comatose and not expected to recover) he may not have recovered. Let your sweet girl do EVERYTHING possible, adapt, and work around the challenges, and continue on living and loving God and your family!!! 😍😍 Your new friend, Beth

Glad to see you making the escape. On to greater adventures. Uma are probably more prepared to take a bit of a battering; they don't have to think about family onboard, like you do.

To help alleviate your water intake problems, firstly take any elbows out of the hose run ( choke points) and secondly when you replace your through hull , fit the next size up.

Very good observation Tammy regarding the practical reality about sailing/cruising with electric propulsion. As with many things associated with this life on the sea, try to be prepared for the unexpected, whether that's weather or seagrass clogging your water intake or ?.

The underwater ski was something else enjoy your journey to the Bahamas fair wind and calm seas 😊😊

Great episode! Stay safe Spoondrifter crew! Keep rolling along!! 👍👍

Awesome video. I can’t wait to see the crossing.

I use an 8" drywall puddy spreader to shave the bottom to not rub the paint off. Any place you find the clear thin coat of slime, work around it because it is a natural growth defense like on a fish. Put a slotted cover over the intake hole to keep the grass and fish out. Have FUN!

Success, yeah! Good diagnosis on the no water flow problem. You guys rock!

My first time here and I enjoyed it very much. I'll be here for a while now. I love the family interaction. Be safe always 💞 from the Philippines.

I want one! Can't wait for next week!

Great job on the fix!

I'm so proud of you guys

Well done guys. I think you have got it. Girls doing good and starting to enjoy the activities. Confidence growing. water getting more interesting. I think you have a future.

Looks like fun. Good job Dan. Time to install an adjustable audible temp alarm on the generator. Mine came with a light. That was too easy to miss. I purchased it at West Marine. I mounted the alarm at the helm. Now I have a light and a very annoying alarm. (Bread bag got sucked up while in the Delta ^*($&*&$&!!!) Thanks 4 sharing 🙂 Cheers

Awesome video guys. I had the exact same thing happen with my genny in the same place.

So exciting to finally leave the country!! That scooter looks pretty awesome!!!!! We need one of those. I tried the backwards summer-salt into the dinghy also. I thought I nailed it 🏆 but everyone had a good laugh at my expense. 🤷‍♂️ Corey

Compressed air (or water) into the inside of the seacock does wonders for this, wash-down hose/pump is invaluable.

Safe travels to the Bahamas, and have a Great Time there. I maybe somewhere around there next year, god willing. Best Wishes. Bob in Wales. 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿⛵️🌟🌟🌟

That wasn't white smoke coming out of the generator. It was steam. Good thing you caught it.

Thanks for the link on the scooter. Il prob get one for xmas

Everybody wants to tell you how you should do things…In my humble opinion, you are doing pretty well. It’s your boat..you do you! Electric motor and all. Videos are great by the way.

I hope you all have a safe passage to the Bahamas.I read your reply about not having a motor or motor boat.About watching the weather and just closing the hatches and everything we be fine.When you are in open water with no protection and a powerful thunderstorm hits you with no motor you might reconsider.If you haven’t experienced that yet you will eventually,It’s the most scary thing that you can imagine!!That electric motor is not going to help in a storm,it’s not enough power to control your big boat when you really need it.What if your anchor drags in a storm?You can’t run your motor to help your anchor not drag.Please be careful 🥴

Very funny tod getting into the boat 🚤 😂🎉❤

I got a coat hanger, cut it, and ramped it down the seacock. That’s not enough water. You have ell grass down there.

I've done the backwards flip into the dingy. Looks funny but works. I always get laughs when people see me do it. I'm not sure why, lol.

I just found you guys today and I like you and your family a lot! I've been off the water for far too long. It's time to fix that :)

Safe travels withmany adventures.

Todd I just watched the video with the water problem . I am a retired commercial fisherman and we don’t use basket strainer, we exterior screen strainers made by Greco. Pick the screen size that matches your in hull strainer size. You also might want to replace the galvanize fittings on your bronze thru hulls. Defender sells Greco. Good luck and happy sailing

Really glad to see you guys out and having fun! I have an anchor question...if you were us and have a 35lb CQR w/40' chain for normal anchoring but want to replace our other anchor for a bigger more serious one for high winds, what do we want to buy? Were a little lighter than you guys but still want something a little overkill. Thx in advance

There are several pleasant oceans & seas to traverse - would you prefer the Pacific Islands; Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean?

4 of 10 C'Mon Man would be proud of you.

Thanks for the video. I too have an electric motor on a 45' ketch. Regarding being in a hurry I wanted to comment on your comments. Running from weather? Yes, important. Where we live here in the SF Bay we get 30knots regularly. I don't prefer to sail in the 30 knots but it isn't something to run from per se. If I have to run every time it got windy here I'd be running all the time. The other thought I had, and I don't know how you guys are setup although I believe it is similar to me, by running the genny I get 4.2 knots not touching my deep battery bank. So I can motor or motor sail and get reasonably good speeds, similar to or identical to a diesel motor. But I agree with your underlying point that acting like a leaf in the wind without a care in the world or the concern of a schedule is not realistic. My speed boat friends don't check tides, currents or weather - they check when the bars open and close. On the other end of the spectrum engineless sailors live by wind and tide and weather and carry their own bar.

Instead of a scotch bright pad. Try taking a piece of old carpet and invert it inside out so you have the carpet bottom on the outside, makes a great mitt just slightly bigger than your hand. Works best for me when I leave the finger end open, by just sewing the two nice sides of the carpet together, cause the carpet end works as a soft scrapper for a while till, the carpet gets soft.

Big Strainers are essential to any of your water cooled motors! And yes your water flow is impeded for sure!

If you get a duplex strainer you can run on one side and clean the other. So you always have water flow.

It's hurricane season so expect continued storms.

When you were thinking of becoming nomadic (RV or Boat life), did you make a plan on how you can make a living, a timeline, your future plans for possibly transitioning back to a traditional life, etc? I thought this life was a non starter with my wife until yesterday, when I made a crack about how moving aboard would solve a problem she was dealing with, and she said, "I have never seen a plan from you on how to do "those things"."

Look up an Aussie cost effective maintenance solution it’s a decarboniser you add to diesel we had a gen that smoked so bad it covered the boat and that was over 70 ‘, we used it and it causes enhanced combustion temps I think that removes carbon it was clear after a tank as a side advantage it converts growth in tank to inert that goes thru combustion process and is eliminated without mechanical effort. Also it extends efficacy of diesel about 10% , tried other solutions but it seems that running a gen at under its rated load is just going to cause carbon , if you want to strip down the engine and mechanically remove carbon then dive right in or try this , and continue to under run your gen , it just won’t carbon up ,

Can some kind of garbage disposal cross with a blender to take care of the sea grass and other things?

It's not a lie @sailinguma is never in a hurry they plan their trips different or maybe even better than you guys 🤷🏾‍♀️

Sailing Uma also said to don’t buy a couch but they have family’s that have children so they need seating, so people with children should not listen to that because they need a place for their children to sit. And yes you either have to move fast get ahead of the storm are sit their and wait til the storm is over. Be safe out there.

I just finished my largest solar project .4 MEgawatts. ( 1 single business). I own zero

Welcome to boat life... it is NEVER ever simple. You must have heard the age old refrain... "Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic locations." Well, it's "an age old refrain" because it's true. =] The thing is... do you enjoy the benefits, the "exotic locations" enough to make the never ending maintenance and repairs worth it to you? That's the rub... is it worth it. I know it is for us, I grew up on the bay and have been messing about and working on boats my whole life. But it is often a real shock for those who only know life on land. And yea... "weather" is now your god (small "g" but still...) and the weather cares naught for man's "schedules", and never has. Again, welcome to boat life. =\ So, Good on ya! Keep at it, and keep your eyes on the prize... A different life than the "norm", a life lived for adventure. Ya'll know about that after all those years spent "cruising" on land. =] CJ&JD =/|)=

You need a motor to go as fast the boat can go.always overpower.

A channel I won't mention got caught in a storm in the Atlantic. Their electric motor was too weak to push them against the wind current and waves once they wanted enter a harbor. They had to have a rescue boat come out and tow them in.

I run, and maintain two diesel engines for propulsion on my cat. They require more maintenance than electric, and they make the boat smell of diesel, however, like you said when you need to get somewhere, or just need to get out of a bad situation I believe they are the best option. In most cases electric should be sufficient, but there may come a time when constant power will be required to avoid being driven by current or weather to an unfavorable location. Stay safe out there.

Been thinking about converting my “new to me” old boat to electric. My big hiccup is having to motor the boat for hours / days to get out of the way of major storms. I have a generator on board, but realistically, how long can you “motor”?

you need a motor big enough to push at hull speed , electric or diesel or both

On my Manafold, I have the Fresh water pressure hooked up too it, thus at anytime I can backwash the salt water intake , so that too also lay up my engine every time on fresh water, also have another line too the bilge so that you can use your generator too pump out the bilge, I also do not have a generator just my 28 hp diesel Volvo, by the way it has a hand crank, which I have used. When all my batteries were dead, in a morning learned that a hurricane was coming, in my 7200 nm of travel up and down the North East Coast in 12 years of sailing my Beneteau Oceanis 350 1989 , None of the Electronics Available back when I got Starlight, so in 1995, installed an 8D and 4D , being a pilot , I knew how to Dead Reckoning, and also a sextant, which you need, I also used Paper charts, so, Yes, understand the new navigation systems but have also seen the devastation of a Lighting Strike on my friends SeaRay. My Fuel tank is only 21 gallons and in the 20 years have only used 150 gallons and only 760 hours. Mainly generator with a police alternator I installed with 110 gallons of water and an engine coolant powered water heater, which turned out to be our main reason we could only last 4 days at a time on the hook. Way too expensive for a watermaker, we only sailed her in the summer, she was our summer home, took my sons from boys too men, I am doing a refit on her now. However, in my years of sailing, I can tell you at anchor with Nor Easter’s, even though I did not drag, I still started my Engine and ran it for 6 hours straight at 1725, she likes that RPM at Anchor through the height of the storm creating hot water, but more having her running if I needed her, she only burned .5 a Gallon per hour at that RPM and 14 hp load from the over sized 125amp alternator. Often on the great Gunk holes we would love too anchor in there was sea grass that would clog up the intake having the fresh water back wash was a life savor, also laying up the heat exchanger with fresh water every time I used the engine left the heat exchanger with no Growth and, the Exhaust elbow not all rusted up. Get a Crash pump, get a DC powered Crash pump. Anything can put a hole in your Boat, in the Ocean that you can hit. Have a good water proof tarp. You can put it underside of the boat again too limit the water coming in. More fenders and big ones, at anchoring many people drag during storms the can hit you etc. More spring lines, save your running rigging. More blocks, spares , chandeliers are few and expensive in the Caribbean, the boat is constantly breaking something. Get a 5 min Spare air , comes with a tank and regulator all in one. Leave it with your easy too grab, that and a good bar knife Marine issue, nets , pots other things can grab a hold of your boat make very dangerous times, if you cannot quickly cut them away, you will not be able too hold your breath. God Bless, Fair winds.

So, the Northern East Coast port you are staying at is ... Panama? I have been through the canal a few times. When I was there, they were using American dollars, but calling them Balboas. The change was very similar to American money as well, but had different faces.

great ,do you have both electric and diesel motor ? is it posible to have 2 mottors on sailing boat ?im soon getting my first sailing boat so im kinda a noob

I think Uma have a larger solar array, and use that as their primary energy source. Sounds like you’re using a generator as a primary energy source. Given all the small engine issues I’ve had over the years, that sounds like a headache.

It's the diesel engine that gave you issues, not the electric.

Let’s start a RU-vid “docu-fib” that sea grass contains an intoxicating effect when consumed. I predict a worldwide massive reduction of sea grass.

Safety rope sighting...woo hoo!!

If I remember, you are not using lithium batteries for your motor. If this is true, you will never get to the potential of your QT30. We have 540Ah of lithium on our boat and we have seen some great performance numbers. Admittedly the cost was BOING!

nothing is better than old good diesel engine

Weed blocked your generator strainer ....same weed would block a Diesel engine up.... moving your intake deeper and introducing a closed Keel cooling type loop would be the only way round the blockages.. ...🤔 If you could hang a large enough coiled copper pipe in the water and loose enough heat by transfer to the sea water that might get you through... But the Dutch tend to build coolers into their steel boat keels ..or run a pipe along the side of the keel.🇬🇧😉 . The other way is to run a fan and radiator system like on a car ....and try loosing the excess heat to the air.

Click bait title, you didn't even answer the question of what the lie was.

All electric propulsion is an error in Judgement, in my opinion. Its well intentioned, but there times when you need lots of power. Crew injured, weather issues, current issues, and many other issues. Electric is fine for a weekend sailor but a big mistake for a live aboard world cruiser.

Why can you only go 3kts with electric? Can you not reach hull speed or do you not have enough battery capacity? If its the battery capacity, how many KWh do you have?

Uk weather is rubbish hardly ever get to sail my prospect 900

I’d be worried that water scooter might go the same way as e scooters and catch fire.

"do I need to repeat myself?" Dude you need to talk to your wife with more respect 🤷‍♂️

👍👌❤️🇨🇦

I love that you are calling this out. Even in this thread I see the preening presumed superiority of people who see this is more than just a method of propulsion. I remember when Sailing Uma was doing like their 3rd motor/system refit, I innocently asked about how much distance they could go on motor between the generation capabilities and the batteries. I mentioned that there are many circumstances when one has to get somewhere when doing long range cruising, such as illness, weather, injury/illness, schedules - a guest has to get a flight - etc. I got a reply claiming they were real sailors and I was not. Lol. It was so unexpectedly obnoxious and arrogant, I was surprised. I was literally just trying to understand the range in a worst case. I realized there is something more going on with such folks. It totally ruined their channel, which tbh had always seemed just a bit too 'precious' to me but I ignored that. But at that point, I realized how arrogant and political they actually were. I wonder if they ever looked at how the lithium and cobalt for their batteries were mined? How about those solar panels?

The boat can take more than the captain. 30 knots of wind, while rather stiff, should not be enough to compromise your boat. In fact 30 knots of wind should allow you to sell that boat quite rapidly. Coming into shore in that wind can be a little spicy. But land is most dangerous to the boat with wind and weather at second place at best, equal to stupid human decisions.

No temp gauge on generator???

👋👋👋👋👋

Running a generator to generate electricity for an electric motor instead of having a diesel engine makes no sense.

30 knots of Wind is not a storm. Not in Sweden anyway. 50 knots is storm. 30 is normal high wind. And in cooler climat the Windows power is harder than in worm climate. But I guess that you are not used to that Winds.

100❤

You all ever regret not buying a motor boat?

Her heart condition?! She's just a kid!! How sad..

Can't wait to see your reaction when you finally leave the United States and see clean water for the first time! You will never swim in Florida water again after seeing the rest of the Caribbean, and Central and South America. The way we allowed corporate farms to poison our water for decades has been terrible here. The only people who vacation in Florida are ones who never saw the Bahamas.

SailingUma are an inspiration and you guys just seem to whine a lot.

Title says ...Sailing with an electric motor... and not one second in the entire video did ye lot mention anything about electric motor 🙄 such let down. Bait-click, honesty no need for that, just be honest. Once bitten twice shy so no more 4 me, I'm done. 👎🏿

So, what's your point?

Utilizing duplex strainers is a useful design criteria. This allows swapping and cleaning strainers without shutting down the system.

Best remove your outboard off your dingy, for the trip.