5/17/2025 last week I was fortunate to have two representatives from Electric Yacht Motors agree to me at Oceanside harbor and inspect motor, charger, converter and batteries installation along with the display. This was the first time I launched the boat so having two extra hands made it a little less stressful. Backing the boat with its wide bow blocked my view significantly compared to the 11' rowing tender resulting in moving a slower but still all good. With the water at top of the trailer fenders I set the parking brake and walked back to the trailer to release the boat and watched it glide softly off before the deck hands pulled her to dock. We adjusted the fenders and looked everything over before parking the truck. Upon returning I performed a quick safety check looking for any water leaks and as expected everything looked good. We spent the next half hour inspecting every cable, fuse, and equipment installation before starting the motor and reviewing the display panel. With everything looking good before we untied the lines and backed the boat away from the dock before turning and going forward.
Wow! What a smooth and stable cruise. I knew immediately Paul nailed the full displacement design even beyond my expectations for this smaller boat. It felt like I was aboard a small Nordhavn40 running steady, smoothly and solid through the water. With three of us on board (about 500lbs) the boat remained level. I forget the exact battery usage but between 600 - 1000RPM we calculated 8 hours of battery charge - wow (again). I was looking for 4 - 5 hours. Maximum RPM is about 1,100 then the prop starts slipping and it's not worth it. Cruising speed is about 4.5 knots - 5.0 knots. With the current going out we hit 7 knots which was flying. We only hit one small wake from a passing boat which I could not even feel as we cruised through it. The boat feels very solid especially for her size and even more solid than our 21' Mako Center Console which I thought was a solid fiberglass boat. After about an hour we returned to the dock and loaded the boat onto the trailer before saying goodby to the reps and headed home.
I still a few more details to work on but looking forward to taking Mary and Sailor Blue out next week for our first run together and celebrate the launching of the new boat. We are thinking about Dana Point, CA where Nordhavn is located since we have a tradition of commissioning new boat there and the harbor is perfect for our new boat. More to follow...
John