The Moorings 474 PC (or Leopard 47 PC) are equipped, as standard, with a nine-kilowatt diesel generator. In addition to the two propulsion diesels, this third engine, to be maintained and fed, did not attract my sympathy.
As for the respect of the environment, even without being a strong environmentalist, these consumers of fossil fuels make it difficult for me to listen to nature.
This aircraft, belonging to a highly rated category, had five times more operating hours than the propulsion engines (15000 hours after 7 years of rental in the Virgin Islands).
Two explanations for this:
- Being operated in the BVI (British Virgin Islands), these boats do not sail much, because there are many anchorages in this group of islands, not very far from each other.
- They receive American customers, who cannot do without air conditioning.
As a result, the generator runs night and day, except for the one hour of daily sailing required to get from one anchorage to another.
All this in order to supply permanently the three air conditioning units on board.
Well, we don't have any merit, we don't like air conditioning..
At this point, you may be starting to see the next job?
25 m2 of solar panels
The upper floor having been duly cleared of its plethoric and heavy "gadgets", a magnificent space of about 25 square meters was vacant, and thus, able to accommodate a respectable solar park.
A paper, a pencil, a calculator and an internet connection to inquire about the state of the art (yes, because the piles of bacon don't tell me anything, even if everything is good in the pig, as the pigs and the Breton brides say...).
It was soon obvious that solar energy would be perfectly capable of supplanting the noisy machine to largely provide for the energy needs of the ship.
Hence the new project: remove 2 of the 3 air conditioners and the generator. Instead, thirteen solar panels of 300 watts each, a set of lead/acid batteries of 700 ampere-hours and 7 charge regulators were installed.
Two inverters of 3000 watts each serve a 220 volt electrical panel exactly the same as the one you would find in a house connected to the national grid.
All the comfort
Thus equipped, the Lady has all the modern comforts: hot and cold water at the taps, washing machine, coffee machine, electric kettle, plancha, computers and all that sort of thing, plus an ice maker.
As for the lighting issue, all the light sources on board have been switched to LEDs, which, when switched on all together, total less than one ampere, Grandpa. Isn't that nice?
"So what's the big deal about keeping an AC?"
Good question, and I thank you for asking.
For the beauty of the gesture..
Thus, in hot weather, on a very sunny day, this device can run on solar energy during the hottest hours of the day, atmosphere: "the sun refreshes us". How cool is that?
In the next episode, the author explains how he adapted his motorization to offer comfort and autonomy to his motor catamaran .
