‘You have to be a better sailor… using electric power’

Jon Amtrup is a high-latitude sailor who dreams of a life without diesel, and in between the daydreams, he prepares for an electric future by sailing more often without a set destination

I barely move. The slightest ghost of a breeze is nurtured for every tenth of a knot. 1.2 knots kicks up to 1.5 knots and my smile gets wider. The evening will soon turn into night, and I would like to reach an anchorage before dark.

I can see the anchorage just ahead. It will take me two more hours to get there. Ten minutes if I turn on the engine. Three hours later I drop the anchor and pour myself an anchor dram to toast the sail, my newfound patience and the sunset.

I was not planning to drop anchor in this bay when I started in the morning. I had potential anchorages written down from last night, along a route in the general direction of favourable winds in the forecast. My week-long mini holiday was a taste of things to come, and what used to be.

The green revolution is coming to us sailors in the form of electric propulsion.

That shift is what I am preparing for. I am trying to train my mind to have patience enough not to turn on the diesel engine to get me that last mile.

The green revolution for sailors is more of a shift of mindset back to the days when sailing was sailing, without inboard engines. The days when you could only sail when it was windy.

I have not thrown out my diesel engine for an electric one yet. But I am thinking about it and am talking to a lot of sailors who have taken the leap. They are all happy. Very happy in fact. Bear in mind, however, that I have also met sailors who, after their boat split in two when the glue dissolved, and she then sank, who still insisted she was the best boat they ever had!

We sailors do tend to get a bit defensive about our expenses – all boat things are in this category, at all costs. Pun intended.

But I believe in electric sailors. An electric motor requires much less maintenance, it’s very quiet, it’s smaller and there’s no stink of diesel. You even get more room as fuel tanks can be removed.

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The downside is, of course, reach. With a big diesel tank, you can motor for days to get you where you want to go. With an electric engine, your ‘there’ has to be way more flexible. The holiday has to be more about the journey than the destination.

You also have to be more safety-minded with electric propulsion. Ending up on a lee shore in bad weather will be no fun. With a diesel engine, you can often motor out of trouble. That is, if the engine is reliable, of course.

So you have to be a better sailor; making the right choices given the state of your range using electric power, the boat, and her crew’s capability to handle possible adverse weather.

In one of my podcasts, I talked to Ben Ruffieux, who has taken his green vision for the oceans to Greenland. His 50-foot aluminium racing yacht has been converted into a fully electric expedition boat in the Arctic. When he ended up with no battery power in a fjord in Greenland, with no wind to sail and no sun to charge, he just had to stay put and wait for better times. Not an ideal situation when you have skiers on board who want to ski new mountains.

But it’s all about managing expectations. And that’s what we all have to do as sailors, as the green shift is coming. And after all, we are in a good position – we are sailors, and we constantly have to manage our expectations as the wind shifts. Now we just have to sail more. Isn’t that what sailing is all about?

Predictions of the future are never easy, but I can say this: battery technology will get better, charging more efficient, and the art of sailing more attractive.

While waiting to make the big electrical shift, I bought an electric outboard for the dinghy. That step meant I could get rid of five things: the 9.9 outboard, the tank, the spare tank, the two-stroke oil, and the lift to get the beast up on the pushpit when not in use.

Now I enjoy the handling of the lightweight electric motor, the silence, the low maintenance, and the instant shove when I turn the handle. And the battery lasts a surprisingly long time. Maybe it’s time for you to make the big leap?

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