Most of the comments I receive about my travels with electric drive have been really positive. However I do get the odd doubter, who are also so important to this blog. I converted Ocean Strider to direct electric drive, specifically for circumnavigating the planet. It was a nerve racking time for me. There were so many unknown fact regarding the drive, I also had to find my sailing experience as I traveled. My overwhelming thought was and still is. Everything I do, has to be to the absolute best I can do, the quality of the equipment must also be the best I can buy (not afford). If I can’t a ..read more

Renewable energy powering our sailing journeys. Defective paint on my electric, Torqeedo Travel 1103 outboard, means I’m travelling to the dinghy dock using a borrowed 2 stroke outboard motor. While I’m commuting, I have sudden thought. Fossil fuel propulsion for sail boats and dinghy’s, should already be in the history books and combustion engines slowly collected for old time sake. I’ve actually traveled backwards in time as far as a healthy, comfortable easy life is concerned. I now need a messy polluting fuel to run the motor. It’s very windy and choppy, as I pour the fuel in the tank a li ..read more

I arrived in the Caribbean, in March 2022, after sailing from the UK. My boat is a 1979 Cobra 1050 with a bilge keel and electric drive. This post is an in-sight and how I feel the renewable energy system and the electric engine is helping after almost 3 years of use. The Caribbean has lots of sun and wind. The weather in the Caribbean has lots of sun and trade winds. Perfect for charging via renewable energy systems. Some places aren’t so good. I used marinas in the UK to back up my solar and wind power. A lot of folks don’t like wind generators. My personal opinion is that you should use bo ..read more

Nail-biting nerves to total confidence after 6,000 miles onboard Ocean Strider. How it happened! We’re well underway on our global circumnavigation and there’s no turning back! We’d upgraded Ocean Strider inside and out, including removing the Diesel engine and fitting Lynch Marlin 8 kilowatt electric propulsion. Changing back to diesel crossed my mind on several occasions, as friends and cruisers voiced their concerns, but there was no going back as we couldn’t afford to. We chose electric propulsion, it was as simple as that! Our journey started from Maryport Marina, near the border of S ..read more

To the interested! The reasons I wouldn’t go back to diesel power on Ocean Strider. I started this journey with the intention to sail, and I’m not saying there haven’t been times when I would just like to get to my destination faster. But the priority of saving power in the batteries has made me choose the slower traditional way and use my sails. A. Generating my own fuel is an environmental gift from nature: 1. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know we’re generating charge power from Ocean Strider’s Lynch air-cooled propulsion system, as she cuts through the water under sail. 2. Then a ..read more

This is for the sailers out there, considering owning a boat with an electric auxiliary engine. I’ve sailed my boat Ocean Strider 6,000 miles, and the auxiliary drive is an electric engine. In my humble opinion, the information available when you are sailing a boat with an electric auxiliary engine and battery monitor is so much better than if sailing a boat using diesel and a basic fuel gauge. Most boats with diesel engines have a basic fuel gauge, which will give you a rough idea of how much fuel you have in the tank, from that you can make a very rough guess of how far your diesel will take ..read more

The simple but reliable Linch Marlin electric drive. Ocean Strider as you may already know, has renewable energy sources, a 7-kilowatt, Lynch Marlin 48v DC electric, direct drive, propulsion system. The renewable energy sources and propulsion system were installed by me and have been 100% reliable so far. I have no reason to doubt the system will be reliable in the future. The electric propulsion system regenerates power to charge the batteries, by using the propeller to turn the motor when Ocean Strider is sailing at 5 knots water speed or more. I don’t have charge figures for this but it’s v ..read more

Electric drives and charging whilst we sail. Recharging your batteries for FREE. Electric drives, engines, propulsion. Whatever you want to call them, are the future. Why pay tax and give money to the oil companies, they don’t care about anything but profit!!! Made in the UK. A Lynch Marlin, 7kw, 48v. Click HERE for more details. I’ve sailed 6,000 trouble- and cost-free miles using the drive. It’s been 100% reliable. The battery bank is Lucas, 400 amps of 48v VRLA batteries. The battery bank also gives you so much more power for leisure use, something lots of potential users forget. Lithium ba ..read more

Things We Did: The following experiences are the things we did whilst visiting Dominica, on our electric sailboat Ocean Strider. Anchored in Portsmouth Harbour, during the period 11-23 May 22. National Parks: Note, to visit heritage sites and National Parks, you have to purchase a National Park pass. You can pay for a day or purchase a week’s pass. Once you have a pass, you can enter most National sites of interest until the pass runs out. A week’s pass is more economical, so organise your trips accordingly. Most sites sell the passes and in addition, the garage in Portsmouth town also sells t ..read more

Our view from Ocean Strider as we drew closer to Dominica, a stunning natural island in the Caribbean. Things to know: This information is our experience whilst anchored in Portsmouth Harbour, on Dominica in the Caribbean. During the period, 11-23 May 2022 Language: The main language spoken in Dominica is English, but many residents speak French Patois, the original Carib language. PAYS: A sailing yacht on a PAYS mooring in Portsmouth Harbour. Your boat will be looked after by PAYS agents. Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services is PAYS and run by Edison, a resident of Dominica. They are a r ..read more