Lee Cline, Dock Master

During this last sailing season I had the pleasure of having Jeff and Lesli Grimm help me crew the mark boat. I had a great conversation with them while the race progressed.

Jeff has done a conversion to his boat I thought other members may be interested in. He has converted his boat from diesel to electric. Of course the first thing I asked was “Didn’t that use a lot of extension cord?” Just kidding! I asked Jeff to send me the details so I could share with the club. Anyone interested in this conversion can talk to him for advice. I was going to use these details to write this article but the information Jeff sent was better than any article I could write so I just added it to this introduction. I also asked him to add information about himself, Lesli, and their family so you could get to know them. They are a pleasure to know and I’m sure they would welcome questions about this conversion or anything for that matter.

Jeff works for Capstan Ag Systems, Inc. headquartered in Topeka but with engineering offices in Hiawatha. Jeff and Lesli have 130-acres; 50-acres are in corn/beans. They have indoor/outdoor horse facilities and host the horse and dog show for the Brown County Fair. They have a dozen cows (cow/calf operation) so totals can be 27-head including bulls, heifers, etc.  Lesli is the Business Manager at USD-415.  They have two daughters, both recent K-State graduates who join them for sailing on occasion.

Here is what Jeff wrote about his conversion:

My 1976 Bayliner Buccaneer 285 had a Volvo Penta Diesel that wouldn’t run enough to push the boat anymore. I replaced it with a 48-VDC electric sailboat kit from Thunderstruck Motors in California www.thunderstruck-ev.com. I also used Thunderstruck’s belt reduction kit. This kit includes a Sevcon motor controller for variable speed forward and reverse. The kit only provides the motor, wiring harness, control box and belt drive. I had to build the mounting bracket and shaft coupler myself from farm store parts. I used the original propeller and mounted the electric motor such that everything was in its original orientation. I used rubber mounts from NAPA to isolate any vibrations from the hull. I used four 12-volt trolling motor batteries from the battery store in Topeka. I bought the maintenance free type and they are 105-amp-hour each. I purchased a Genius 4-bank battery charger to keep the batteries charged. It charges the four batteries separately and has indicators that tell you if a particular battery isn’t working right. I plug the charger into shore power, and so far it takes about two beers time to recharge after a day’s sailing.

I recently purchased a $20 battery charge indicator for a golf cart off of e-bay. Next year I will have a better idea of how much power I have left in the batteries. I didn’t have any trouble this year, but only motored in and out of the harbor. As for inboard electric sailboat power: it is quiet, immediate, maintenance free and doesn’t require winterizing. And, it was about half the cost of replacing the diesel engine.