Oceanvolt

Tripp 37

Anna

"The dream was achieved with “Maria Diem” our Tripp 37, now on the West Coast available for charter soon at the Berkeley Marine Center, with her new name “Green Energy”. We originally had a prototype ServoProp that was later upgraded to the production model, giving us a few extra years to enjoy the system.

The Tripp 37 was a great repower as the fundamental sailing characteristics of the boat let it sail fast enough to regen and sail upwind well enough not to need the generator. After the repower, it was equipped with a 15kW Oceanvolt ServoProp, 14.4kWh Valence Battery bank and a 6kW Fischer Panda 48vdc backup generator.

With a hybrid electric system the vessel has proven herself as the ideal cruiser in over 10,000 nautical miles of East Coast US and Caribbean cruising delivering the best of all worlds (except for the deep draft which was an acceptable compromise for the upwind performance). We could maintain over 6kts in the inner coastal when the weather at sea was bad, or we could motor at 5kts and have the generator run less than half the time.

The full thrust in reverse, fine low rpm throttle control, and incredible torque delivers quick response in either direction and makes precise docking easy. But the unseen value above the quiet operation, ease of docking and regeneration was all the capacity it gave the boat to support hotel loads and long-distance cruising on a boat size that is affordable to purchase and own. We could run heat or air-con, make hot water and cook all from the large battery bank and depending on how much power we needed we could regenerate and take grid power to cruise without consuming fuel, or we could trade diesel for motoring speed and climate control. We often went on weeks-long and even seasonal cruises fuel-free making all our power for propulsion and hotel loads from the sun, hydro-regeneration and occasional shore power." – Owner of the Tripp 37

Technology used in the hybrid electric Tripp 37 sailboat :