TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Voyage 480 Electric

Hey everyone, I’m headed down to the BVI mid June with some friends on the Voyage 480 electric catamaran. I haven't been able to find any reviews on the boat and I figured if anyone had any experience with it they'd be on here. Any anecdotal info about the 480 or the ocean volt system it uses would be great. Thanks in advance

Here's a review that was just posted yesterday:
https://www.soundingsonline.com/fea...KToHAeYmJ97gmiy3Qhbm5uEGnhE-hXrWzeIkuGdc

We've chartered the Standard 480 several times. Had a chance to get the lowdown on the Electric while down there last month, though did not experience the systems first hand, so can't comment on the electric bit. However from what I have heard, and read in that Soundings article, it sounds pretty good. Based on the conversation I had with Voyage folks while down there, they are excited about it moving forward,

The 480 part though, I can speak to. In short, love the boat. Sails great. Really livable.

Very curious to hear about your experience with the Electric, so please post a follow up after your charter.

That's pretty interesting article. But a little too much magic going on here so I hope some other article gets published soon that wasn't written with rose colored glasses. 150 watts to keep the entire 48 ft boat cool? I don't buy it. Fuel use so little that Voyage just throws it in for free 'cause it's so little? Don't buy that either. A 21Kw generator is going to suck some fuel. Period. But I get the appeal - just one diesel engine to feed and maintain.

Yeah, it was an interesting read but not a single criticism or "it would have been nice if..." comment makes it clear it is a bit biased. Either that or this is the best boat ever made an its perfect. And we know no boat is perfect.

I'm sure it is a great boat and it sounds like the electric systems work great but I'd like a more balanced review. I've also been on cats with generators that exhaust below the water line and they can most certainly be heard. It is quieter though.

I remember the first go round of this idea..where people spent more $$ on diesel for the generators to charge the electric to run the boats than to just have diesel engines. As I remember all of those boats, all of them, were converted back to diesel power. Not saying that this is not a huge step forward..but you are still buying/running diesel to charge an electric motor. If these boats ran on solar and wind generated power then it would make one heck of a lot more sense to me..let the flaming begin.

With all of those solar panels it would look impossible to get on top to guide the main through the lazy jacks, unless they've come up with a solution? Or will there just be a bunch of damaged solar panels?

I would love this idea working. The Lagoon 420 was a disaster as an electric. I think the solar is a great option and a must do on any Cat. A buddy delivered this boat from SA and I need to ask him about his comments...he has been quiet, which may just mean he is on the next delivery.

It’s certainly viable for everything except motoring distances and running many air conditioners. Motoring can be short if you sail most of the time. This leaves air conditioning. I doubt they could solve that. Run a single AC unit, sure, run many, doubtful.

If you loose the Lazy Jacks and bring them forward, parallel to the mast before you raise the Mainsail they are not a problem.
Lazy Jacks have been on sailboats for many decades, but the purpose is to contain the sail when it is being lowered, and should be designed properly to be able to be brought forward to the mast raising the sail and also any long distance sailor will not have them rigged during a passage since they will cause chafe on the mainsail over days of use with the mainsail raised. They have no purpose underway.

Looking at the picture, those are not vey big pannels. 150W at best.Specs say 1.6kW total so probably 100W panels. Power is two 15kW motors so in ideal conditions 1 hour of full sun gives 3 minutes at full power. Battery bank is 35kWh so a full charge might give a bit over 2 hours at 50% cruise. It will take some real discipline to run that boat efficiently.

The concept is great and perhaps they got it right this time. The boat will require the generator to run quite a bit but still should be more efficient than conventional engines. The downside is two Diesel engines combined with a generator gives you 3 sources of electrical power and two propulsion options. The electric setup has multiple single point failure modes that could disable the boat. Parts could be another issue. Lose a controller board and getting a new one might not be easy. The Lagoon 420’s seemed to work well the first two years and then the systems started failing left and right. It will be 5 years before we have a true report card on the new system.
One other thing to consider. The Voyage boats are great sailing boats. Electrical regeneration slows the boat down quite a bit.

From what I understand, most of the electricity generation comes from the props which are set in a position to spin and recharge the batteries when underway. The solar panels are a smaller part of power sourcing.