Passage Kherson-Zaporozhye, Ukraine
ZloitapokI want to share my electric boating update.
Details about the boat here
I was worried about this passage, because very few boats on the Dnieper river have a stationary electric engine on board (and no other engine), so no one could tell me how he would behave in a multi-day voyage.
Before the passage itself, I made a small test on an electric engine (34km over two days):
During this test we spent the night on the embankment in the city of Golaya Pristan'
And the second night on the embankment of Kherson city itself.
We walked by electric engine slowly, checked everything, looked around. The embankments are beautiful, I liked them.
During this test, the engine battery was discharged by 2/3 - the outlets on both embankments was not found. I have a 18 liters of gasoline initially. 10 liters in a canister, 2.5 liters in a generator tank and 5.5 liters in various plastic containers (looking ahead, I’ll write that a 10 liter canister remained untouched until the end of the voyage).
So, the days off at work were taken: I have 5 days to do everything to get to my home Zaporozhye city.
I took a solid set of tools with me - just in case.
Team: your humble servant, Roma - is my old friend (the one who always wakes up no later than 5 a.m.) and his eldest son is Svyatoslav (our cook). Here they are on the video:
First day of passage
At 5 o’clock in the morning we departed from the Kherson embankment and went under the bridges upstream
At 7:00 am we started the generator (I recall the battery was almost empty) and go with the generator under the electric motor. If someone is interested in details on energy consumption, speed under the motor, etc. - questions are welcome, I will answer.
After about an hour of operation of the generator, it stopped - we looked at what was happening - there was little oil in the engine (four-stroke engine). We added an oil - gen work again. My generator is not standard, but self-made, it produces a DC, which is suitable for charging the battery without additional chargers. I wanted to simplify the design as much as possible, less electronics, fewer energy conversions - as a result, more efficiency and reliability. We finished genset tank (2.5 liters) and didn't started genset today again.
According to the forecast, a storm was approaching us, which was a day earlier in Odessa, by the link you can see how they had fun:
This storm, but weaker, was coming towards us and was supposed to hit this night.
Route for today:
About 70 km passed, 2.5 liters of gasoline were used in the generator.
Second day
The storm began at about 3 hours in the morning.
Here is what windy.com showed at 8 a.m.:
The boat anchored here:
The storm was not strong - yes, the muzzle was good, the boat was spinning, because the current and the wind were in different directions. But in general, nothing bad. Anchor and anchor rope withstood.
At 4:00 pm the wind began to subside and we was decided to go to the Nova Kahovka gateway.
The wind was still great and the boat was running fast under a storm staysail
Under the gateway itself, we fell into the wind shadow of the coast and measured how much minimum energy was needed to go 1 km/h. We was able to see 70 watts of power at engine.
Near the small Nova Kahovka marine, we ran aground, but quickly starred.
Route today:
Today route was 18 km, the generator did not used today.
The third day.
In the New Kakhovka:
We charged from the outlet on the pier, and go up the river. A couple of hours was a fordewind, and for the first time we up a spinnaker on this boat:
Wer spent the night here:
Today route:
We went about 100 km that day, burned out 2.5 liters of gasoline in the generator in the evening, at anchor.
Fourth day
at 5 a.m. departure from the overnight stay on the engine and staysail
at 8 o'clock we up the mainsail and turn off the engine.
Kakhovka reservoir:
Power lines from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant through a reservoir:
We spent the night in the city of Energodar.
There is a very beautiful pier:
Here, two more team members joined us: Denis and my girlfriend Oksana. Total us on board 5 people.
Today route:
70 km passed, we burned 3 liters of gasoline in the generator today. In the evening, Energodar was charged from the outlet to a full charge.
Fifth day
We left Energodar late, at about 10 a.m. Not a particularly remarkable day - we reached Zaporozhye without any problems. A little algae was fastened on the shallows - but sharp maneuvers in reverse helped to dump the algae.
The moment of approach to the 7th pier in Zaporozhye (at the moment the boat is here)
Today route:
70 km passed, We didn't required a generator today.
Summary
In total, 330 km we go up the river.
Total fuel spent - 8 liters gasoline.
Running hours (sails and engine, I did not record separately this time) - 54.
The average speed over the entire transition is 6.1 km/h.
All members of the team were without injuries, but Svyatoslav was great poisoned by cucumbers bought in Novaya Kakhovka, I think he still turns green, remembering this :)
Breakage or problems:
1) the generator has stalled due to the fact that there was little oil. Add an oil was solved a problem.
2) a small problem with the electric water pump cooling the exhaust of the generator - we repaired it at Nova Kahovka.
Boat on the pier:
The passage is over, thank you all for your time reading)
Special thanks to:
1) Chevrolet bolt for its battery module
2) Roma, who remaded the asynchronous engine into a permanent magnet engine
3) The team that helped in this passage
4) Roma, who finished some things at boat in Kherson
5) Kelly company for engine controller
6) Storm for an interesting storm day
7) Rigging and the electric engine that did not break
8) A comfortable boat for what was convenient in the passage)
9) My soul mate for inspiration
P.S. For the month that I stand here I have not spent a single liter of fuel. I go out every weekend to the water. On weekdays, the boat is charged from the solar panel - this is basically enough. From the outlet here it was charged 3 times for 3-4 hours. This is exactly what I counted on when designing an electric engine on my boat. The goal is achieved. Next year I plan got to the sea, I will write about it.
A full 10 liter canister lies in the boat - I hope it will be enough for a return voyage to Kherson. I plan it in October.