Malo visit #1 (October 2007)

The hull and deck, which are built in Denmark, are at the factory in Kungsviken, Sweden. First stop is the fiberglass shop, normally for installation of bulkheads and engine beds before going into the main production area. But this is not a normal boat!

As on the last boat, Malo is making extensive changes up forward to handle two anchors and rodes on deck, and to fit in a spinnaker locker. Aft, Malo is fitting a larger-than-normal propane locker for extended off-the-grid cruising. Malo did these things on the last boat, so knows what to do.

The diesel-electric experiment is causing headaches. I have done considerable research that suggests the kinds of fuel efficiencies that diesel-electric advocates talk about may not be realizable (see 3 articles I wrote for Professional Boatbuilder – www.ProBoat.com – over the summer of 2007). Malo is installing a conventional inboard diesel engine (a 75 hp Volvo-Penta D2-75 – www.Volvo.com/Volvo-penta) plus a parallel diesel-electric system driving the same propeller shaft and propeller. This will enable accurate and objective relative fuel consumption numbers to be collected to settle this issue. The problem is to fit two propulsion systems into the space normally occupied by one!

During the design phase, Malo moved the water heater out of the engine compartment to make way for a generator driven by a Volvo-Penta D1-30 engine, but fairly late in the process Volvo-Penta realized just how hard this might be driven and decided Malo should use the considerably larger (and heavier) D2-40 engine (40 hp, which will result in a nominal 30 kW generator, with a 22 kW continuous rating). Malo has had to squeeze inches out of the cabins on both sides.

Malo wanted the generator on hand to make sure it would fit and still be accessible for servicing. Unfortunately, they are ahead of the original schedule, and the generator is behind schedule. Volvo-Penta has shipped in an engine, but it is minus the generator, so Malo is now building a large hatch in the cockpit sole that will enable the engine and generator to be moved in and out of the boat at will later on in the production process.

Then there’s the electric propulsion motor. To be able to drive the same propeller shaft and propeller, there’s only one place it can go, which makes an extremely tight fit with the main engine, and means moving the water pumps and associated plumbing out of the engine compartment. The motor is heavy (60+ kgs/140 lbs) and will exert powerful loads on its support structures (it is rated at 16 kW, but I am told is capable of running at 26 kW). The bulkhead where it must go will need considerable reinforcement. Malo has CAD drawings of the motor to help plan this, but Hans Leander wants it physically on hand to make sure there are no unforseen issues. Unfortunately the motor (of which there is only one at the moment – these are custom built and not bought off a shelf) is making the rounds of a couple of boat shows in the USA!

In general, I am finding that despite 15 years of research and development, these electric propulsion systems (this one is coming from Electric Marine Propulsion – www.electricmarinepropulsion.com) are still all prototypes, and as such Malo and I are becoming part of the research and development process. This has its benefits, in as much as it will enable us to get heavily involved with the design, and influence it, but that’s not much consolation to Malo at this point in time.

And then there’s the batteries! The electric propulsion system will run at 144-volts, which requires twelve 12-volt batteries in series. I am working with EnerSys in Wales (UK – www.EnerSys.com) to test a new range of high charge rate batteries known as Odyssey batteries. These have tremendous promise. The particular model they would like us to use – the PC2250 – is quite large and heavy. Hans is having a bit of a heart attack trying to squeeze all this volume and weight into the back of the boat (not to mention the weight of the generator and electric motor). We compromise on a slightly smaller battery – the PC2150 – and squeeze twelve in under the aft port berth in a space which is normally hard to access and therefore not much use for other stowage (this is where we put the batteries on the last boat).

Malo still has to find room for the 24-volt house batteries, and the 12-volt cranking batteries. We squeeze these in under the galley sole.

With all this weight in the back end of the boat, it is going to squat. So Malo adds a fuel tank under the forward berth, forward of the bow thruster and its tunnel, which is, in any case, once again hard to access space and not much use for stowage. This can be used to trim the boat (we did this on the last boat, but found it trimmed fine without filling the tank; we only used it on long ocean crossings). There’s additional space on either side of the bow thruster motor that’s also hard to access. With the conventional boat, huge cables are needed from the batteries aft to power the bow thruster and windlass. Copper is heavy and very expensive at the moment. If Malo puts a couple more batteries on either side of the bow thruster motor, it will be no heavier than the copper, a lot cheaper, and will get the weight forward. Malo can run a much smaller charging cable from aft, and also put the watermaker up here, which is another 100+lbs shifted from the back of the boat to the front.

Hans has had enough! “We’ve already got 12 different drawing of this boat floating round the shop floor,” he says. “We’re not going to have another.” However, the next day we get it all figured out and, as usual with Hans, 30 minutes later there’s a new CAD drawing. I don’t know another small boatbuilder in the world with this sort of fabulous capability – it’s one of the reasons I enjoy working with Malo so much.

Just before I leave, Peter Udden from Capi2 (www.Capi2.com) flies in for a quick visit. He will be supplying the distributed power system. This utilizes moderately heavy power cables (positive and negative) run through the boat, with all the electrical equipment tapped off them at the closest point of connection using remotely-operated electronic circuit breakers. The only cabling that runs back to the control panel in the navigation station is a single data cable. The system will remove a lot of cabling from the boat, and improve its functionality (because each electronic circuit breaker has a microprocessor embedded in it, there’s the potential for all kinds of data logging and diagnostics).

We rapidly discover that in order to optimize the cable savings inherent in the Capi2 system Malo is going to need to run most of the cables on different paths to the traditional cabling, and as a result the various cable ducts bonded into the boat by the hull manufacturer are not where we want to run the cables! Peter leaves with new drawings to help him think this through.

I’ve done enough damage for one visit. I return home, promising to expedite delivery of the generator and propulsion motor.