Marama – the 45-year-old Start Boat belonging to Auckland’s Kohimarama Yacht Club (KYC) – is enjoying a much-needed upgrade by club volunteers. The project will swap her 39hp diesel for electric propulsion – and includes some very cool smartphone-based software, reports Lawrence Schäffler.
KYC has been a fixture on the Waitemata harbour’s waterfront for around 85 years. Renowned as a family-oriented club catering mainly to young sailors (Optis, P Class, Starlings and 29ers), it has launched the international careers of hundreds of Kiwi sailors. Launched in 1978, the 7.2m Marama has witnessed the progress of many of those journeys.
After nearly 50 years of start duties the old lady was looking a little jaded and forlorn, says KYC president Andy Kensington, and though she’s had sporadic TLC over the decades, “she was due for a serious overall. We tried to tackle the job two years ago but Covid scuppered that plan. It’s now finally happening.”
Marama’s provenance is a little sketchy. To the best of his knowledge, says Kensington, the empty shell (fibreglass hull and fibreglass-over-ply topsides) was donated to the club in the late 70s by a local boatbuilder called Stirling Composites.
“It seems the original buyer opted out of the deal and we were the lucky benefactors of the hull. Club volunteers completed the job. We do know she was launched by Lady Thea Muldoon (wife of the then PM, Robert) in the summer of 1979-80. It’s likely that Marama has a few sisterships floating around – all from the same mould – but again, we don’t know.”
Kensington and fellow club member Andy Stone are the ‘architects’ of the refurbishment project, orchestrating the team of KYC volunteers. “We’ve taken her down to bare fibreglass,” says Stone.
“Stripping multiple layers of paint revealed a relatively sound hull, but the multitude of patches in the deck and topsides pointed to a fairly tough life. There was some rot – requiring surgery, new ply and re-glassing.”
Returning the vessel to her bare hull also uncovered a few surprises – buried beneath the debris the team found the old gun locker (complete with padlock, but sans shotgun).
The work’s being tackled in a nearby shed owned by KYC. With her superstructure Marama wouldn’t have fitted, so the Andy-duo decided to modify the design slightly. They carefully separated the topsides and added a flange, allowing it to be bolted (rather than bonded) to the hull once the vessel emerges from the shed.
Repower
The decision to refurbish Marama presented a golden opportunity to change her propulsion system.
“She’s always been powered by a 39hp, three-cylinder Volvo 2040,” says Kensington. “It wasn’t popular with the crews because it was smelly and noisy and, if there was any rainwater ingress the bilges quickly turned into an unholy mess.
“Switching to electric propulsion made perfect sense. The boat’s always been berthed at the nearby Outboard Boating Club and will continue to live there (thank you OBC!). It’s not far to the KYC start line, so the boat doesn’t need an extensive range or speed – especially given Marama’s displacement hull. She should ease along at 5–6 knots.
“The electric motor/lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack combo will not only be cleaner and quieter but also much lighter than the diesel/fuel tank combo. Furthermore, the boat sits in the sun all day and is only used for one or two days over weekends. Using solar panels to charge the batteries was a no-brainer. We won’t be needing shore power.”
It’s impossible to know for certain, but Marama might be the first electric Start Boat among New Zealand’s yacht clubs.
The lighter propulsion system has also allowed the team to introduce a few new features to Marama. These include a toilet (much high-fiving among the female members of the Start crews!). It will be flushed with freshwater to banish the sulphurous odours that typically hover around seawater-flushed toilets. That demands a freshwater tank and a holding tank. And a cockpit Bimini will provide more protection from the wind, rain and sun.
“Our calculations,” says Stone, “suggest the displacement difference between the old and new Marama won’t be significant – she should float on her existing waterline.” He also points out that the electric propulsion system will radically reduce the vessel’s maintenance schedule.
KYC approached Westhaven’s Beacon Marine for help with the new drive system – and received a bit more than the Andy-duo anticipated: in addition to providing the expertise in terms of sizing the appropriate power plant for the hull and its intended application, the entire system has been provided at cost.
It features a 10kW ePropulsion I-Series Inboard Electric Motor, powered by a 96-volt lithium-iron phosphate battery pack (also 10kW). Five 200-watt solar panels on the superstructure roof will keep the batteries charged. Chinese-manufactured, the motor and battery pack are imported by New Zealand agents Evocean. The solar panels have been sourced locally.
Smartphone software
As any Race Officer will confirm, devising a sailing course around wind/tide conditions and the class of yacht (dachshunds or greyhounds?) demands skill, intuition and quite a bit of luck. And then there’s the actual Start sequence involving raising/lowering flags and split-second timing. At most clubs the shotguns have been replaced by horns (much to the disappointment of cantankerous old seadogs).
To simplify these processes Marama will be equipped with 21st century technology befitting her electric propulsion system – two smartphone apps (Apple and Android).
The first of these is the NZ-developed Buoy Zone – now used by yacht clubs all over the world. It was developed (in 2019) to remove the guesswork in setting up race courses. And because it’s shared across all the support boats (laying the buoys), communication is instantaneous.
“It eliminates an awful lot of radio chatter,” says Kensington, “and gives everyone an instant snapshot of how things are developing. It makes the management of the race and accurate deployment of buoys much easier for Race Officers.” (see www.buoy.zone).
The other app – Voice Sail Race Timer – was also developed locally. It automatically – and vocally – coordinates the countdown sequence for the raising/lowering flags on the Start boat (10- and five-minute, and Start) – see www.starttimerapp.com.
It will also be integrated with Marama’s horn and will be particularly useful, says Kensington, “for those situations when the Start crew is engrossed with dissecting last night’s episode of MasterChef. There’s nothing worse than having 40 boats jostling for position on the start line, sailors looking at their watches and wondering what the hell is going on!”
Marama’s reinvention began just after King’s Birthday weekend this year, and the KYC team hopes to have her finished by Christmas.
“Even if she might not look entirely like one,” says Stone, “she’s gonna be a Tesla on the water!”
