ePropulsion Spirit Evo 1.0 Outboard

 

The Spirit Evo 1.0 outboard on the lightweight motor mount typical of Santa Cruz boats of this era.

My boat didn’t come with an outboard.  I have a personal goal with this boat to select eco-friendlier options when possible even if they cost a little more and have a little risk.  I decided early on that I would go with an electric outboard. Reviews on the ePropulsion outboard were good.  A good review on the Sailing Frenchman youtube channel sealed it for me.

I ordered it initially configured as a remote control throttle.  I thought that the tiller handle would not tilt up and that would prevent me from being able to tilt up the motor while sailing.  That was a mistake.  First off since I did not have a tiller handle I had to lock it into position straight ahead.  This makes for horrible turning performance while in reverse.  It just wants to drag the boat straight back regardless of rudder position.   Second - it requires mounting the side mount throttle control and a rectangular display.  I ran it for a month with the throttle and display mounted on a temporary piece of plywood.

I converted it to a tiller handle control a week ago.  What a great change. Now I am able to make sharper turns in wind while in reverse.  This is important in our cramped little arm of the smaller boats of the Embarcadero marina.  The tiller handle does not tilt up very far. That does not matter. The engine tilts up after the motor is turned sideways.

Performance with the Wilderness 21:

RPM / Watts / Boat Speed (knots)

    711 / 201 / 2.6

    804 / 295 / 2.9

    886 / 396 / 3.1

    967 / 514 / 3.36

    1016 / 607 / 3.56

    1070 / 710 / 3.65

    1120 / 806 / 3.65

    1159 / 908 / 3.8

    1195 / 1000 / 3.85

I am happy with cruising at around 50% throttle at around 3.5 knots.  It should have around 2 hours at that setting for 7 miles not counting the effects of wind or tidal current.

Regeneration is not a big feature for me with this boat.  Western Flyer has so far a top speed of 5.19 knots while surfing on a small wave.  Regeneration hardly gets started at 4 knots (around 100W).  It also seems to put a lot of force on the motor mount and bracket.  So far I have not seen it go into regeneration mode either.  It is set to do it but I haven’t seen it.

I heard from another Santa Cruz owner that these post-style engine mounts typically had a hole inside where a bolt could be put in place to secure the mount.  I found a hole a few inches inside the mount accessible via a round 8 inch inspection port.  I only had a hole on one side of the fiberglass tube.  I put a bolt in there and into the 2 inch square tubing of the mount.  It did feel more secure though I wasn’t worried about it.  Turns out that a good bit of water can come in through this hole.  That is probably why a previous owner had sealed this bolt hole.  After a few hours of sailing in mild waves I found 5 gallons of water had leaked into the boat.  For now I have sealed the hole.

Oh, last bit of information on the outboard.  I ordered the long shaft so that it would be less likely to cavitation when the boat is pitching in wind waves.  No doubt it will but it will be worse if I had a shorter version.