What broke on the 1,000-mile trial?

The short version: the electrical system didn’t break, and one mechanical limitation did show up clearly. Both halves of that sentence are the point, so here’s the long version.

Across a multi-week, thousand-mile-plus voyage there were zero critical electrical failures. The four-bus architecture — solar, propulsion, house, shore — ran the whole passage without a critical fault. For a first full-season trial of a bespoke solar-electric system, that’s the result we’re proudest of, and it’s a measured one, not a claim.

What did reveal a hard limit was the propulsion’s physical mounting. The transom-mounted outboard cavitates in high sea states — when the stern lifts and the prop loses clean water, thrust drops out. In sheltered and moderate conditions it was a non-issue; in a real seaway it made the outboard unreliable for blue-water passage-making. We log that plainly because it’s the most important thing the trial taught us.

And that lesson is the reason the product exists. Cavitation on a bolt-on outboard is exactly the failure mode an integrated, properly-immersed drive is meant to eliminate. The trial didn’t just prove the energy story — it pointed straight at what robust electric propulsion has to get right.

So the fix is already in build. The FY26 boat moves to a permanently-submerged POD drive as the all-weather primary and demotes the outboard to fair-weather maneuvering — the cavitation problem designed out, not papered over. When that setup has its own sea miles, they’ll be in the log too.

Do I still need a generator?

Our candid answer is: probably not for daily cruising, and you may still want one aboard for emergencies. We’d rather tell you that plainly than sell you a fantasy of a boat that never needs a backup.

Start with what the trial showed. Over 1,000 nautical miles the array harvested more energy than the motor consumed — the 48 V bank never fell below 50%. On most days, in most conditions, at sensible speeds, the sun and the bank carried the boat with reserve to spare. For that kind of cruising, a generator sits idle.

The edges are where the honesty lives. Push hard against a six-knot chop with three knots of current setting against you, or string together short grey days with no chance to recharge, and you can outrun what solar replaces. Those are real conditions, and a small generator — carried purely for emergencies or for the day you choose to push through — is a perfectly rational thing to keep aboard. That’s a candid yes, not a hedge.

So the truthful framing isn’t “never plug in, never carry backup.” It’s: on the great majority of days you won’t reach for one, and we’ll show you exactly where the exceptions are before you commit. Run your own boat and cruising ground through the configurator and you’ll see how often, if ever, the backup actually earns its keep.

What has actually been proven at sea?

We keep a hard line between three words: measured, modelled, and estimated. A skeptical buyer is right to demand that line, so here it is, drawn explicitly.

Measured — the FY25 sea trial

In the summer and fall of 2024, SV Endurance sailed over 1,000 nautical miles — Victoria and Oak Bay to Desolation Sound and back — unsupported. Across that multi-week voyage there were zero critical electrical failures. Over the 1,000 NM trial the array harvested more energy than the motor consumed — the 48 V bank never fell below 50%. Autopilot use rose from around 60% under diesel to over 90%, the operator becoming a system supervisor rather than a helmsman. These are logged, not projected.

Modelled — the propulsion curve

The power-speed-range curves the configurator draws for your boat are a model — a propulsion model built from theory and tuned against real tests across a diverse fleet. It’s a well-grounded model, but it is a prediction, and we label it as one. The sea trial is what gives us confidence the model tells the truth; it is not itself a measurement of your particular hull.

Estimated — the FY26 hardware

The next-generation setup — a permanently-submerged Torqeedo POD drive, hydrogeneration harvesting around 1 kW at 6 knots under sail, a mobile LiFePO4 pack — is in build at Cadboro Bay. It is promising and it is not yet proven at sea. When it has its own thousand miles behind it, this page will move those claims up from estimated to measured. Until then we won’t blur the line.

That’s the whole ledger. The proof is the FY25 trial; the model is honest but predictive; the FY26 hardware is a work in progress. If a number matters to your decision, ask us which column it lives in.