Karin und Wolfgang M. - Enjoying freedom with the EFOY in the mountains and Scotland
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A sailboat is an ideal environment for a fuel cell. When we got our new sailing vessel, a Pogo 12.50 built by the french shipyard Pogo Structures, we started to look for the best solution to enable us to live on the boat for an extended period of time.
The challenge when it comes to charging our electrical devices on a sailing boat is that a solar panel is often covered by the sails, preventing them to be effective unless we would build a large arch to place the panels on. This often involves complex structures and drilling holes that could potentially leak over time. The most effective way of charging electrical devices on a boat is still the alternator, but on a sailing boat, this is often just used upon docking and leaving port.
“The peace of mind that comes from knowing that you always have enough energy is priceless.”
I can run the heaters when it’s cold and the fans when it’s hot, charge electronic devices needed for communications and navigation, and run the autopilot on longer trips.
Per S.
The perfect companion to an alternator are lithium batteries since they charge fast in these circumstances. But when anchoring the alternator won’t help. Some opt for a wind generator, but when anchoring you tend to seek a bay where you are protected from the elements.
This leaves you with the single optimal solution – a fuel cell. Because the fuel cell enables you to reduce the mount of batteries you load onto the boat and focus on smaller lithium batteries that top up when motoring and the fuel cell that protects these and silently generates electricity when needed. Once the fuel cell was installed we also replaced the outboard motor for the dingy from a classic 2-stroke engine to an electric one.
