Week 1
Everyone asked if I was excited to come get Kanthaka, and of course I was, but the predominate emotion I was experiencing was anxiety. I expected, once I took possession and was out sailing, the anxiety would diminish and be replaced by some mixture of happiness, excitement, joy …
I read an article
by Nikki Henserson that set my expectation for there to be issues – “I’ve
never heard of a new boat that was perfect.” and Kanthaka is Seawind’s first
electric boat, so I knew there would be bugs to work out, and here we are,
working through them.
The major issues:
- The propellers have three pitch positions: Forward propulsion, Neutral for low drag while sailing, and reverse/regen for reversing under power and regenerating while sailing. My props are stuck in reverse/regen.
- The torque/speed characteristics of the props and electric motors are not matched.
- Coolant seems to be disappearing from my diesel powered generator with no apparent leak and is discolored – like coolant and motor oil are mixing.
- The leak detector on one sail drive is not working.
And there are dozens of little things to be fixed. These are warranty issues that will require lifting Kanthaka out of the water and Seawind says they will take care of them, but Seawind expects me to sit in Ocean Marina and pay for berthing - $143/day – while they figure out what to do. It is going to take Seawind months to fix everything.
The conversation went:
“You have to pay for berthing.”
“OK we will leave and go sailing.”
“You cannot leave. You will need your generator to motor if your batteries are low and can’t run your generator until our specialist looks at it.”
“OK when will your specialist look at it?”
“I have no idea.”
“OK we are leaving. We won’t run the generator. Let me know when you have the specialist scheduled.”
So we went sailing - upwind, downwind, cruising around local islands, swimming, snorkeling, hiking. Some islands had loud and tacky tourist industries – parasailing, jet skiing, bars and hustlers. One island was a Thai Navy facility and it was pristine and lovely. We were at anchor at a tiny island yesterday where a couple of fisherman slept in hammocks in the shade of trees when I got a message that the generator specialist was available, so we upwinded back to Ocean Marina, arriving after dark. As I type, two fellows are flushing and running Kanthaka’s generator.
If the generator is healthy, my plan is to sail across the Gulf of Thailand to Koh Samui and spend the rest of the shakedown island hopping over there. There are still lots of details to work out with Seawind.
Kanthaka is a beautiful boat and I will be happy once everything is functional, but for the moment, dealing with Seawind is stressful and my experience is still lots of anxiety.
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