Club Night Talk – Electric Propulsion Conversion

When the diesel engine needed replacing in Beaufort Venture, the Irish National Sailing School’s Elan 36 teaching yacht, Kenny and the team took the brave decision to go electric. In partnership with their commercial division Marine Services, they installed an ePropulsion i20 inboard electric engine – showcasing the conversion process and its advantages.

The new engine is slotted into the existing engine bay and connected to the existing propellor shaft, and is powered by two G100 batteries mounted low in the vessel – requiring some reconfiguration of water tank locations but ultimately requiring no structural or cosmetic changes, and retaining the original water tank capacity and no change in overall weight.

Kenny will explain the decisions and technical thought that went into the electric conversion, talk us through the process of removing the well used Yanmar engine and installing the electric systems, and discuss some of the ongoing benefits of lower maintenance, no gearbox, etc. He can already reflect on his experiences operating Beaufort Venture for the first 2 months of the busy 2025 teaching season with her new ePropulsion unit.