A common response to our plan to cross the Pacific in a motor boat. And, yes, you read that correctly – we are going to take our Lagoon 630 Motor Yacht across the Pacific. How, we get asked, are you going to do the 3,000 NM from Galapagos to the Marquesas’? Our long range tanks will not quite get us there. 4710 litres takes us 2300 nm – a bit short!
We have installed a WINGit kite sail to our front deck. This is a German designed system that was developed to increase the range of motor boats by decreasing fuel consumption. The manufacturers have fitted them already to The Silent Sixty boats and claim to get 6 plus knots from the kite without motors on. It is not brand new technology but we believe we will be the first boat to use one on such along distance. The Lagoon engineers have been fabulous and got on board and designed the attachment fittings and points in conjunction with the WINGit engineers.
While we were in Palma for a haul in June 2024 the system was delivered to and installed by BalearicBoats.
We, by the way, is my husband Peter, myself and our two crew, Max and Shaunagh.
Our training is taking place from Andtrax in Mallorca on 30 Sept for 5 days during which the Lagoon engineering team will join us along with the WINGit people. Borja from BalearicBoats will also be on hand for any adjustments that may need doing. Our plan is to trial the system across the South Atlantic to the Caribbean in November from where we will leave with the World ARC in Jan 2025 for Panama and the Pacific.
I am going to update and detail all the preparation and training on this blog along with technical data on WINGit and boat performance, fuel consumption and any other issues that will be of interest.
I have decided to make this our principle blog as the other site has become unreliable.
The winch housing mounted on the front deck.
You can see the mounting plate for the mast to the left of the winch housing. You can also see the remains of the most recent Med red rain! The mast is demountable for periods of non use.
The remote control box for the kite. This has a manual or automatic mode and can be moved anywhere onboard to operate.
We have no idea how to use this right now!
Showing the location on the deck - whcih is now clean thanks to Max.
The little mast stepped. Palma, Sept 26th
