The decision to move to 24 volts wasn’t made lightly. For a boat of our size and with our performance goals, the benefits were undeniable:
- Reduced Voltage Drop: Halving the current for the same power dramatically improves efficiency, meaning brighter lights and faster windlass operation.
- Smaller Cable Sizes: Lower current allows for significantly smaller, lighter, and less expensive wiring throughout the boat.
- Improved Performance: Critical equipment like our bow thruster and windlass run more effectively on 24 volts.
- Future-Proofing: The marine industry is steadily moving towards 24-volt as a standard for larger yachts.
When we first bought Paikea in 2018, she was a relic from the past. In addition to her missing rudder, ill fitting sails and skin fittings that had not been touched since she was launched, the electrical side was a mess. The electronics were outdated and the only instrument that worked on board was the depth sounder.
Still, we knew she was going to require some work to reach her full potential. We spent our entire first season hand steering her through Italy, Croatia and Greece until we could find parts to fix her old autopilot. Since then, we have been slowly working on improving the boat and earning money to fix and upgrade the systems on board. The battery/solar components and upgrading our battery bank along with purchasing reliable working instruments have been our current focus.
In this video, we explain why we decided to upgrade a 30 year old boat to 24v and the reasons we have chosen some of the monitoring systems we have. Shayne has been fortunate enough to work on some amazing boats and have taken every opportunity to learn from the best. By changing to a 24v system we can reduce wire size and save weight which is a big bonus on our weight sensitive catamaran. We are able to use domestic appliances which are more readily available and usually significantly cheaper than it’s marine alternative. The amount of current being sent through the wires is also significantly less which means a reduced risk of electrical fires. All in all we think it’s the perfect route to take with our performance cruising cat.