If you don’t easily get sea sick why not join Norwegian Helga Marie Løvenskiold Kveseth – who goes by the name Mara – on her LIVEstream as she crosses the Atlantic?
Already having 25,000 miles under her keel, Mara is sailing her Saltram Saga 36ft double-ender called Showgirl to St Martin in the Caribbean in order to qualify for the Golden Globe Race 2026.
The Golden Globe is an epic yacht race – more than twenty participants are expected to cross the start line later this year on September 6th to sail singlehanded around the world using only the equipment which was available to circumnavigators sixty years ago. Using a sextant to make celestial observations, and plotting their position on paper charts, skippers spend nine months at sea crossing world’s remotest oceans in their grandest moods. It’s not for the feint hearted.
For her qualifying passage Mara’s boat is equipped with the latest technology in order to bring us closer to the experience of sailing alone.
Her 24 hour live stream via Starlink router, together with other domestic conveniences, uses a lot of power, The original electrical system onboard was unable to support the planned loads so she enlisted the help of Sea & Land Yacht Works to do a power audit of all her domestic and navigation devices and provide a system which could support the ambition.
Sea & Land Yacht Works is a marine service provider based in Rhode Island U.S. specializing in marine electronics, electrical and marine systems. Interestingly, they offer their technical service all round the world by contracting qualified installers to build systems from their drawings, using specifications which meet ABYC certification standards. Company founder Michael Garretson is an AYBC Master Technician and also a Mechanical Engineer.
Working from his drawings installer Electrical Marine Services Gibralter built Showgirl’s power system in Gibralter just before Mara set off on her solo transatlantic passage.
Power Assumptions
The power audit for Showgirl’s electronic devices suggested a daily power consumption of 492Ah
Equipment
Load
Fridge
60
NAV Instrument
45
Starlink
240
Rasberry pi
28
Camera
47
dgi
16.3
random cameras
7.5
VHF
12
Lighting
15
Phone charging
2
handheld
0
Watermaker
19
Total:
491.8
In order to provide that power three power generation sources were installed:
Showgirl’s four solar panels of 100Wp each would typically provide 116Ah per day. The solar harvest is controlled by two MPPT solar charge controllers of 100/30 and 75/10 to charge a 12V lithium battery bank of 960Ah.
As the vessel sails a Watt&Sea Hydrogenerator 600 produces power. Assuming an average speed of 4.5knts, that model will produce 157Ah per day
There’s a 275A alternator on board controlled by Arco Zeus 275L alternator regulator to maximise the power harvest. Running the engine at 1500rpm for an hour is likely to produce 230Ah.
Total daily production from power generation is 503Ah.
Power consumption and harvest is monitored by a number of BMV battery monitor across the MPPT solar chargers, alternator output, Watt & Sea hydrogenerator output, and the lithium battery bank loads.
There is an Orion DC to DC charger to manage battery charging for Showgirl’s dual battery systems – engine starting and domestic use.
A MultiPlus 12/1600/70 Inverter/Charger provides AC power.
A Cerbo GX communication centre harmonises all Victron and third-party devices and makes real time data monitoring and programming available from anywhere in the world via the Starlink satellite router. The same information is just a fingertip away on board via the GX Touch 50 user interface.
Showgirl is a little more than halfway across the Atlantic at the time of writing. Once she arrives, Sea and Land Yacht Works plan to install more custom solar panels and additional electrical work before she recrosses the Atlantic a few months later – live streaming again – in preparation for her Golden Globe Race participation.
You can ask Mara a question via the live chat function of her LIVEstream. She typically makes time to answer questions on camera after sunset each day – her time. She says she’s going to miss all the live chat on her Golden Globe Race! Let’s see how she’s getting on:
If you’re already in the Caribbean on board a boat – and particularly if you want to find out more about reliable power or workshop a power problem – take a look at our recent story here.
