Sailing yacht Windrose of Amsterdam, designed by Dijkstraand built by Holland Jachtbouwwas christened in 2001. She holds Atlantic crossing record from year 2002 and 2005, reaching speed of 27kt under sails. This custom built worldwide cruising schooner has an extraordinary itinerary including Antarctic, American Patagonia and Pacific Islands.
With such demanding itinerary and continuous guest trips, it is required to have 24/7 reliable onboard systems. Worry free vessel’s operations are needed to ensure that both guests and crew focus on researching the world’s marine resources keeping the visited environments intact. Daily operations, communication and safety systems are all based on the onboard power grid.
Phoenix Connect was requested to perform electrical survey including power plant, distribution infrastructure, monitoring and control systems. Yacht was having a solid electrical installation, but a few things were to be upgraded. The boat had isolated electrical networks powered from not synchronized generators. The onboard power grid required both gen-sets running all the time mostly at 10-30% of their capacity to provide enough power margin during guest trips. Power demanding equipment was only available with gen-set running also throughout the night.
Phoenix Connect’s proposal was to synchronize both gen-sets to provide single onboard grid. Proposals using standard electro-mechanical synchronization required numerous mechanical changes of the engines itself and has been discarded due to high cost.
Instead of using regular synchronization methods, Phoenix Connect achieved more efficient and flexible solution using in-house developed synchronization system. This flexible approach is based on a clear understanding of used technology’s capabilities, strengths and weaknesses.
Having in mind the worldwide itinerary and remote locations a proper backup system was requested to be provided. Careful studies based on possible system fault’s matrix left failover bypasses to deliver power to the onboard grid within seconds. Battery banks were proposed to be used as a peak shaving solution and backup power source driving the onboard grid.
The monitoring and control system were to be redesigned and rewritten to implement lightPMS in-house developed GATO system.
As in most sailing vessels’ engine rooms – space is a luxury. Windrose was not an exception on that matter. Due to space constrains and fact that ER borders with guest cabins, liquid cooled solution was chosen. 20dBA quieter and 50% of size of the air-cooled equipment met both requirements. Together with the onboard engineer Javier Sánchez-Valverde López, the liquid heat exchange system was redesigned to meet demanded power which later resulted in impeccable cooling performance.
Throughout the process of designing we’ve put a special emphasis on simulating the system’s daily operations. Abrupt changes of load, inductive load and off-load scenarios were simulated in high-level schematics minimize any unforeseen behaviors. In order to pre-tune generators’ PID synchronizing controllers, low-level calculations and simulations were performed.
Implemented GATO system is a lightweight in-house developed Power Management System allowing among others – automatic generator operations, load sharing, higher power loads automatic cut-off in case of overload.
Vessel’s operations have changed since the new systems was implemented. Battery powered peak-shaving system allows usage of a single generator running in its nominal 75-90% load throughout the mornings. Once galley and guest operations start, the 2ndgenerator automatically joins the grid to keep up with the demand and fully load up the battery bank. That’s to ensure that during lunch, dinner and afternoon nap, boat stays as silent as possible.
Night-mode feature brings the idea of having basic communication systems to stay in touch with the outside world together with adjusting air-condition into eco mode in order to minimize average load while the boat stays in total silence during night hours. Current capacity allows up to 6h fully noiseless functionality.
Windrose of Amsterdam is continuing their itinerary throughout the Pacific archipelagos while Phoenix Connect prepares for the next stage – battery bank expansion.
Optimize the energy flow between generators and energy storage in order to meet abrupt spikes of demanded power onboard. Keeping the generators at their optimal performance level all the time
Store energy constantly when guests are off the boat or generators out of their performance peak. Keep the boat generator free while guests onboard to avoid smoke, noise and vibrations.
Draw on energy storage when guests onboard, during lunch ondeck or night time to ensure fully silent space. Keep invisible in operation backup system in case of mechanical issues occurs.