Del Viento- Torqeedo
We’ve declared freedom from gasoline dependency aboard our Fuji 40, Del Viento. We chucked smelly red jerry jugs and the risk of spills by ditching our dirty two-horse two-stroke and our heavy 9.8-horse four-stroke.
We replaced them all with a solar panel and our Torqeedo, a light, clean, quiet, 3-horsepower-equivalent electric outboard. We sometimes miss zipping across the water on a plane or towing our girls on a wakeboard, but we get a thrill out of plugging our dedicated solar panel into our outboard to fill ‘er up.
I like that we never have to pull on a cord to start the Torqeedo and that the whole thing is waterproof. It’ll run even if completely submerged. I like that it has an integrated GPS and a display that tells me at a glance my speed, battery state, and remaining range. As a live-aboard cruising family without a car or house, our carbon footprint is smaller than most of our North American counterparts. The cruising life put us in close, direct, daily contact with affected ecosystems. Low emissions from gas seemed too high, given this zero-emissions option.
