Spada Lake Electric Boat Race Rick Proctor c.1992 Rick Proctor The second annual International Electric Boat Regatta was held over the weekends of August 8-9 and 15-16, 1992. People gathered from all over the country, though mostly from the Pacific Northwest, to participate in the four events. The range of events was wideÄfrom 1 kilometer speed runs for both battery-only and solar-only craft, to four-hour solar-only and 12- hour battery-only marathons. The Site Spada Lake is a drinking water reservoir located high in the Cascade Mountains, northeast of Seattle, Washington. When its owner, the Snohomish County Public Utility District, celebrated the opening of the recreation sites in 1991, the festivities included an informal race between five electric boats. The contestants had such a good time and were so enthusiastic the utility knew they had a good idea. Somehow an electric boat race on drinking water seemed appropriate. They decided to hold a more formal regatta in 1992, expand the event to four different races, and offer prize money. Let the Races Begin! The first weekend was speed weekend. Saturday, the 8th, was scheduled for boats of any design wanting to attempt to set electric boat speed records. The current world record for electric boat speed was established by a hydroplane piloted by Fiona, Countess of Arran of Great Britain in 1989. The 73 year old Countess ran her 15 foot boat through a one kilometer speed trap at an average speed of 50.825 mph.Two crafts showed up at Spada Lake to attempt this high-speed record. Unfortunately, technical difficulties prevented either of them from getting into the water. Two new records were established however. The first was for an electric powered displacement hull. Burton Gabriel, from Port Ludlow, Washington, bolted a one horse-power electric motor on the lower unit of an old outboard motor to his 20 year old aluminum canoe. He powered through the speed trap. at 9.6 mph. The world speed record for a solar powered boat was set by Otmar Ebenhoeck piloting Ward Phillip's solar catamaran with 40 square feet of solar panels. Although the attempt was hampered by clouds and a stiff breeze the boat was able to average 5.7 mph. The following day a four-lap one kilometer race was held on an oval course. The only limitation was that no more than 300 pounds of lead acid batteries be used. Burton Gabriel's canoe dominated throughout the race, winning by a large margin. The Battery Marathon The second weekend were the marathons. It was dark Saturday morning at 4:30 AM when the first alarm clock sounded. Less than a minute later a generator started, then another, and another. Fifteen teams rolled out of their sacks to get the final charge on their batteries before the start of the 12 hour electric boat marathon. The rules were simple: any hull shape or motor configuration was allowed. The only limitation was that the batteries had to be lead-acid, weigh less than 200 pounds, and could not be recharged during the race. The race was equally simple: whoever went the farthest in 12 hours won. The start, scheduled for 6:00 AM, was delayed till 6:15. Fifteen boats lined up along a rocky beach and waited for the starting gun. Nearly four miles away was the first buoy of the three leg, 8 mile course. Every type of boat imaginable was represented: styrofoam pontoon boats, a purpose built trimaran, a long skinny custom wood racer, a five foot long Star (replica of a child's boat), kayaks with and without outriggers, and an assortment of small and large catamarans. The sun was still behind the mountains surrounding Spada Lake when the starting gun sounded. Fifteen boats churned away with a surprising amount of speed and prop wash. In a few minutes they were out of sight. Radios crackled with reports of Volts and Amps as the pits and drivers tuned in the best energy/speed ratios. Now the pit crews had nothing to do but make coffee, wait for the times to the first buoy, and discuss race strategy. By the first buoy the order of the race was established. The trimaran SEVA was six minutes ahead of the second place boat NOPEC (an obvious jab at the oil cartel that actually meant North Olympic Peninsula Electric Cruisers). Both boats were designed specifically for racing. SEVA was long, skinny, and had tiny outriggers. She had a 36 Volt 2 hp. motor driving a 10:1 gear reducer. The propeller was driven from the gear reducer through a series of u-joints to get the shaft far enough below the water to swing the 1 inch diameter two bladed propeller. NOPEC, which won the "Best Looking Boat" award, was a tortured plywood hull with an inboard electric motor She was long and narrow, had a low profile, and had a very fine entry. The first withdrawal from the marathon came at the second buoy, and a second at the end of the first lap. At the end of the first lap SEVA was ahead of NOPEC by nine minutes. The Photocomm Skimmer was in third, eleven minutes behind the leader. The fifth and sixth place boats passed the first lap neck and neck. There was an hour spread in the rest of the field. In the late morning the wind started to become a factor. Spada Lake lies east-west in a mountain canyon. About 11:00 AM every day the wind picks up and builds till late afternoon. By noon the wind was a steady 15 knots and small white caps were forming. This was the chance for the boats with less windage to move up against the competitors with larger profile boats. It was also time for pit stops for those boats that had chosen not to carry all 200 pounds of battery at once. The pit activity went smoothly and no batteries or crew fell in. SEVA and NOPEC both stopped for a battery change. Winning Tactics Battery configuration and the decision whether or not to carry them all at once varied considerably among the contestants. Battery changes were permitted but had to be done at the dock in the pit area. The batteries could not be charged but they could be returned to the boat later. The first and second place boats both stopped for one battery change. The most successful boats used 24 Volt or 36 Volt batteries. The batteries were flooded with liquid electrolyte and had been pre-heated to 120øF. Flooded batteries have the advantage of being able to play with the electrochemistry, such as adding more concentrated acid or a battery additive. This increases the available capacity of the battery for added performance. They also used thin plate cranking type batteries (standard car battery) which supply more capacity per pound but can only be cycled 20 or 30 times. Battery life is not a concern when racing. As the afternoon wore on, the race between the 5th place boat Ra and the 6th place Javelin closed to one minute at the end of six laps. They had been less than 4 minutes apart for two laps and had traded positions once. The heat of the race took its toll in the eleventh hour. Within minutes of completing the sixth lap Javelin withdrew from the race. They did not have enough power to finish the race. The Finish Toward the end of the day the gap between SEVA and NOPEC began to close. Radios buzzed as the pits advised skippers how to get the last bit of juice from nearly exhausted batteries. The ninth lap began with only nine minutes between the boats. eleven hours and 45 minutes into the race left only 300 yards separated SEVA from NOPEC. NOPEC was closing fast. The spectators couldn't see any of this because it was at the far end of the course. The committee boat radioed in the separation between the two boats to an announcer in the pit area. The announcer got more and more excited, "Five minutes to go and only 100 yards separate the boats!!" she cried. "With only one minute to go there is only 20 feet between them!!" David Janos, the pilot of NOPEC, gives his account of the finish. "In the last few minutes the driver of the lead boat took a look around the lake with his binoculars, but apparently didn't see me. I was behind him. I couldn't go any faster because I didn't have much battery left. Then I saw the other driver open a bottle of water and sit back. I think he thought the race was over." NOPEC was closing fast. The committee boat, which was right beside SEVA, announced that only one minute was left. The skipper of NOPEC said, "Thank you." The pilot of SEVA turned around, spotted NOPEC only five feet away, and gave SEVA a shot of power that kept her just ahead of NOPEC as the finish gun sounded. The third place boat, Photocomm Skimmer, was about five miles behind. "If I hadn't heard the other driver say 'thank you' we'd have surely snatched defeat from the jaws of victory," Mischke said after the race. What a finish! SEVA and NOPEC had traveled 67.1 miles in 12 hours to average more than 5.59 mph. Each had carried 199 pounds 8 ounces of battery. They consumed about 3 kW-hrs of energy. That is equivalent to the energy contained in about 11 ounces of gasoline! Winning's Not Everything The boat I helped work on finished in seventh position. Easy Rider kayaks provided a 20 foot Polynesian style outrigger and Cruising Equipment supplied the batteries and an Amp-Hour+ meter. We spent less than one week preparing for the race, had a great time and felt fine with a seventh place finish. Delco Batteries sponsored the race and awarded David Mischke and David Cloud, the owner/builders of SEVA, a check for $5,000. Not bad for twelve hours work, that is, if you don't count the two months building and testing the boat. After the battery marathon Craig McCann, the driver of the Photocomm Skimmer, realized his team had made a serious miscalculation. "We had 40% of our batteries still left at the end of the race," he said. "If we'd used all that power rather than saving it, we might have won." The Solar Marathon Craig's opportunity to redeem himself came the next day when, with nary a cloud in the sky, he and six other competitors began the Regatta's final event, the four- hour solar marathon. All six boats had competed the day before but, in place of the batteries, the boats had been refitted with no more than 40 square feet of solar panels. McCann and his partner Sam Vanderhoof of Nevada City, California had spent about a month preparing their 17-foot twin-hulled rowing shell for the race, but it wasn't until 20 minutes before the start of the solar race that the two photovoltaic panels were mounted on the boat for the first time. Nevertheless, their boat, powered by a computer tape drive motor, roared soundlessly to an early five minute lead over Ra Rah, one of the two boats entered by Ward Phillips. Again, the wind played a role. This time, however, it impacted the race because it didn't materialize. The Ra Rah and several of the other entries had been built with the wind in mind. Their operators fully expected to catch the much smaller Photocomm Skimmer when the water got rougher. But, because the wind never blew, that challenge never came. McCann was able to hold his lead and won the $5,000 first prize with a three minute margin ahead of Ra Rah. Third place went to NOPEC II and fourth went to Ward Phillips's other entry, Ra. Quiet Thrills "This kind of event will have incredible impact on the future of all our futures," Phillips said. "This is not an odd game being played by eccentric people. The period of visionaries is returning. We've got to look at the macrocosm to get to the microcosm." Burton Gabriel echoed those feelings. "The Snohomish County P.U.D. did a great thing putting on this races," he said. "Our utilities must begin to realize what's going to happen in the future. Apparently Snohomish County P.U.D. understands that. The importance of this race is that it gets the people involved in communicating directly with their utilities. This is the way we're going to solve the energy problems of the future." Perhaps the greatest confirmation of how this event may have impacted the future came from a spectator who drove more than 70 miles to watch the event and was impressed by the boats and the serenity of Spada Lake. "Everyone can enjoy a place like this at the same time," he told reporters for a local newspaper. "A hiker can have his quiet, a boater his thrills, and they don't come in conflict with each other." Snohomish County PUD were excellent hosts and special thanks should go to Andy Muntz the race chairman. Electric Boating Just Feels Right! Electric boat regattas are springing up across the country. Almost any kind of a boat can be electrified easily with a battery and an electric trolling motor. While the top three finishers in this race used inboard motors and purpose built boats, the electric kayaks which placed 4th, 6th, and 7th all went over 50 miles and averaged about 4.5 mph without a battery change. I believe every contestant had a good time. I know we did. Electric boating, it just feels right! Access Author: Rick Proctor, Cruising Equipment, 6315 Seaview Ave. NW, Seattle, WA. 98107 ù 206-782-8100 Co-author and Inquires regarding next years event: Andy Muntz, Customer Relations Dept., Snohomish County P.U.D., P.O. Box 1107, Everett, WA 98206 ù (206) 258-8444 Electric Boat Association of America, POB 11197, Naples, FL 33941 ù 813-774-3773