Aventura Zero update
by Jimmy Cornell 1 Jun 2021 04:51 UTC
When I left Aventura in the care of the Outremer boatyard last December, I was planning to be away for only a few weeks. But soon after I returned home, the British authorities imposed strict travel restrictions forcing me to spend the last few months in lockdown in our London apartment.
In the meantime the boatyard had implemented some essential improvements to increase the efficiency of Aventura's regenerating system. Unfortunately, because of travel restrictions, both in the UK and France, I was unable to join an offshore test sail to Spain in early May. The test was therefore carried out in my absence by an Outremer team.
Missing that test sail on top of the long confinement has been very frustrating. But I tried to put my time in London to good use by working on new editions of my books World Cruising Routes and World Cruising Destinations.
Our famous neighbour, the British Museum, has been closed for these last six months but reopened this week... a hopeful sign that life is slowly returning to normal.
Impatient to visit my baby, I obtained a special dispensation to travel to France, and two weeks ago I drove with Gwenda the 1300 km to La Grande Motte. Although we both had received the two-dose Covid vaccinations, we also had to get a negative Covid test before leaving.... and on arrival had to spend one week in quarantine in our hotel room.
We could at least enjoy a beautiful view of the marina from the hotel balcony, and leave our room for a maximum two hours in the middle of the day. At last, I could be briefed by Outremer on the details of the work they had done and the successful results of the test. The most important improvement was the replacement of the portside folding propeller with the latest version of the Oceanvolt ServoProp. This variable-pitch propeller has been designed to be efficient both in propulsion and regeneration mode. Having now two of them doubled the regeneration capacity.
Efficient regeneration is at the core of the Aventura Zero concept and having the propellers charge the batteries efficiently while sailing - even at relatively low revolutions as shown in this photo taken during the recent test - is a great relief. It is indeed very good news but, as the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding, and I look forward to returning to La Grande Motte as soon as possible and carry out my own thorough tests.