Sailing yacht Zero update #10: Testing the electric sail system

The team behind sailing yacht Zero have been focusing on commissioning the sail system.

Work centred on dialling in the winches and feeder systems that manage high-load lines, including headsail sheets, main and mizzen halyards, and running backstays. Progress was also made on the lifting keel and automated control systems, which rely on a complex sensor setup to track headboard car positions for safe hoisting under load.

Unlike traditional vessels of this size, Zero uses electric frequency drives for the winches and furlers. These offer superior energy efficiency and allow winches to regenerate power when lines are paid out under tension.

On top of this, frequency drives also give engineers precise control over speed and torque while sending detailed performance data directly to the central programmable logic controller (PLC) to learn from during commissioning and sea trials.

Then, there are the safety protocols. Because sailing is central to Zero’s power generation and safety, the sail system is engineered for standalone redundancy. Deck winches can be operated directly via dedicated deck buttons without relying on the central PLC, while captive winches can be plugged into emergency control drives for individual operation if central systems encounter issues.

With electric yachts becoming more common across the industry, Zero offers a new way of doing things — as well as being a producer of data that can inform future builds.

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