Fearless is powered by two Yanmar 4JH5E naturally aspirated diesel engines coupled to Yanmar SD50 saildrives pushing Brunton folding propellers.  These 4-cylinder diesels are rugged, efficient, and reliable.  Each burns .6gph at 1,800 RPM and can achieve 3,200 RPM max.  The engine bays are things of beauty for me, and I work hard to keep them as spotless as possible.  When it comes to diesel engines, cleanliness is critical to their operability and lifespan – clean fuel, clean air, and clean components.

Like twins, each engine has its own personality despite being identical, and after you run them for a while you get to know them as individuals.  A couple of subtle differences in the bays exist.  One, the Racor, coolant expansion tank, and raw water strainer are mounted on outboard bulkheads.  Two, the starboard bay houses the HF SSB tuner and counterpoise grounding strap, a long strip of 3″x3mil copper visible on the inboard bulkead aft of the battery.

Thanks to four Relion Li3 300AH, 12.8V, Group 8D Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, we don’t worry about power on Fearless.  Recharged daily by 1890W of free, quiet solar energy we are able to run what we want without too much concern (air conditioning is a big draw if we run it) and still bring our batteries up to full strenth after depleting them overnight down to 60-74%.  

We are able to do this because we have a balanced system, and it is one of the most important factors for determining quality of life on the boat.  If you are in the market for a new or used boat, pay close attention to this feature.  I think of it like breakfast cereal.  There is a reason most are “fortified” and you should question why a boat might have an excessively large bank for its size.  Remember, you have to recharge all that capacity at the end of the day!

I love this breaker panel.  It is logically laid out, easy to read, and easy to access.  Unlike other production boat models, the Leopard 46’s panel is not an afterthought or deemed an eyesore to be hidden.  This panel houses the generator and water maker remote starting panels as well as port side and salon air conditioning controls.  The kids are able to reach the critical switches, and I love having the water maker panel where I can read the metrics on production, most important of which is the product “total dissolved solids,” which is the parts per million water quality measurement.

When we started kicking around the sailing idea, we were deadset against having a washing machine.  This is a HUGE quality of life improvement and it makes laundry an easy chore, which is especially important when there are kids and husbands onboard.  It also enables you to multitask.  Instead of taking laundry ashore, waiting, and retrieving, we can do it right on the boat.  It does cut into our fresh water supply, so we tend to do laundry on days on days when we make water.  These, coincidentally, tend to be high solar gain days good for powering the water maker, recharging the batteries, and allowing clothes to quickly line dry.

The FCI WaterMiser 600GPD reverse osmosis water maker lives in the starboard forepeak.  It is rugged, reliable, and makes high quality water.  What I love about this system is the testing it does internally to give you an empircal readout on quality in terms of Total Dissolved Solids (Product TDS).  It is a single membrane system that can be scaled up to multiple membranes if desired, but for our purposes it produces enough water as is.  It can run on the batteries alone through the inverter or with the generator.  Without a doubt, this is one of the most important pieces of gear on Fearless.