Sailing Story: Speculation
If you ask a sailor what they love most about sailing, you’ll often hear a story that features peace, quiet, and tranquility. What you’ll likely never hear, is a sailor professing their love for the smell of the diesel generator that powers everything onboard their boat.
For Waymon Arnold, his disdain for the smell of diesel aboard sailboats was so strong— he decided he had to do something about it. That’s when he bought Speculation, a 2012 Leopard 44 Catamaran.
When Waymon first got his hands on Speculation, she was rundown, beat-up, and ran on a diesel generator.
“We took out all the flooring in the boat because it had gotten water damaged and rotten,” Waymon explained. “We replaced [the] rudders. She’s got new mainsails, new jibs, we replaced our generator, the RO system [reverse osmosis filtered water]. We’ve done so much to that boat it’s hard to remember it all.”
However, Waymon had plans to do more than just the run-of-the-mill renovations for this ailing sailboat. He knew bringing Speculation into her proper glory would involve getting rid of the need for that diesel generator too. He was bound and determined to create a solar powered sailboat.
Waymon spent over 40 hours outfitting Speculation with 24 flexible solar panels attached to the decking. Now, Speculation features 24 kilowatt hours of battery storage and a 1000 watt inverter (what it takes to run a typical household).
“I bet it’s the only boat that can run AC and hot water heaters without a generator,” Waymon laughed. “That is until the 24 kw hours of battery are gone and then you have to turn the generators on!”
However, that’s rarely the case. Waymon says aboard Speculation he uses the wind 90% of the time — and solar 90% of the time too! Everything from the reverse osmosis water system to the air conditioning and salt water desalination system run on solar.
The salt water desalination system that runs on solar is something Waymon is especially proud of.
“Most of these other boats you have to bring around 12-15 gallons of drinking water with you,” Waymon explained. “You are lugging around 15 one gallon jugs and then you have all those jugs going into the landfill. With our boat we don’t have that.”
For Waymon, renovating Speculation wasn’t just about making a solar powered sailboat. Renovating Speculation was about building a boat that featured every luxury amenity possible— and then some.
“We are ready for the zombie apocalypse,” Waymon laughed. “She’s a 2012 but she’s got more amenities than most of the new boats now. Speculation is a big condo on the water, basically.”
Once Speculation was restored to a state better than when she was brand new, Waymon wanted to share her with the world.
“We were looking for someone to partner with to get some work with the boat,” Waymon explained about reaching out to Go Sail Virgin Islands and Captain Geneiveve. “We just really liked Genevieve. She seemed like she would be a great person to work with and she has been a great partner.”
Sailing on Speculation is available exclusively to Go Sail Virgin Islands students by taking a Solar Classic Catamaran Course with Captain Jalil. Learn more about the course, the amenities offered on Speculation, and how to book your Solar Classic Catamaran Course here.