Sam Holmes Sailingvideo
Exploring Tuba island and sailing mission to retrieve our zero breeze mk3 Air Conditioner
February 28, 2026 · 17 min · 35K views · Pulau Tuba, Malaysia
Sailor smiles aboard catamaran under yellow sail on sunny sea
What this video covers
Sam Holmes sails from Pulau Tuba, Langkawi, to the Malaysian mainland — roughly a five-hour passage — to retrieve a Zero Breeze Mark 3 portable air conditioner that could not be delivered to Langkawi.4:40 The outbound leg starts with 10 knots of wind despite a forecast of zero, allowing him to fly a screecher before winds drop to two knots and he motors the remainder.5:34 A squall provides a speed boost but forces him to anchor two miles offshore in 10 feet of water — the farthest offshore he has anchored — and dinghy into a river town to collect the unit from a warehouse.6:51 On the return he moors overnight at a marine park and tests new scuba gear, though poor visibility and equipment leaks produce no usable GoPro footage.10:16 The Zero Breeze Mark 3 setup is covered in detail: it runs on 48 volts via a DC-DC boost converter from a 12–36V source, draws from solar indefinitely in full sun, runs about two hours on its optional $600 battery, and costs roughly $1,200 without the battery versus over $5,000 for a marine unit.12:18 Holmes previously ran the Mark 2 on his Cape DORY 28 through two Atlantic crossings and 30,000 miles.11:23 After several months of use, he rates the Mark 3 noticeably more powerful than the Mark 2 but flags a non-functional DC-DC converter on delivery, an initially broken remote, and a slow, unresponsive touch-button interface.16:50 The unit's portability — usable in a boatyard, cockpit, or engine room where water-cooled marine ACs cannot operate — is its main practical advantage over fixed installations.15:58
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