Good Karma
Article published in Pacific Yachting, Februrary 2026 edition by Eamon Irving. To read the full article click here.
In Transition
Brent Perry is tired of office life. He's tired of the city. That's why he and his family moved aboard Karma, a 1983 Sparkman & Stephens Sunward 48. Perry says, "I didn't want to be 75 and say, 'I wish I'd gone sailing.'"
Perry used to race and deliver sailboats professionally. But a career in boat building brought him inside, and for the last 15 years he's worked adapting marine battery kits for commercial vessels. Now, he wants to breathe the sea air every day.
Karma had a working engine when he bought it—working is a stretch, but it turned on and the boat could move. Perry knew it would need a lot of work, but the dream was worth any effort. So, he limped it along for a while. The transmission was the first big problem. Perry's son, Ryder, remembers it was either all go or full stop. "He had to keep pouring transmission fluid into it as he was going, which was a fun time to be alone."
The only remedy was a complete rebuild of the old diesel engine. As Perry looked to save Karma, he remembered another dream he once had: sailing his own electric boat. He built plenty for the commercial market as CEO of Corvus Energy and Shift Clean Energy Solutions.
When he first looked into his own hybrid back in 2009, however, the price wasn't realistic and the dream took a backseat. But now?
"When I checked the price of a new engine and a new generator against the cost of an electric conversion, it was the same," said Perry. Already having a reputation as the battery guy, he figured, "if I'm gonna do it, I would be kind of a hypocrite if I didn't walk the walk and talk the talk."
Shock Proof
It's been 15 years since Perry first sought an electric boat and now Karma is ready for open water.
Karma is 48 feet long with a 40-foot waterline. Before the Perrys bought it, Karma had already circumnavigated the world three times and been renamed once. It weighs 55,000 pounds, and now it is officially a hybrid electric yacht. After years of renovations and refits, done mostly by members of the family, Karma has kept its quiet elegance. Perry likes that, "It looks like a classic 1983 boat. It's not a superyacht."
But it's a facade. For all the stained wood and cosy décor on this liveaboard, Karma is a marvel of modern engineering. Popping the hood—crawling into the engine room—you're transported into some kind of advanced laboratory. It's clean. Everything is neatly arranged in sharp lines with glossy white and blue finish, complemented by shiny, reflective tubing running along the walls.
The Perrys live on Karma year-round now. The battery storage on board means luxuries like wifi, air conditioning and laundry don't have to be sacrificed.
The room is arranged around a sleek, white chest, no bigger than an average drinks cooler that serves as the sound-enclosure for a Northern Lights 20-kilowatt diesel generator. On the wall above it is the 10-kilowatt inverter and across from that are four battery chargers directing power from the generator.
On the ceiling rest two large white batteries that give Karma 60 kWh of electricity—small devices like an iPhone only use about one kWh of electricity a year. At 12 volts, they offer 4,800 amps of power.
"If I have no wind and no solar," says Perry, and without turning the generator on, "I have four days of running my boat like it's a house—so, air conditioning, cooking. I've got a washer/dryer on board, all my plumbing and I don't even have to worry about leaving a light on."
To continue reading the full article go to the Pacific Yachting website here.