Are Electric Outboards Any Good ?

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by RigelKent

Lock it from being started or stolen?

There is a 'magnetic pin' needed to start the engine which functions like a starting key.

Plan to use a number of bicycle type locks to secure it if I have leave it on shore, but in most cases will put the inflatable and engine in the car boot.

Added: Point taken, however, anything expensive that stands out from the crowd could attract unwanted attention from thieves.

That magnetic pin is a joke, analogous to removing the safety lanyard from a gas outboard. The only difference is that the pin is less common. However, the fact that the motor is so quickly and easily disassembled makes it easy for thieves, and that $600+ battery is going to be attractive to other Torqueedo owners who want a spare (other boaters are not all honest gentlemen) or anyone else who wants to pick up a quick profit on eBay. Might as well leave your iPad in your dinghy.

Bike locks? Please explain how those would be effective and how/where you would drill the plastic motor components to make it so. Inquiring minds would seriously like to know.

[ShaktisBoy]

You are absolutely correct but you are nitpicking. The oars weigh about 4 pounds and the seats add another 15 ish. The point is the porta replaced a avon RIB weighing in at almost 280 pounds that I had to pump up every other day and had less than half the interior volume of the porta. The outboards both hang on the rails while cruising offshore leaving less than half the weight on the davits that the old setups had.

[RigelKent]

Originally Posted by SailFastTri

Bike locks? Please explain how those would be effective and how/where you would drill the plastic motor components to make it so. Inquiring minds would seriously like to know.

Somebody has a better solution than bike locks, thanks for persisting with your question:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...a-46483-3.html

[RigelKent]

Wow:
Dragon Fabrication

[SvenG]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Sure if your dinghy can hold that much solar panel sq footage.

To clarify; our all-solar is not on the dinghy.

We charge on board and then have to lift the 50 Ah AGMs on board to use them. Still a pain.



-Sven

[Horror Hotel]

If you need to pump up your inflatable every other day, it's got a leak. Is that 280# with the engine on ? Seems heavy. I haul my dink on davits and leave the engine on full time. I have custom davits that I feel are much stronger than most of the off the shelf stuff for 30'ish boats. Some people don't like inflatables, I happen to really not care for portaboats. I didn't say 15hp was required, but it sure is nice. And I see plenty of cruisers with 10 or 15hp so it's not freakishly weird. We all do things differently, no right or wrong. Plenty of people would not be satisfied with 2hp or electric, better to think about it before a purchase is made. I bought a new merc 3.5 4 stroke and it was the biggest waste of money I can recall.

[ShaktisBoy]

That's all up weight fuel tank, motor, anchor oars, etc. The leak thing is exactly my point thank you for making it, no more leaks with the porta. No sharp growth on a dingy dock is going to puncture it, no fisherman's hook is going to damage it. I can through my spear gun into it without fear. Our davits are the upgraded heavy models from R&C they can handle the weight but why have that much weight hanging off the back? My new all up weight might be 130 ish. Easy for my wife to lift by herself and we have way more space for groceries and supplies.

[Vino the Dog]

For twelve years that I ran a solar electric parts and electric vehicle prototyping business. During that time, built several electric boats and tons of electric vehicles from bicycles to high performance 100+mph racing cars. Also did one electric motor installation in a Rawson 30. I have lived off grid for the past 20 years.

From my experience, electric motors on boats are very cool play things or for low performance putters. Performance is range versus distance. Easy to get very high torque from electric motor, easy to get almost reasonable range. VERY difficult to get the combination of both that will meet many people's needs (or desires). One of my customers built an electric hydroplane, got way over 50mph - for eleven seconds. Also I had an electric distance racing boat that could go for miles, but at about the same speed that I could paddle. I have never seen any electric boat that can surf launch with 2 people, a dog, and several sacks of groceries, then reach the outer harbour where you can lay on the hook without being in traffic lanes.

If you want to know if it meets your needs, do the math. It is all strictly mathematical and nothing any salesman or green advocate says can defeat the calculations. Volts times amps equals watts. 750 watts equals one HP. Movement of mass over land or water is based on weight, resistance, drive train resistance, acceleration, and speed. They are all formulas. If you don't want to research and calculate the formulas, use your existing outboard & dinghy as a very good estimate. 750(1hp) times the hp of your outboard is the motor power you will need to equal what your current outboard does. Multiply that by the time it takes to do what you use it for will give you watt-hours, which you can convert to amp-hours with the same original formula, and that is the number of batteries you need to load the dinghy down with to get the performance. Once you know that, you will have to recalculate your dinghy weight then recalculate estimated power to modify the performance downward.

Recharging with solar is exactly the same formula used against duty cycle, which means how many hours you use the dinghy against how many hours your solar panels are in peak sun (voltsxamps=watts x time=watt-hours, etc).

My bet is that very few will find it works out except for a hobby.

[SvenG]

Reading this thread makes me realize that no serious maritime exploration was ever possible before the invention of the steam engine.



-Sven

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Vino the Dog

For twelve years that I ran a solar electric parts and electric vehicle prototyping business. During that time, built several electric boats and tons of electric vehicles from bicycles to high performance 100+mph racing cars. Also did one electric motor installation in a Rawson 30. I have lived off grid for the past 20 years.

From my experience, electric motors on boats are very cool play things or for low performance putters. Performance is range versus distance. Easy to get very high torque from electric motor, easy to get almost reasonable range. VERY difficult to get the combination of both that will meet many people's needs (or desires). One of my customers built an electric hydroplane, got way over 50mph - for eleven seconds. Also I had an electric distance racing boat that could go for miles, but at about the same speed that I could paddle. I have never seen any electric boat that can surf launch with 2 people, a dog, and several sacks of groceries, then reach the outer harbour where you can lay on the hook without being in traffic lanes.

If you want to know if it meets your needs, do the math. It is all strictly mathematical and nothing any salesman or green advocate says can defeat the calculations. Volts times amps equals watts. 750 watts equals one HP. Movement of mass over land or water is based on weight, resistance, drive train resistance, acceleration, and speed. They are all formulas. If you don't want to research and calculate the formulas, use your existing outboard & dinghy as a very good estimate. 750(1hp) times the hp of your outboard is the motor power you will need to equal what your current outboard does. Multiply that by the time it takes to do what you use it for will give you watt-hours, which you can convert to amp-hours with the same original formula, and that is the number of batteries you need to load the dinghy down with to get the performance. Once you know that, you will have to recalculate your dinghy weight then recalculate estimated power to modify the performance downward.

Recharging with solar is exactly the same formula used against duty cycle, which means how many hours you use the dinghy against how many hours your solar panels are in peak sun (voltsxamps=watts x time=watt-hours, etc).

My bet is that very few will find it works out except for a hobby.

Great post! It's amazing how many people just don't seem to understand this. Or they think that somehow one electric horsepower is worth 3 (or more) diesel/petrol horsepower.

If you don't want to go far or fast, electric outboards should be fine.

[Capt Rottnest]

Originally Posted by Horror Hotel

Must be some of you don't go to far or ever explore in the dink. Once I'm anchored, the dink Is my car. 5 or 8 miles isn't unusual. The perfect anchorage isn't always right off the dinghy dock, try to tie up at a crowded dinghy dock with that panel hanging off the back. When a sport fish rips by and **** gets crazy, it's not gonna last. I run a 15hp 2 stroke and can go anywhere, any time, no matter the weather. It comes down to what you wanna do. I started with a 3.5, I still went places no electric would go, but it took for ever. Now I can get 6 jerry jugs of diesel and still plane at almost 20knts. I noticed the tiny outboard crowd seems to be less willing to go out in terrible weather. Electric is just not up to the task of going lots of places. So you anchor somewhere nice but then read about a bar, marine store, food on the other side of the island. The 2 hp crowd won't even consider going there by dink, the electric can't, I might go twice a day. Seems limiting to have much less than a 5 hp, I would also hold out for the clean used 2 stroke or buy one outside the US. Maybe the folks who really like electric have very simple, to and from, less than mile round trip, nice weather expectations. I don't wanna be bound by such issues.

Why not just have a car ashore. I noticed when you have access to faster transport options you end up spending more time in.. transport. We hired a car recently, ended up driving through heavy traffic to get to the more distant but cheaper big box stores, it all felt rather pointless, as more local to the dock were smaller more expensive stores which when you factored the high cost of transport, meant they were cheaper. I'm sure its the same with long distance fast dinghy travel, you use it more, sounds like back to the rat race to me. There's a reason we have a sail boat, its a really slow way to travel, and seems incongruous to get some place then spend the time scuttling around on the plane in a little dinghy.

We row and own fold up bikes. End up enjoying getting the most out of the immediate dockside area, then there is public transport, which is a great way to get a feel for a place (as is cycling). Yeah I know, its not rat race enough..

[Horror Hotel]

Instead of having a car on shore, why not have a fast dinghy? A dinghy is a car, so I guess I have a car offshore. Or better yet maybe every cruiser could keep a shore side car in every harbor. If I just got 250 1998 VW jettas I could keep one wherever I might wanna land. Have them all the same color and keep one set of plates on board. Or just get a fast dinghy.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Capt Rottnest

Why not just have a car ashore..

Bit hard to use a car to go miles up a creek to lay out crab pots, or troll for mangrove jack....

[seandepagnier]

never buy torqeedo, they don't support fixing broken outboards or burned out motors.

I managed to replace a burned out motor after they refused even information of how to disassemble the 801. With a nearly identical replacement0 outrunner from hobbyking.com cost $30. Torqeedo is a rip off, their motor costs around $200 total to build and they charge thousands.. if they had normal competition it would be around $400 for this product because it is not really designed to last.

for the motor, planetary gear box, controller and propeller. Build your own! You can get all the pieces online and get even higher efficiency since you can design the drive system for your particular vessel and needs, and also optimize it for regeneration if needed.

[onestepcsy37]

i'm with you, captain rottnest. we go cruising to slow down. my 2.5 nissan 2 stroke putts along at a max of 10mph, and that's fast enough for me.... if i wanted to go fast i wouldn't have bought a sailboat.

and boat alexandra, i'm glad you researched that. i spent a lot of years in manufacturing; when i looked over the torqueedo i also guessed their real cost was well under $400.00 - maybe under $300.00