The all Electric Sailboat.

[rumiko dan]

This has been mentioned on CF before, but there is an excellent Yahoo group focused on electric boat propulsion, mainly sailboats.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/electricboats/info

Most are not ALL electric, but some are close, and there is a wealth of friendly and very knowledgeable folks.

Dan

[deckofficer]

On a very small scale, I have the hull eficiency of a kayak combined with a permament magnet DC motor and home rolled LiFePO4 battery bank, to be able to cruise for 80 miles. I use two 12 volt packs, one for outbound, the other for return. Total battery weight just a bit over 60 lbs. While I quoted an efficient cat needing 500 watt-hr per mile, I'm only using 32 watt-hr per mile.

[s/v Beth]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

On a very small scale, I have the hull eficiency of a kayak combined with a permament magnet DC motor and home rolled LiFePO4 battery bank, to be able to cruise for 80 miles. I use two 12 volt packs, one for outbound, the other for return. Total battery weight just a bit over 60 lbs. While I quoted an efficient cat needing 500 watt-hr per mile, I'm only using 32 watt-hr per mile.

Run for cover! Run for cover!! He used that nonsense unit again!

[s/v Beth]

Originally Posted by rumiko dan

This has been mentioned on CF before, but there is an excellent Yahoo group focused on electric boat propulsion, mainly sailboats.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/electricboats/info

Most are not ALL electric, but some are close, and there is a wealth of friendly and very knowledgeable folks.

Dan

I am already a member- thanks Dan

[Andrew Troup]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Run for cover! Run for cover!! He used that nonsense unit again!

Newt

There's NOTHING wrong with watt.hrs (and watt-hrs is OK, too)

It's watts PER hour, watts/hr, watt/hrs and their ilk which are the nonsense units


Use dashes, not slashes !

[Fog Bank]

Originally Posted by rumiko dan

This has been mentioned on CF before, but there is an excellent Yahoo group focused on electric boat propulsion, mainly sailboats.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/electricboats/info

Most are not ALL electric, but some are close, and there is a wealth of friendly and very knowledgeable folks.

Dan

Our boat has an electric drive. The unit in our boat is a Solidnav, which is no longer in business. Powering the drive is a 400 amp hour bank. While we like our drive, I wouldn't say it is for everyone. For our purposes in the Bay it can't be beat though.

[GrowleyMonster]

Hardly anything works as good as you would like to think it oughta. Sometimes generating enough power to operate extra stuff just isn't possible. That doesn't have to be a dealbreaker, though... turn some stuff off, run a generator for an hour or three, or both. You just got to find your zone. More batts? More solar? Bigger wind gen? 2kw Honda and a can of gas for emergencies? Less load?

Sure, you can have an all wind and electric boat. Or a MOSTLY or a USUALLY all sail and electric boat, which is maybe slightly more practical.

FWIW I will be installing electric propulsion soon, and at some point about 600 watts of solar and a wind gen too. I anticipate still needing shore power charging or a portable generator on occasion, or naturally recharging for a day or three before significant use of the motor. 600 watts of solar won't give me 600 watts for 24 hours or even 12, maybe not even one hour. If I get 1/10 the theoretical or rated output, I will be pleased. I guess what I am trying to say is it is easy, and unwise, to expect too much performance out of a natural power setup. Keep your expectations at realistic levels and I feel that for most of us, a well engineered wind/solar system will deliver flexibility, redundancy, (your best friend on a cruising boat) MAYBE some cost saving, and a lot of warm fuzzy feeling. But no magic, no free lunch.

[Fog Bank]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

Hardly anything works as good as you would like to think it oughta. Sometimes generating enough power to operate extra stuff just isn't possible. That doesn't have to be a dealbreaker, though... turn some stuff off, run a generator for an hour or three, or both. You just got to find your zone. More batts? More solar? Bigger wind gen? 2kw Honda and a can of gas for emergencies? Less load?

Sure, you can have an all wind and electric boat. Or a MOSTLY or a USUALLY all sail and electric boat, which is maybe slightly more practical.

FWIW I will be installing electric propulsion soon, and at some point about 600 watts of solar and a wind gen too. I anticipate still needing shore power charging or a portable generator on occasion, or naturally recharging for a day or three before significant use of the motor. 600 watts of solar won't give me 600 watts for 24 hours or even 12, maybe not even one hour. If I get 1/10 the theoretical or rated output, I will be pleased. I guess what I am trying to say is it is easy, and unwise, to expect too much performance out of a natural power setup. Keep your expectations at realistic levels and I feel that for most of us, a well engineered wind/solar system will deliver flexibility, redundancy, (your best friend on a cruising boat) MAYBE some cost saving, and a lot of warm fuzzy feeling. But no magic, no free lunch.

+1

[Eddiefuego]

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