Diesel-electric hybrid saildrive

[Corvidae]

Honestly I'd be interested in going with one of those hybrid marine systems if I could afford it. It's not just a propulsion thing. The propulsion batteries are also the house batteries, and I need large house batteries regardless of propulsion. Which means I need a large 48v bank no matter what. Once that's already on the table, then it's just a question of what else can I do with that power? Right now we're straight electric drive from the battery and charger, which limits our continuous speed to what the battery charger and generator can push through, and even going that slow, we run into heat problems.

If we could drop a small diesel on each shaft on top of the electrics, oh now we're talking. Day trips or other short mucking about don't need the diesels, but we could also run continuous hull speed any time.

Also it's a whole system kind of thing. Any change to something sets off a chain of other things that will need more power, something more specialized or proprietary. And if there's one thing I abhor it's proprietary solutions. Dropping in a hybrid solution lets me keep very standard 48v systems, rather than going to specialized motor controllers, chargers and inverters that I'd need for a higher voltage system that could do the same thing, without the diesel.