diesel/electric hybrid

[sailorboy1]

I read a story recently, I think in Lats & Atts, about diesel/electric hybrids and wondered if anyone had experience with this, or have directly talked with someone who has this on thier boat. The system used a 144VDC electric motor for propulsion that could be wired to either run off just batteries, or from the diesel generator. One of the interesting things was that the prop turning the motor becomes a generator while underway. Being an ex-Navy guy who spend 11 years on nuclear subs in the engineering end of things, the whole thing seemed to make a lot of sense to me. But, a web search didn't really result in any useful info other than sales related info from vendors. It would seem that a diesel/electric hybrid system would be worth consideration if you need to do a motor and electrical system replacement/upgrade, but I wouldn't want to be the lab rat on it.