electric Seawind 1000 XL2

[aybabtme]

Hey there. This is sort of a report on my experience so far with a DIY conversion to electric.

• 2012 Seawind 1000 XL2
• Original: 2x Yamaha 9.9HP
• Repower: 2x ePropulsion Evo Pod 6.0
• Battery: 1p16s of CATL 280Ah LFP
• BMS: REC 16Q BMS

For a few months now I've been enjoying the electric conversion of my Seawind 1000 XL2 from 2x9.9HP yamahas to 2x6kW ePropulsion Pod 6.0 drives. The pods are currently used as glorified extra-long shaft outboards, with custom legs while I'm prototyping and testing which leg length is ideal (I have a 28in one and a 36in one!).

So far I really enjoy it. The engines are always available when I need them, require no maintenance, no nothing. If I need them, I put them down and use them. They start 100% of the time.

I use them to get in and out of harbors, and then I lift them up and sail. I got new fangled sails, and upwind, downwind lightwind sails. I use them all the time.

Still working on adding a whole lot more solar than the punny 200W I got on an arch. Design phase.

Here's a very roughly made watt-to-SOG graph I made one afternoon of going back and forth in a channel, in mild conditions (5 to 15kts of wind, upwind and downwind).




The legs on which the Pod 6.0 are attached are currently prototypes and definitely not the final product. I'm not sure yet how I'll design the ultimate leg, but for now I wanted to learn about the critical dimensions and whether deeper or shallower would be best. So far the 28in depth is better. More data needed for conclusive results. The installation looks like:






The controller is very clean, and it's much easier to maneuver with precision using this than the old crappy cables-and-slow-to-respond-gasoline-engine setup: